Opening up to Dr. YOU

Question: If salt causes high blood pressure, will sugar help lower it?

Dr. YOU
2 min readJan 4, 2021
Photo by dturphoto from Getty Images

Have you ever had a question about high blood pressure that you were too afraid to ask? Maybe you thought it was too silly to warrant serious discussion.

Well, Dr. YOU is here to clarify one such question you might have had:

If salt causes high blood pressure, will sugar help lower it?

The answer is no!

Salty and sweet may be opposites, but both salty and sweet foods have negative impacts on blood pressure (BP).

Beware of your source of sugar! Whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and wholewheat bread that contain natural sugars also have high amounts of fibre, essential minerals, and antioxidants. Hence, these are OKAY to consume.

But refined sugar in your favourite desserts, soft drinks, and biscuits gives you nothing but ‘empty’ calories, and may lead to weight gain and spiked blood glucose levels. So, these are the sources of sugar to look out for.

Furthermore, weight gain caused by frequent sugar intake can also make you more vulnerable to hypertension. One study from the US showed that overweight people were twice more likely to be diagnosed with hypertension compared to those with normal weight.

Ideally, you should keep your daily sugar intake between 25–30 grams, which is a maximum of 6 teaspoons. Using statistical methods, one study published in the scientific journal Nutrients predicted that reducing added sugar intake by 2.3 teaspoons would lower systolic BP by 8.4 mmHg and diastolic BP by 3.7 mmHg.

And if you’re simply too stressed and in need of a sweet treat, reach for fruit-based options like frozen fruit yoghurt, whole fruits, fresh fruit juices, etc.

Remember, the only person who can keep YOU the healthiest is YOU!

DISCLAIMER: Dr. YOU aims to bring you the latest, evidence-based science, and our content is for informational purposes only. The content is not medical advice or guarantee of an outcome. You should always consult a doctor or qualified healthcare professional if you need further clarification and before making any changes to your treatment plans and lifestyle, or that of others.

Dr. YOU is a one-stop platform to address the health information needs of health consumers. Our goal is to arm people with the information necessary to make meaningful decisions regarding their health and nudge behaviour change.

With our combined experience of two decades in research and healthcare, we built the Dr. YOU platform around the WHO-endorsed “Best Buy” intervention design for preventing and managing chronic diseases.

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Dr. YOU
Dr. YOU

Written by Dr. YOU

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