Eating a lot of ultra-processed foods—like packaged snacks, sugary drinks, and instant meals—might be the main reason people get high blood pressure, because these foods mess with how your body controls blood pressure in several ways at once.

Hypertension is primarily caused by processed foods that disrupt multiple regulatory mechanisms of blood pressure, rather than being solely a salt or sugar issue.

Eating ultra-processed foods can raise your blood pressure because the salt in them makes your body hold onto more fluid, and the sugar causes your insulin levels to spike — together, these push your blood pressure up over time.

Processed foods contain engineered combinations of high sodium and refined carbohydrates, which together cause acute plasma volume expansion and chronic hormonal sodium retention, leading to sustained hypertension.

Processed foods are typically low in potassium, which normally aids sodium excretion and vascular relaxation, exacerbating hypertension when combined with high sodium and refined carbs.

Eating a lot of ultra-processed foods, like packaged snacks and sugary drinks, might increase your chances of getting high blood pressure by about a third, according to several long-term studies in adults.