Potato Consumption Is Prospectively Associated With Risk of Hypertension: An 11.3-year Longitudinal Cohort Study

Potato is considered as a superior crop due to its significant nutritive value and great production yield. China is the largest potato producer with a quarter of world production, followed by India, Russia, and USA. The potato production as well as consumption has enhanced in developing countries while continuously declined in developed countries during the last decade. The investigators therefore explored the prospective associations of consumption of total potatoes, sweet potatoes, stir-fried potatoes, and non stir-fried potatoes with the risk of hypertension in general people of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) cohort study from 1989 to 2011. A total of 11,763 participants (≥20 years old) who were free of hypertension at baseline were enrolled from CHNS Cohort study. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the associations after adjusting for potential confounders. This study provides new evidence on the association of various potato consumption with the incidence of hypertension in China. As urbanization accelerates across the whole domain of China, the tendency of transition to Western-style diets and lifestyles appears continuously and steeply growing. More and more potatoes will be consumed as processed potato products including potatoes chips and French fries, which may be a potential risk factor of hypertension occurrence.