How do the blood-pressure lowering effects of hibiscus tea compare to the DASH diet, a plant-based diet, and a long-distance endurance exercise?
Hibiscus Tea vs. Plant-Based Diets for Hypertension
The latest research pitted hibiscus against obesity, giving hibiscus to overweight individuals, and showed reduced body weight, but after 12 weeks on hibiscus they only lost like 3 pounds, and really only one and a half pounds over placebo—clearly no magic fix.
The purported cholesterol-lowering property of hibiscus tea had looked a bit more promising. Some older studies suggested as much as an 8% reduction drinking two cups a day for a month, but when all the studies are put together the results were pretty much a wash. This may be because only about 50% of people respond at all to drinking the equivalent of between 2 to 5 cups a day, though those that do may get a respectable 12 or so percent drop, but nothing like the 30% one can get within weeks of eating a healthy enough plant-based diet.
High blood pressure is where hibiscus may really shine, a disease affecting a billion people and killing millions. Up until 2010, there wasn’t sufficient high quality research out there to support the use of hibiscus tea to treat it, but we have since seen randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled studies where hibiscus tea is compared to artificially colored and flavored water that looks and tastes like hibiscus tea, and the tea did significantly better.
We’re still not sure why it works, but hibiscus does appear to boost nitric oxide production, which could help our arteries relax and dilate better. Regardless, an updated review acknowledged that the daily consumption of hibiscus tea may indeed significantly lower blood pressures in people with hypertension, but by how much? How does this drop in blood pressure compare to that of other interventions?
The premier clinical trial when it comes to comprehensive lifestyle modification for blood pressure control is the PREMIER clinical trial. Realizing that 9 out of 10 Americans are going to develop hypertension, they randomized 800 men and women with high blood pressure into one of three groups. One was the control group, the so-called advice only group, where patients were just told to lose weight, cut down on salt, increase exercise and eat healthier, here’s a brochure. But in the two behavioral intervention groups they got serious. 18 face-to-face sessions, groups meetings, food diaries, monitored physical activity, calorie and sodium intake. One intervention group just concentrated on exercise and the other included exercise and diet. They pushed the DASH diet, high in fruits and vegetables, and low in full-fat dairy products and meat. And in six months they achieved a 4.3 point drop in systolic blood pressure, compared to the control, slightly better than the lifestyle intervention without the diet. Now a few points might not sound like a lot—that’s like someone going from a blood pressure of 150 over 90 to a blood pressure of 146 over 90—but on a population scale a 5 point drop in the total number would result in a 14% fewer stroke deaths, 9% fewer fatal heart attacks, and 7% fewer deaths every year overall.
And a cup of hibiscus tea with each meal didn’t just lower blood pressure by 3, 4 or 5 points but by 7 points, 129 down to 122. And in fact tested head-to-head against a leading blood-pressure drug, captopril, two cups of strong hibiscus tea every morning, using a total of 5 tea bags for those two cups, was as effective in lowering blood pressure as a starting dose of 25mg of captopril taken twice a day.
So as good as drugs, without the drug side-effects, and better than diet and exercise? Well, the lifestyle interventions were pretty wimpy. As public health experts noted, the PREMIER study was only asking for 30 minutes of exercise a day, whereas the World Health Organization is more like an hour a day minimum.
And diet-wise, the lower the animal fat intake, and the more plant sources of protein the PREMIER participants were eating, the better the diet appeared to work, which may explain why vegetarian diets appear to work even better, and the more plant-based the lower the prevalence of hypertension.
On the DASH diet, they cut down on meat, but are still eating it every day, so would qualify as nonvegetarians here in the Adventist 2 study, which looked at 89,000 Californians and found that those who instead only ate meat on more like a weekly basis had 23% lower rates of high blood pressure. Cut out all meat except fish and the rate is 38% lower. Cut out all meat period—the vegetarians have less than half the rate and the vegans—cutting out all animal protein and fat—appeared to have thrown three quarters of their risk for this major killer out the window.
One sees the same kind of step-wise drop in diabetes rates as one’s diet gets more and more plant-based and a drop in excess body weight such that only those eating completely plant-based diets fell into the ideal weight category. But could that be why those eating plant-based have such great blood pressure? Maybe it’s just because they’re so skinny. I’ve shown previously how those eating plant based just have a fraction of the diabetes risk even at the same weight, even after controlling for BMI, but what about hypertension?
The average American has what’s called prehypertension, which means the top number of your blood pressure is between 120 and 139. Not yet hypertension, which starts at 140, but it means we may be well on our way.
Compare that to the blood pressure of those eating whole food plant-based diets. Not 3 points lower, 4 points lower, or even 7 points lower, but 28 points lower. Now but the group here eating the standard American diet was, on average, overweight with a BMI over 26, still better than most Americans, while the vegans were a trim 21—that’s 36 pounds lighter.
So maybe the only reason those eating meat, eggs, dairy, and processed junk had such higher blood pressure was because they were overweight, maybe the diet per se had nothing to do with it.
To solve that riddle we would have to find a group still eating the standard American diet but as slim as a vegan. To find a group that fit and trim, they had to use long-distance endurance athletes, who ate the same crappy American diet — but ran an average of 48 miles per week for 21 years. You run almost two marathons a week for 20 years anyone can be as slim as a vegan—no matter what you eat. So where do they fall on the graph? Both the vegans and the conventional diet group were sedentary—less than an hour of exercise a week.
The endurance runners were here. So it appears if you run an average of about a thousand miles every year you can rival some couch potato vegans. Doesn’t mean you can’t do both, but it may be easier to just eat plants.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A L Hopkins, M G Lamm, J L Funk, C Ritenbaugh. Hibiscus sabdariffa L. in the treatment of hypertension and hyperlipidemia: a comprehensive review of animal and human studies. Fitoterapia. 2013 Mar;85:84-94.
- A Herrera-Arellano, S Flores-Romero, M A Chavez-Soto, J Tortoriello. Effectiveness and tolerability of a standardized extract from Hibiscus sabdariffa in patients with mild to moderate hypertension: a controlled and randomized clinical trial. Phytomedicine. 2004 Jul;11(5):375-82.
- D L McKay, C Y Chen, E Saltzman, J B Blumberg. Hibiscus sabdariffa L. tea (tisane) lowers blood pressure in prehypertensive and mildly hypertensive adults. J Nutr. 2010 Feb;140(2):298-303.
- H A Wahabi, L A Alansary, A H AL-Sabban, P Glasziuo. The effectiveness of Hibiscus sabdariffa in the treatment of hypertension: a systematic review. Phytomedicine. 2010 Feb;17(2):83-6.
- J Joven, I March, E Espinel, S Fernandez-Arroyo, E Rodriguez-Gallego, G Aragones, R Beltran-Debon, C Alonso-Villaverde, L Rios, V Martin-Paredero, J A Menendez, V Micol, A Segura-Carretero, J Camps. Hibiscus sabdariffa extract lowers blood pressure and improves endothelial function. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014 Jun;58(6):1374-8.
- T L Lin, H H Lin, C C Chen, M C Lin, M C Chou, C J Wang. Hibiscus sabdariffa extract reduces serum cholesterol in men and women. Nutrition Research. 2007 Mar; 27(3):140–5.
- H Mozaffari-Khosravi, B A Jalali-Khanabadi, M Afkhami-Ardekani, F Fatehi. Effects of sour tea (Hibiscus sabdariffa) on lipid profile and lipoproteins in patients with type II diabetes. J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Aug;15(8):899-903.
- H C Chang, C H Peng, D M Yeh, E S Kao, C J Wang. Hibiscus sabdariffa extract inhibits obesity and fat accumulation, and improves liver steatosis in humans. Food Funct. 2014 Apr;5(4):734-9.
- D J Jenkins, C W Kendall, A Marchie, A L Jenkins, P W Connelly, P J Jones, V U Vuksan. The Garden of Eden--plant based diets, the genetic drive to conserve cholesterol and its implications for heart disease in the 21st century. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 2003 Sep;136(1):141-51.
- P J Elmer, E OBarzanek, W M Vollmer, D Simons-Morton, V J Stevens, D R Young, P H Lin, C Champagne, D W Harsha, L P Svetkey, J Ard, P J Brantely, M A Proschan, T P Erlinger, L J Appel, PREMIER Collaborative Research Group. Effects of comprehensive lifestyle modification on diet, weight, physical fitness, and blood pressure control: 18-month results of a randomized trial. 2006 Apr 4;144(7):485-95.
- Y F Wang, W S Yancy Jr, D Yu, C Chammpagne, L J Appel, P H Lin. The relationship between dietary protein intake and blood pressure: results from the PREMIER study. J Hum Hypertens. 2008 Nov;22(11):745-54.
- P H Lin, Y Wang, S C Grambow, W Goggins, D Almiralli. Dietary saturated fat intake is negatively associated with weight maintenance among the PREMIER participants. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012 Mar;20(3):571-5.
- L J Appel, C M Champagne, D W Harsha, L S Cooper, E Obarzanek, P J Elmer, V J Stevens, W M Wollmer, P H Lin, L P Svetkey, S W Stedman, D R young, Writing Group of the PREMIER Collaborative Research Group. Effects of comprehensive lifestyle modification on blood pressure control: main results of the PREMIER clinical trial. AMA. 2003 Apr 23-30;289(16):2083-93.
- L J Beilin, V Burke, I B Puddey. To the Editor: Effects of exercise and weight loss on hypertension. JAMA. 2003 Aug 20;290(7):887.
- Y Yokoyama, K Nishimura, N D Barnard, M Takegami, M Watanabe, A Sekikawa, T Okamura, Y Miyamoto. Vegetarian diets and blood pressure: a meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2014 Apr;174(4):577-87.
- S Tonstad, K Stewart, K Oda, M Batech, RP Herring, GE Fraser. Vegetarian diets and incidence of diabetes in the Adventist Health Study-2. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2013 Apr;23(4):292-9.
- Fraser GE. Vegetarian diets: what do we know of their effects on common chronic diseases?. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89(5):1607S-1612S.
Images thanks to kattebelletje and Pgoyette via Flickr.
- animal fat
- animal protein
- athletes
- blood pressure
- calories
- cholesterol
- dairy
- DASH diet
- diabetes
- eggs
- exercise
- fish
- fruit
- heart disease
- herbal tea
- hibiscus tea
- high blood pressure
- hypertension
- junk food
- lifestyle medicine
- meat
- mortality
- nitric oxide
- obesity
- plant protein
- Plant-Based Diets
- processed foods
- salt
- side effects
- sports medicine
- standard American diet
- stroke
- tea
- vegans
- vegetables
- vegetarians
- weight loss
- World Health Organization
The latest research pitted hibiscus against obesity, giving hibiscus to overweight individuals, and showed reduced body weight, but after 12 weeks on hibiscus they only lost like 3 pounds, and really only one and a half pounds over placebo—clearly no magic fix.
The purported cholesterol-lowering property of hibiscus tea had looked a bit more promising. Some older studies suggested as much as an 8% reduction drinking two cups a day for a month, but when all the studies are put together the results were pretty much a wash. This may be because only about 50% of people respond at all to drinking the equivalent of between 2 to 5 cups a day, though those that do may get a respectable 12 or so percent drop, but nothing like the 30% one can get within weeks of eating a healthy enough plant-based diet.
High blood pressure is where hibiscus may really shine, a disease affecting a billion people and killing millions. Up until 2010, there wasn’t sufficient high quality research out there to support the use of hibiscus tea to treat it, but we have since seen randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled studies where hibiscus tea is compared to artificially colored and flavored water that looks and tastes like hibiscus tea, and the tea did significantly better.
We’re still not sure why it works, but hibiscus does appear to boost nitric oxide production, which could help our arteries relax and dilate better. Regardless, an updated review acknowledged that the daily consumption of hibiscus tea may indeed significantly lower blood pressures in people with hypertension, but by how much? How does this drop in blood pressure compare to that of other interventions?
The premier clinical trial when it comes to comprehensive lifestyle modification for blood pressure control is the PREMIER clinical trial. Realizing that 9 out of 10 Americans are going to develop hypertension, they randomized 800 men and women with high blood pressure into one of three groups. One was the control group, the so-called advice only group, where patients were just told to lose weight, cut down on salt, increase exercise and eat healthier, here’s a brochure. But in the two behavioral intervention groups they got serious. 18 face-to-face sessions, groups meetings, food diaries, monitored physical activity, calorie and sodium intake. One intervention group just concentrated on exercise and the other included exercise and diet. They pushed the DASH diet, high in fruits and vegetables, and low in full-fat dairy products and meat. And in six months they achieved a 4.3 point drop in systolic blood pressure, compared to the control, slightly better than the lifestyle intervention without the diet. Now a few points might not sound like a lot—that’s like someone going from a blood pressure of 150 over 90 to a blood pressure of 146 over 90—but on a population scale a 5 point drop in the total number would result in a 14% fewer stroke deaths, 9% fewer fatal heart attacks, and 7% fewer deaths every year overall.
And a cup of hibiscus tea with each meal didn’t just lower blood pressure by 3, 4 or 5 points but by 7 points, 129 down to 122. And in fact tested head-to-head against a leading blood-pressure drug, captopril, two cups of strong hibiscus tea every morning, using a total of 5 tea bags for those two cups, was as effective in lowering blood pressure as a starting dose of 25mg of captopril taken twice a day.
So as good as drugs, without the drug side-effects, and better than diet and exercise? Well, the lifestyle interventions were pretty wimpy. As public health experts noted, the PREMIER study was only asking for 30 minutes of exercise a day, whereas the World Health Organization is more like an hour a day minimum.
And diet-wise, the lower the animal fat intake, and the more plant sources of protein the PREMIER participants were eating, the better the diet appeared to work, which may explain why vegetarian diets appear to work even better, and the more plant-based the lower the prevalence of hypertension.
On the DASH diet, they cut down on meat, but are still eating it every day, so would qualify as nonvegetarians here in the Adventist 2 study, which looked at 89,000 Californians and found that those who instead only ate meat on more like a weekly basis had 23% lower rates of high blood pressure. Cut out all meat except fish and the rate is 38% lower. Cut out all meat period—the vegetarians have less than half the rate and the vegans—cutting out all animal protein and fat—appeared to have thrown three quarters of their risk for this major killer out the window.
One sees the same kind of step-wise drop in diabetes rates as one’s diet gets more and more plant-based and a drop in excess body weight such that only those eating completely plant-based diets fell into the ideal weight category. But could that be why those eating plant-based have such great blood pressure? Maybe it’s just because they’re so skinny. I’ve shown previously how those eating plant based just have a fraction of the diabetes risk even at the same weight, even after controlling for BMI, but what about hypertension?
The average American has what’s called prehypertension, which means the top number of your blood pressure is between 120 and 139. Not yet hypertension, which starts at 140, but it means we may be well on our way.
Compare that to the blood pressure of those eating whole food plant-based diets. Not 3 points lower, 4 points lower, or even 7 points lower, but 28 points lower. Now but the group here eating the standard American diet was, on average, overweight with a BMI over 26, still better than most Americans, while the vegans were a trim 21—that’s 36 pounds lighter.
So maybe the only reason those eating meat, eggs, dairy, and processed junk had such higher blood pressure was because they were overweight, maybe the diet per se had nothing to do with it.
To solve that riddle we would have to find a group still eating the standard American diet but as slim as a vegan. To find a group that fit and trim, they had to use long-distance endurance athletes, who ate the same crappy American diet — but ran an average of 48 miles per week for 21 years. You run almost two marathons a week for 20 years anyone can be as slim as a vegan—no matter what you eat. So where do they fall on the graph? Both the vegans and the conventional diet group were sedentary—less than an hour of exercise a week.
The endurance runners were here. So it appears if you run an average of about a thousand miles every year you can rival some couch potato vegans. Doesn’t mean you can’t do both, but it may be easier to just eat plants.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A L Hopkins, M G Lamm, J L Funk, C Ritenbaugh. Hibiscus sabdariffa L. in the treatment of hypertension and hyperlipidemia: a comprehensive review of animal and human studies. Fitoterapia. 2013 Mar;85:84-94.
- A Herrera-Arellano, S Flores-Romero, M A Chavez-Soto, J Tortoriello. Effectiveness and tolerability of a standardized extract from Hibiscus sabdariffa in patients with mild to moderate hypertension: a controlled and randomized clinical trial. Phytomedicine. 2004 Jul;11(5):375-82.
- D L McKay, C Y Chen, E Saltzman, J B Blumberg. Hibiscus sabdariffa L. tea (tisane) lowers blood pressure in prehypertensive and mildly hypertensive adults. J Nutr. 2010 Feb;140(2):298-303.
- H A Wahabi, L A Alansary, A H AL-Sabban, P Glasziuo. The effectiveness of Hibiscus sabdariffa in the treatment of hypertension: a systematic review. Phytomedicine. 2010 Feb;17(2):83-6.
- J Joven, I March, E Espinel, S Fernandez-Arroyo, E Rodriguez-Gallego, G Aragones, R Beltran-Debon, C Alonso-Villaverde, L Rios, V Martin-Paredero, J A Menendez, V Micol, A Segura-Carretero, J Camps. Hibiscus sabdariffa extract lowers blood pressure and improves endothelial function. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014 Jun;58(6):1374-8.
- T L Lin, H H Lin, C C Chen, M C Lin, M C Chou, C J Wang. Hibiscus sabdariffa extract reduces serum cholesterol in men and women. Nutrition Research. 2007 Mar; 27(3):140–5.
- H Mozaffari-Khosravi, B A Jalali-Khanabadi, M Afkhami-Ardekani, F Fatehi. Effects of sour tea (Hibiscus sabdariffa) on lipid profile and lipoproteins in patients with type II diabetes. J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Aug;15(8):899-903.
- H C Chang, C H Peng, D M Yeh, E S Kao, C J Wang. Hibiscus sabdariffa extract inhibits obesity and fat accumulation, and improves liver steatosis in humans. Food Funct. 2014 Apr;5(4):734-9.
- D J Jenkins, C W Kendall, A Marchie, A L Jenkins, P W Connelly, P J Jones, V U Vuksan. The Garden of Eden--plant based diets, the genetic drive to conserve cholesterol and its implications for heart disease in the 21st century. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 2003 Sep;136(1):141-51.
- P J Elmer, E OBarzanek, W M Vollmer, D Simons-Morton, V J Stevens, D R Young, P H Lin, C Champagne, D W Harsha, L P Svetkey, J Ard, P J Brantely, M A Proschan, T P Erlinger, L J Appel, PREMIER Collaborative Research Group. Effects of comprehensive lifestyle modification on diet, weight, physical fitness, and blood pressure control: 18-month results of a randomized trial. 2006 Apr 4;144(7):485-95.
- Y F Wang, W S Yancy Jr, D Yu, C Chammpagne, L J Appel, P H Lin. The relationship between dietary protein intake and blood pressure: results from the PREMIER study. J Hum Hypertens. 2008 Nov;22(11):745-54.
- P H Lin, Y Wang, S C Grambow, W Goggins, D Almiralli. Dietary saturated fat intake is negatively associated with weight maintenance among the PREMIER participants. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012 Mar;20(3):571-5.
- L J Appel, C M Champagne, D W Harsha, L S Cooper, E Obarzanek, P J Elmer, V J Stevens, W M Wollmer, P H Lin, L P Svetkey, S W Stedman, D R young, Writing Group of the PREMIER Collaborative Research Group. Effects of comprehensive lifestyle modification on blood pressure control: main results of the PREMIER clinical trial. AMA. 2003 Apr 23-30;289(16):2083-93.
- L J Beilin, V Burke, I B Puddey. To the Editor: Effects of exercise and weight loss on hypertension. JAMA. 2003 Aug 20;290(7):887.
- Y Yokoyama, K Nishimura, N D Barnard, M Takegami, M Watanabe, A Sekikawa, T Okamura, Y Miyamoto. Vegetarian diets and blood pressure: a meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2014 Apr;174(4):577-87.
- S Tonstad, K Stewart, K Oda, M Batech, RP Herring, GE Fraser. Vegetarian diets and incidence of diabetes in the Adventist Health Study-2. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2013 Apr;23(4):292-9.
- Fraser GE. Vegetarian diets: what do we know of their effects on common chronic diseases?. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89(5):1607S-1612S.
Images thanks to kattebelletje and Pgoyette via Flickr.
- animal fat
- animal protein
- athletes
- blood pressure
- calories
- cholesterol
- dairy
- DASH diet
- diabetes
- eggs
- exercise
- fish
- fruit
- heart disease
- herbal tea
- hibiscus tea
- high blood pressure
- hypertension
- junk food
- lifestyle medicine
- meat
- mortality
- nitric oxide
- obesity
- plant protein
- Plant-Based Diets
- processed foods
- salt
- side effects
- sports medicine
- standard American diet
- stroke
- tea
- vegans
- vegetables
- vegetarians
- weight loss
- World Health Organization
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Hibiscus Tea vs. Plant-Based Diets for Hypertension
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Content URLDoctor's Note
Those who’ve been following my work for years have seen how my videos have evolved. In the past, the hibiscus results may have been the whole video, but thanks to everyone’s support, I’ve been able to delegate the logistics to staff and concentrate more on the content creation. This allows me to do deeper dives into the literature to put new findings into better context. The videos are bit longer, but hopefully they’re more useful—let me know what you think!
For such a leading killer, hypertension has not gotten the coverage it deserves on NutritionFacts.org. Here’s a few videos with more to come:
- Whole Grains May Work as Well as Drugs
- Longer Life Within Walking Distance
- Hearts Shouldn’t Skip a Beet
So should we all be drinking hibiscus tea every day? This is the first of a four part series on the latest on hibiscus. Stay tuned for the next three:
- Protecting Teeth from Hibiscus Tea
- Is There Too Much Aluminum in Tea?
- How Much Hibiscus Tea Is Too Much?
My other hibiscus videos are:
- Herbal Tea Update: Hibiscus
- Better than Green Tea?
- Fat-Blocking Benefits of Hibiscus Tea, which came out after this video
For another comparison of those running marathons and those eating plants, see: Arteries of Vegans vs. Runners.
2020 Update – I just did a new series on blood pressure. See:
- What the New Blood Pressure Range Guidelines Mean
- How to Lower Blood Pressure Naturally with Lifestyle Changes
- Fasting to Naturally Reverse High Blood Pressure
And if you haven’t yet, be sure to watch How Not to Die from High Blood Pressure.
If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here. Read our important information about translations here.