Eat Your Peas – Natural Remedy For High Blood Pressure & Kidney Disease!
“Eat your peas,” I tell my children, as Mom once told me. Peas, once viewed as a starchy vegetable, are now being recognized as nutritional blockbusters, with healthful amounts of protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins wrapped in a low-fat, cholesterol-free package.
Peas flaunt twice the protein of most vegetables, so they’re the ideal substitute for fattier protein fare, providing an excellent strategy for controlling your fat intake and keeping that waistline in check.
Their fiber, mostly insoluble, aids intestinal motility and may help lower cholesterol. Of the myriad nutrients peas provide, iron is particularly important since it’s hard to find non animal foods with much of this blood-building nutrient.
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 high blood pressure. That’s just me speculating, though.
Canadian researchers have found that proteins in common garden peas can help fight high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The new research focuses on the yellow garden pea, a mainstay pea variety.
While researching treatment options for patients with kidney disease, Rotimi Aluko, PhD, an associate professor in the department of nutritional sciences at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada, and colleagues purified a mixture of proteins — pea protein hydrolysate — from yellow peas.
They fed this to rats with severe kidney disease every day for eight weeks. At the end of this period, Dr. Aluko and his team found that…
- Blood pressure decreased by 20% in rats who consumed the pea mixture, compared with a control group of rats who did not.
- Urine production, which typically decreases with kidney disease, improved by 30% in treated rats, bringing it to a normal level.
Unfortunately, simply eating peas in their natural state may not produce the same blood pressure lowering effects as the protein extract used in the study. The researchers say the beneficial proteins are inactive in natural peas and require treatment with special enzymes to become active.
Dr. Rotimi Aluko said, “In people with high blood pressure, our protein could potentially delay or prevent the onset of kidney damage” and, “In people who already have kidney disease, our protein may help them maintain normal blood pressure levels so they can live longer.”
In the near future, the beneficial protein extract could be made into a powder to add to foods or beverages, or it may be put into a pill form, the scientists said.
Dr. Aluko estimates that an edible product derived from peas could be available in as little as two to three years. By 2012, you may be able to stroll into your local pharmacy or health food store and purchase pea extract in pill form or as a powder to add to food or beverages.
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!
Want to know more about peas? Then, click here:
Peas: Help Your Heart, Bones & Blood Pressure | Your Organic Gardening Blog
Yours truly for great health, mind and body,
Michelle, natural health advocate
Related posts:
- Cauliflower: Your Natural Health Solution To Weight Loss
- Want To Slim Down & Boost Your Endurance? Try Beet Juice!
- Want To Slim Down & Boost Your Endurance? Try Beet Juice!
- Reduce Your High Blood Pressure Naturally With Hibiscus Tea
- Sticky Situation With Nonstick Cookware Linked To Thyroid Disease
June 21 2010 11:52 pm | Fitness and Green Living and Healthy Eating and Natural Beauty and Natural Remedies and Weight Loss
July 12th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Like this Post:-)
August 23rd, 2010 at 3:55 am
Great post! thanks
October 1st, 2010 at 5:36 am
great post and wonderful information. : )