Eating potatoes four times a week could increase risk of high blood pressure

Eating potatoes four or more times a week could increase the risk of high blood pressure according to a study.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University in the US studied more than 180,000 adults who did not have high blood pressure at the beginning of the study.

Compared with those who consumed less than one serving of potatoes a month, those who had four or more a week had an increased risk of hypertension of 11% for boiled, baked or mashed potatoes.

For chips the figure was 17% increased risk, however for crisps the researchers found no higher risk.

The research, published in the British Medical Journal, is the first to identify potatoes as a key source of hypertension, or high blood pressure.

The authors write that the findings have "potentially important public health ramifications" as "they do not support a potential benefit from the inclusion of potatoes as vegetables in government food programmes, but instead support a harmful effect that is consistent with adverse effects of high carbohydrate intakes".