Data collection
The demographic information, including age, gender, marital status,
education, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI) are summarized
in Table 1. The blood biochemical parameters, BP parameters, and BP
medications of the participants at the beginning of the clinical trial
are summarized in Table 2. Daily dietary intake in detail was recorded
in 4 steps of the clinical trial (Table 3). BP parameters were taken
from the left arm of participants using 24-hour ambulatory blood
pressure monitoring (ABPM) device at the end of each step. Biochemical
tests were carried out in Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical
Sciences, Iran. Blood samples (5 ml) were taken from the forearm veins
of patients in the fasting state (14-hours). The laboratory experiments
were performed in both groups pre- and post-treatment: Hematologic tests
performed included complete blood count with differentiation (CBC diff),
plasma lipids; total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL),
low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and triglyceride (TG), liver function
tests; serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT or AST), serum
glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT or ALT) and alkaline phosphatase
(ALP), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (SCr),
electrolytes; sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and phosphorus
(P).