A diet that combines unsaturated fats with nitrite-rich vegetables can protect against hypertension, according to researchers at King’s College London.

This helped explain why the Mediterranean diet is effective in preventing hypertension.. It includes, as a rule, unsaturated fats found in olive oil, nuts and avocados, along with such vegetables as spinach, celery, carrots, which are rich in nitrites and nitrates. When these two groups of foods are combined, the reaction of unsaturated fatty acids with nitrogen compounds in vegetables leads to the formation of nitro fatty acids..

In a study supported by the British Heart Foundation, laboratory mice were used to study the process by which these nitro fatty acids lower blood pressure.. Experts have observed whether acids inhibit an enzyme known as soluble epoxyhydrolase, which regulates blood pressure.. It turned out that the effects of nitro fatty acids contributed to a decrease in blood pressure in mice on an appropriate diet..

The experts concluded that the protective effect of the Mediterranean diet combining unsaturated fats and vegetables rich in nitrites and nitrates comes from at least nitro-fatty acids inhibiting soluble epoxide hydrolase, which reduces blood pressure.

medicinform. net.