Originally Posted by bbbean

Someone said they'd never seen a study correlating blood pressure and low carbs. As I noted in the post, "A quick Google produced" a couple of links directing one to studies showing a correlation.

Nothing in that post gave even the inkling that it was a conclusive or thorough review of the literature, and comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon, or that it was a recommended way to make nutrition decisions.

It did, however, answer the very specific question raised by the previous post.

Your post does do a tremendous service, however, by illustrating the reason this is such a difficult subject to discuss. Rather than simply respond to statements and questions directly, there is a tendency to address a set of assumptions and positions the poster may or may not share.

In the interest of full disclosure, I lost 165 lbs, reversed my diabetes, lowered my blood pressure, improved my cholesterol, and experienced a wide range of benefits from adopting a moderately low carb diet. I did a lot of other things, too. I try not to talk too much about the specifics of what I did, because it has been my experience that individual responses to diet vary widely. There is no guarantee that someone doing what I did would get similar results, and my own process was considerably more involved tha going on X diet or reducing carbs.

While a few general principles are well established, the diet and nutrition industries run well beyond the data, and make all sort of claims based on insufficient data, IMHO.

With all that said, thank you for noting that one single correlation would be a terrible way to set an all encompassing diet. Blood pressure is highly overdetermined, and while there does appear to be a correlation between lowered carbohydrate consumption and lowered blood pressure, the relationship is complicated in practice.