Can Peas Ease Blood Pressure?

Here’s a finding sure to leave pea haters positively ‘pea’ved – they dramatically improve blood pressure and kidney function.

Now, people who’ve long hated peas probably already knew that peas were exceptionally nutritious.  After all, they’re a vegetable, so they’re naturally good for you.

Besides the fact that peas are loaded with vitamins like A and C, and with minerals like phosphorus and iron, they’re exceptionally low in sodium.  In fact, a half cup of frozen peas contains just 5 percent of the daily recommended value of sodium (about 2,400 mg a day is what’s recommended, a figure most people exceed in the course of a day, or in the case of some restaurant dishes, in the course of a dinner course!).

The low sodium content may explain why peas are so great for lowering one’s blood pressure.  That’s just me speculating, though.  Here’s what some Canadian researchers found with regards to peas pleasing blood pressure levels and kidney function:

• When rats with polycystic kidney disease were fed small doses of yellow peas, a condition known to raise blood pressure levels to dangerously high levels, blood pressure levels dropped by an average of 20 percent after eight weeks of feeding.


• PKD is characterized by impaired urinary function. But when rats were fed the peas, the “pee” flowed freely. The researchers report a 30 percent increase in urine production, which improved their overall kidney function.>

So what explains the pea’s ability to please blood pressure and kidney function? The researchers can’t be sure to this point. In fact, their research has yet to be even published. However, they theorize that it has something to do with the chemical make-up of the protein hydrolysate, as that was the pea extract fed to the diseased rats.

In the meantime, the study funded in part by the Canadian government bodes well for people suffering from kidney disease. As the study’s lead researcher said in an interview, the protein could help people suffering from the disease maintain normal blood pressure levels.

As aforementioned, hypertension precedes a smorgasbord of other health issues, so by stemming hypertension, it could help them live free of the other symptoms that lead to a more precipitous decline in health.

Now, this study focused specifically on the yellow garden pea, but if the yellow pea isn’t so palate pleasing, you’re bound to find at least one that titillates the taste buds (e.g. English, Southern, Snap, Snow, etc).

But if you’re a real pea pro, you’re best off going to the Mother Land: England. There are plenty of peas to go around here in the States, but the United Kingdom is the largest producer of peas in all of Europe. Further, the average Briton pounds down about 9,000 peas per year.

A pound of peas, anyone?

If you want to get the most nutritional pop from peas, raw is always better than cooked. But since peas are eaten cooked far more often than they’re consumed raw, you’re best off steaming them than boiling them. The more water used in the cooking process, the more vitamins and minerals pulled from the pea (particularly vitamin C).

So, I conclude this article with an entreaty: Pretty please—Eat your peas!

Sources
peas.org
nutraingredients-usa.com