Eating out increases blood pressure, study finds

WASHINGTON — Eating out at restaurants increases your risk of suffering from high blood pressure.

Just one meal at a restaurant increases your odds of pre-hypertension 6 percent, a study done by researchers from the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore finds.

The researchers surveyed 501 university-going people between 18 and 40 in Singapore.

Restaurant foods tend to have more calories, saturated fat and salt intake. All of those are causes of high blood pressure.

Statistically, the researchers determined just over 27 percent of Singapore’s population has pre-hypertension, and 38 percent ate more than 12 meals away from home per week. Men were far more likely to have pre-hypertension, 49 percent compared to 9 percent.

“While there have been studies conducted in the United States and Japan to find behaviors associated with hypertension, very few have surveyed a Southeast Asian population,” said Dr. Tazeen Jafar, the lead researcher, in a news release.

“Our research plugs that gap and highlights lifestyle factors associated with pre-hypertension and hypertension that are potentially modifiable, and would be applicable to young adults globally, especially those of Asian descent.”

The research is published in the “American Journal of Hypertension.”