If you eat a little more potassium-rich food each day—like bananas or spinach—you might lower your risk of stroke and reduce your blood pressure a bit, even if you don’t change how much salt you eat.

Eating more potassium-rich foods like bananas and spinach can help lower your blood pressure and make it less likely you'll have a stroke or heart problem—especially if you're eating a lot of salty foods.

Eating the right amount of potassium—between 90 and 120 millimoles a day—seems to lower your blood pressure the most and cut your risk of stroke the most; eating more than that doesn’t help any further.

If adults with high blood pressure eat more potassium-rich foods—like bananas or spinach—by about 50 mmol per day, their blood pressure numbers go down a bit, which might help lower their risk of heart problems.

If you eat more potassium every day—like from bananas or potatoes—your blood pressure might drop just a tiny bit, but not enough to matter for your health if you don’t already have high blood pressure.

If you eat more potassium-rich foods and less salty food, your blood pressure might drop by about 3.3 mmHg—and most of that drop probably comes from eating more potassium, not less salt.