Which Spikes Your Blood Pressure: Rarer or Well Done?

Nothing like a summertime barbecue.

But how you grill your meat can make a 15% difference in your blood pressure. That’s more than most blood pressure medications.

So, what should it be:

– Rare?
– Medium?
– Well-Done?

Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health decided to compare the different ways of cooking red meat, chicken, and fish for people who ate these meats at least twice weekly.

They analyzed the effects of the cooking method, like grilling and barbecuing, and the extent to which the meat was cooked through, from medium-rare and well-done.

They examined information collected by three studies. This included 32,925 women from the Nurse’s Health Study that ran over 16 years, 7,104 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study that also ran over 16 years, and 53,852 women from the Nurse’s Health Study II with its duration of 12 years.

At the beginning of these studies, all the participants were free from any cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes, and they had normal blood pressure scores.

Those who ate grilled, broiled, or roasted beef, chicken, or fish 15 or more times monthly were 17% more likely to have high blood pressure by the end of the study as compared to those who consumed it fewer than four times monthly.

Those who preferred their meat well-done increased their chance of elevated blood pressure by 15%, as compared to those who ate it rarer.

The link between blood pressure and cooking method was independent of the amount or type of meat the participants ate.

According to the researchers, cooking meat at a high temperature leads to the creation of byproducts like heterocyclic aromatic amines, advanced glycation end products, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

These chemicals cause oxidized stress and inflammation, two mechanisms highly involved in the development of elevated blood pressure and plaque buildup in the arteries.

But changing cooking methods is not enough to bring your blood pressure down to 120/80 – for that you need the 9 minutes blood pressure exercises found here…

And oxidized stress has everything to do with cholesterol plaque buildup – and cutting out the one ingredient explained here is the key…