Eating more bananas may help reduce high blood pressure more effectively than just reducing your salt intake, especially for men.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo, in Canada, found increasing the ratio of dietary potassium to sodium intake may be more effective for lowering blood pressure than simply reducing sodium intake.
Professor Anita Layton said, usually, when we have high blood pressure, we were advised to eat less salt.
“Our research suggests that adding more potassium-rich foods to your diet, such as bananas or broccoli, might have a greater positive impact on your blood pressure than just cutting sodium,” Professor Layton said.
Study lead author Melissa Stadt said potassium and sodium were both electrolytes, substances that helped the body send electrical signals to contract muscles, affect the amount of water in your body and perform other essential functions.
“Early humans ate lots of fruits and vegetables, and as a result, our body’s regulatory systems may have evolved to work best with a high potassium, low sodium diet,” Ms Stadt said.
“Today, western diets tend to be much higher in sodium and lower in potassium. That may explain why high blood pressure is found mainly in industrialized societies, not in isolated societies.”
She said while previous research found that increasing potassium intake could help control blood pressure, the researchers developed a mathematical model that successfully identified how the ratio of potassium to sodium impacted the body.
“The model also identifies how sex differences affect the relationship between potassium and blood pressure.
“The study found that men develop high blood pressure more easily than pre-menopausal women, but men are also more likely to respond positively to an increased ratio of potassium to sodium.”
Read the full study: Modulation of blood pressure by dietary potassium and sodium: sex differences and modeling analysis.
