Weight Loss and Lower Blood Pressure
Vegetable Juices Prove to be Successful Health Strategy
Oct 27, 2009
Vegetable juice added to regular balanced food diets has been proven to be more convenient than just relying on nutrition alone to bring help with weight loss and lower blood pressure. Recent studies presented at the 2009 International Symposium on Human Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables suggest that the addition of four servings a day of drinks like V8 100% vegetable juice was more successful than focusing solely on nutrition education.
Vegetable Juice Study by University of California-Davis
The effects on weight loss and high blood pressure reduction in the 12-week study conducted by UC California-Davis was held among 90 healthy adults between 40-65 years of age. Each person that drank at least two cups of vegetable juice met the goal while only seven percent of the non-juice drinkers met it. Participants with borderline high blood pressure who drank one or two servings of the V8 juice lowered their blood pressure significantly.
It was helpful that the vegetable juice drinkers said they enjoyed the juice and felt like they were doing something good for themselves by drinking it. According to Carl Keen, Ph.d., Professor of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at UC Davis, and co-author of the study,
"Enjoyment is so critical to developing eating habits you can stick with for a long time...Vegetable juice is something that people enjoy, plus its convenient and portable, which makes it simple to drink every day."
Vegetable Juice Study by Baylor College of Medicine
The research conducted at Baylor College of Medicine revealed that drinking vegetable juice helped overweight individuals with metabolic syndrome to lose more weight compared to non-juice drinkers. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes that includes excess body fat in the midsection, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and elevated blood cholesterol.
The 81 participants in the study, 83% of whom had metabolic syndrome risk factors, drank one to two servings of low sodium V8 100% vegetable juice a day as part of a balanced diet that increased their vegetable intake and lost an average of four pounds during the 12-week study period. Participants who did not drink juice lost only one pound.
According to John Foreyt, Ph.d., Director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine,
"We are encouraged to see that something as easy as drinking vegetable juice can help people increase their vegetable intake and have significant health benefits."
The conclusion of both studies as presented at the International Symposium on Human Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables confirmed the decades of studies that have documented the link between eating a diet rich in vegetables and multiple health benefits. The results showed that vegetables served in juice form, such as in the V8 test, makes it easy to obtain the required amount while being convenient and enjoyable.
V8 is a registered trade mark. The studies were supported in part by Campbell Soup Company and by resources provided by the University of California-Davis and Baylor College of Medicine.
 |
 |
 |
 |
