PEN® eNews 15(6) June 2025 - Hypertension

Which Dietary Patterns Affect Blood Pressure?

What dietary patterns may affect blood pressure in individuals with or at risk for hypertension?

In adults with hypertension, there is moderate certainty evidence for a potential clinically meaningful (≥5 mmHg) blood pressure reduction for the following dietary patterns:

• DASH diet.

• Low salt/sodium diets (with the greatest effect found for Afro-Caribbean and Asian populations with hypertension).   

In adults with hypertension, there is limited moderate and low certainty evidence for blood pressure reduction that may not be clinically meaningful (<5 mmHg) for the following dietary pattern:

• Weight loss dietary patterns.

A 5 mmHg reduction of systolic blood pressure has been shown to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events by about 10% irrespective of a previous diagnosis of cardiovascular disease and even at normal or high normal blood pressure values.

To see the full practice question, including the Evidence Statements, Remarks and References, click here.

How Does Caffeine Affect Blood Pressure?

What is the effect of caffeine and dietary sources of caffeine on blood pressure?

The restriction of coffee or caffeinated beverages is not indicated for the prevention or treatment of hypertension. However, the use of pure/isolated caffeine (295 to 750 mg/day) may modestly increase systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the short term (one to 12 weeks). It appears to have less impact on blood pressure if consumed chronically. For individuals with and without hypertension who commonly consume coffee, moderate caffeine intake from this beverage, similar to the general caffeine intake recommendations for healthy individuals, may be appropriate.

To see the full practice question, including the Evidence Statements, Remarks and References, click here.

New Handout: The DASH Diet and Blood Pressure

You've heard that a DASH diet can lower blood pressure. But what are some practical tips you can use with your clients? 

Our DASH diet handout describes a DASH diet, with practical tips to help clients follow your recommendations. For example, to lower dietary sodium, clients could:

• Use the Nutrition Facts table to choose foods that are less than 15% of the Daily Value (DV) for sodium,

• Use fresh or dried herbs, spices and seasonings instead of salt, 

• Try more plant-based meals like vegetable chili and soy burgers, 

• Avoid smoked, cured and processed meats, 

• Cut back on commercially prepared, processed and fast foods,

• Limit condiments like mustard, ketchup and relish and sauces such as barbeque, soy, teriyaki and Worcestershire, and/or

• Rinse canned foods like canned beans, peas or lentils and tuna to lower the salt content. 

For more tips and to access the full handout, click here. Log into the PEN System before clicking the link to avoid being redirected.

Find Your Favourite PEN System Content

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If you’ve never used this feature and you don’t know how to add favourites to your list, here’s how to do it. 

Beside the title of every Practice Question, Background document, Practice Guidance Toolkit and Related Tool/ Resource, there is a picture of a star. 

Click on the star. It will turn gold to let you know that you’ve saved the page as a favourite.

We’ve also posted simple instructions on our website. When you’re on your My PEN Favourites page, you’ll see a link that says “click here” to learn how to add resources to your favourites list. Click there and you’ll see the instructions.

To see the My PEN Favourites page, click here.

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