High blood pressure, or hypertension, raises your risk for heart disease and kidney disease, and you may be able to lower your numbers with healthy lifestyle choices. Passion fruit may fit into your diet because it provides some essential nutrients for regulating blood pressure, but no single food can lower your blood pressure. Eat passion fruit in moderation, and consult your doctor for additional approaches for lowering high blood pressure.
Potassium
Each cup of raw passion fruit provides 821 mg potassium and a cup of passion fruit juice has 687 mg. Potassium is an essential mineral for regulating your blood pressure, and healthy adults should get at least 4,700 mg per day, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Passion fruit is even higher in potassium than some other good sources, such as tomato juice, orange juice, cooked beans and sweet potatoes, with no more than 600 mg per serving.
Sodium
A high-sodium diet can cause high blood pressure or prevent you from lowering blood pressure, and passion fruit can be a good choice because each cup provides only 66 mg sodium. Healthy adults should have no more than 2,300 mg sodium per day, and hypertensive individuals should not go over 1,500 mg per day, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly all fruits and vegetables are low-sodium or sodium-free foods.
Fiber and Vitamin C
Raw passion fruit provides 24 g dietary fiber per cup, or nearly 100 percent of the daily value. Dietary fiber is a carbohydrate from the parts of plant foods that your body cannot digest, and a high-fiber diet can help control your blood pressure, according to the Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center. Passion fruit juice has less than 1 g fiber. Each serving of the fruit and juice has at least 70 mg vitamin C, which may play a role in lowering blood pressure if you have hypertension.
Other Information
Passion fruit can be a healthy addition to your diet because individuals who eat more fruits and vegetables tend to have lower blood pressures, according to the Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center. Fresh fruits and vegetables can aid in weight control, which is an important factor in lowering blood pressure. Fresh passion fruit may be a better choice than juice because each cup of raw fruit has 26 g sugars, while each cup of juice has 33 g sugars.
References
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010; January 2010
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: Fruits and Fruit Juices
- Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center; Vitamin C; Jane Higdon; January 2006
- Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center; Dietary Fiber; Jane Higdon; December 2005
- Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center; Fruits and Vegetables; Jane Higdon; December 2005
