Adopting a healthy diet like the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) or Mediterranean diet (MD) represents a major lifestyle for blood pressure (BP) control in general population. Nutritional policies, such as the French Nutrition and Health Program (Programme National Nutrition Santé or PNNS) launched in France in 2001, have been implemented in several countries with the aims of preventing chronic diseases. The objective of our study was to investigate association between BP and adherence to PNNS guidelines compared with adherence to DASH or MD.

We conducted a cross sectional study in 11.302 untreated participants from the NutriNet-Santé Study, a French web based cohort study. Three validated scores reflecting adherence to PNNS guidelines, DASH diet and MD were calculated from repeated 24-hour records. Three BP measurements using a standardized protocol were collected. Multivariate linear models were used to assess the associations between the dietary scores and BP.

In untreated women, independent of age, socio-economic status, body mass index, tobacco use, alcohol consumption and physical activity, adherence to PNNS guidelines was inversely significantly associated with systolic BP (β=−0.63, p<0.0001). This association was of similar amplitude that between BP and adherence to DASH-style diet (β=−0.66, p<0.0001) or MD (β=−0.63, p=0.0002). No significant association was found in men.

Adherence to French nutritional recommendations was found negatively associated with BP at the same magnitude as adherence to well-known dietary pattern in the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Adding health benefits of these recommendations already known to be associated with reduced risk of major chronic diseases.