Even though almonds are calorie-dense, they can control your blood pressure while you’re losing weight. A 2016 article in The Journal of Nutrition put 86 people on diets that created a 500-calorie deficit. Although the diets were equal in calories, one group ate enough almonds every day to account for 15% of their daily calories. The almond dieters who complied with their diets saw significant decreases in their systolic and diastolic blood pressure after 12 weeks. They also lost more fat around their torso and more total body fat.
Although this was a single study using overweight individuals, meta-analyses that combine the results of several studies of the effect of almonds on blood pressure have found differences in results. A 2020 meta-analysis in Complementary Therapies in Medicine combined the results of 16 studies and found that eating almonds can reduce your diastolic blood pressure, but not your systolic blood pressure. Your diastolic blood pressure measures the force on your arteries between heartbeats. However, a 2020 meta-analysis in the Journal of King Saud University-Science analyzed 15 studies to determine that adding almonds to your diet reduces systolic blood pressure but not diastolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure is the higher number in your blood pressure reading and measures the force on your arteries when your heart beats.
