Pressure | Athens Java Hut

To treat high blood pressure, you may want to swing by the grocery store—not your pharmacy: Egg whites could reduce your blood pressure as effectively as some medicines, according to a study conducted by the American Chemical Society (ACS).

In the study, researchers from Clemson University in South Carolina and Jilin University in China fed hypertension-prone lab rats short chains of amino acids called peptides from egg whites. These peptides reduced the rats’ hypertension by 19 millimeters of mercury, which is about equal to the effect you’d see from taking a low dose of the hypertension drug Captopril, say study authors.

Previous research has found that eating peptides from egg whites has a similar effect to taking hypertension drugs: Both suppress the enzymes that cause blood vessels to narrow (which raises your blood pressure), says study author Zhipeng Yu, PhD, a researcher at Jilin University.

While the egg white peptides in this experiment were highly concentrated, undercooked by human standards, and fed to mice (not people), previous research suggests that the peptides may maintain their beneficial effects at higher temperatures, too. What’s more, this study’s results were promising enough for researchers to plan further studies to determine how many egg whites humans would need to consume to manage hypertension, says Yu.

So while you shouldn’t ditch your pills just yet, it can’t hurt to include more egg whites in your diet. Get cracking on these tasty recipes:

Breakfast Pizza