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A beneficial association between dietary protein intake (especially from plant sources) with incident hypertension, being strongly correlated to microalbuminuria, has been suggested in healthy populations. Evidence from diabetic populations, in which the prevalence of these diseases is high, is lacking. We examined the associations of total, animal and plant protein intake with incident hypertension (n = 1319) and microalbuminuria (n = 1045) in patients from 16 European countries with type 1 diabetes from the clinic-based EURODIAB Prospective Complications study.Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for incident hypertension after 7 years of follow-up were calculated in tertiles of protein intake (energy%) with adjustments for age, sex, diabetes duration, HbA1c, BMI, physical activity, smoking, alcohol, total energy, total fat and carbohydrate intake.After adjustment for potential confounders, total, animal and plant protein intakes were not related to incident hypertension (298 cases). OR's (95% CI) across increasing tertiles of total protein were 1.00 (ref), 0.86 (0.60-1.25) and 0.91 (0.59-1.43). Furthermore, no relation was observed with incident microalbuminuria (135 cases), with ORs (95% CI) across increasing tertiles of total protein being 1.00 (ref), 0.88 (0.53-1.48) and 1.08 (0.57-2.04).Results from our study did not provide evidence that a protein intake commonly consumed by European patients with type 1 diabetes is associated with incident hypertension or microalbuminuria. Prospective studies with more detailed information on dietary intake (including mineral intake) are needed to confirm these findings, and to investigate the impact on vascular and renal complications of a long-term very high protein intake in patients with type 1 diabetes.

Diet and lifestyle play an important role in maintaining a healthy blood pressure. Whether intake of dairy products could reduce population blood pressure remains to be established. We examined the association of (specific types of) dairy food intake with blood pressure and risk of hypertension using data from two Dutch population-based cohort studies; i.e. the MORGEN study and the Rotterdam study. Blood pressure level was not consistently associated with overall dairy intake or intake of specific dairy foods in 21,553 Dutch adults from the MORGEN study. However, both in the MORGEN study and in the Rotterdam study, the risk of hypertension was reduced by ~20% in subjects who consumed more than 150 mL of low-fat dairy per day. Other dairy foods, i.e. fermented dairy, high-fat dairy, milk and milk products, and cheese, were not consistently associated with risk of hypertension. In addition, we assessed the effect of two dairy components on human blood pressure, i.e. lactotripeptides and cis-9, trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid, in controlled intervention studies. These dairy components did not affect blood pressure.