Eating less salt and more potassium together lowers blood pressure better than just cutting salt or just adding potassium alone—and that’s why the DASH diet works so well.

If you have high blood pressure and eat a lot of salt, switching to the DASH diet can lower your blood pressure by up to 10.6 points—but if you’re already eating very little salt, the diet might not help as much. So, it works best when you’re still eating salty foods.

Eating less salt and following the DASH diet together lowers blood pressure more than doing just one of them alone—and the biggest drop happens in people whose blood pressure is already really high (150 or above).

If you have slightly high blood pressure, eating less salt and following the DASH diet lowers both the top and bottom numbers of your blood pressure in about the same way — so both parts get better together.

If you have high blood pressure and eat a diet low in salt plus lots of fruits, veggies, and low-fat dairy, your blood pressure can drop by about 21 points — as much as taking one blood pressure pill.

If you eat less salt but add more potassium to it, your blood pressure might drop more if you usually don’t get much potassium in your diet—because your body gets a bigger boost from the potassium than it loses from the sodium.