1Lecturer, Ministry of Health Polytechnic, Semarang, Indonesia
*Corresponding Author: Mohammad Jaelani, Lecturer, Ministry of Health Polytechnic, Semarang, Indonesia, Email: 10jaelani.gizi@gmail.com
Online published on 23 December, 2019.
Treatment of hypertension requires a long period so that it can affect patient compliance and cause toxic effects. Therefore an alternative treatment is needed to reduce the dose of the drug in preventing and treating hypertension by utilizing various kinds of nutrients in fruits and vegetables.
This study aims to determine the effectiveness of consuming five servings of fruits and vegetables to improve potassium and blood pressure levels in overweight teenagers.
This study was an experimental randomized controlled trial with a pretest-posttest control group design. Subjects were an overweight teenager with a total of 17 people for the treatment group and 17 for controls. The intervention was given three servings of fruit and two servings of vegetables a day for two weeks.
Giving 3 servings of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables for 2 weeks showed a significant change in weight loss of 0.79 kg (p<0.01) or 1.12% (p<0.01) and increased blood potassium by 0.34 mmol/L (p<0.01) or 9.37% (p<0.01). Giving fruit and vegetables can reduce systolic blood pressure by 5.62 mmHg and diastolic 3.52 mmHg clinically even though it is not statistically significant (p= 0.36, and p= 0.37).
Giving fruit and vegetables for two weeks can reduce weight, increase blood potassium levels significantly, and reduce blood pressure clinically even though it is not statistically significant.
Fruits and vegetables, blood potassium, blood pressure, overweight
