The 6 foods to slash deadly high blood pressure revealed – as key mineral is ‘just as vital as cutting salt’

UPPING your intake of a key mineral is just as important as cutting down on salt when it comes to high blood pressure, scientists say.

Reducing the amount of salt consumed has been a central component of health advice aimed at controlling hypertension, as the condition is also called.

That’s because salt makes your body hold onto water, putting extra pressure on your blood vessel walls.

But new research has shown that eating a key mineral – potassium – can also be crucial for managing blood pressure.

High levels of potassium are found in whole foods and it’s one of the reasons fresh fruits and vegetables are so good for you, researchers from the George Institute for Global Health said.

Foods rich in the essential mineral include:

1. Legumes – including beans and lentils
2. Nuts – such as cashews, peanuts and pistachios
3. Leafy green vegetables – like kale, spinach and Swiss chard
4. Bananas
5. Kiwis
6. Dates

Food processing tends to reduce the amount of potassium in products, and it is often replaced by sodium – a cheaper ingredient.

Lead author Dr Liping Huang, Research Fellow at The George Institute, said how consuming sodium and potassium affects blood pressure has been known for a long time.

But recent work on potassium-enriched salt substitutes highlighted how increasing the amount of potassium you eat could be crucial for managing deadly hypertension.

“High levels of sodium intake and low levels of potassium intake are widespread, and both are linked to high blood pressure and greater risk of stroke, heart disease and premature death,” she said.

“Using a salt substitute where part of the sodium chloride is replaced with potassium chloride addresses both problems at once.

“But the relative contributions of sodium reduction versus potassium supplementation were not well understood.”

The research published in the Journal of Human Hypertension analysed data gathered from 20,995 participants over five years for the George Institute’s ‘Salt Substitute and Stroke Study‘, which showed that switching to potassium-enriched salt to regular salt slashed the risk of stroke by 14 per cent.

The dietary switch also reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events by 13 per cent and premature death by 12 per cent.

Lead by Dr Huang, researchers analysed levels of potassium and sodium in participants pee.

They found that upping potassium intake had slashed participants blood pressure by 61 to 88 per cent.

In every case, an increase in potassium intake rather than eating eating less salt was the biggest driver behind a fall in blood pressure.

Dr Huang said: “We have always known that potassium has a role to play in blood pressure control, but until we did these analyses, we didn’t realise just how important it could be.

“The findings in this study may be particularly pronounced because people started at low levels of potassium consumption, but there are probably billions of people around the world with similar consumption levels,” she added.

The NHS recommends that adults aged between 19 and 64 need 3,500 mg of potassium day – that’s 3.5 g.

You shouldn’t exceed that amount, as too much potassium can cause stomach pain, nausea and diarrhoea.

But a recent study published to the European Journal of Nutrition found that only about 35 per cent of people globally reach that target, with most only having about 2.25 g a day.

Dr Huang said that the number of people living with hypertension had doubled in the past 30 years to about 1.3 billion and it kills around 20 people every minute.

In the UK alone, it’s estimated that five million adults might have undiagnosed high blood pressure, according to the British Heart Foundation.

“People find it hard to stick to dietary changes recommended to reduce sodium and increase potassium,” Dr Huang said.

“Salt substitutes are particularly interesting in this regard, because most people can make the switch to potassium-enriched salt without much difficulty – in our SSaSS trial more than 90 per cent of participants assigned to use the salt substitute were still using it five years on.

“With potassium-enriched salt substitutes, we have a highly feasible and low-cost opportunity to generate a massive global health benefit,” Dr Huang added.