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Back to Study: The contribution of sodium reduction and potassium...
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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.

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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The contribution of sodium reduction and potassium increase to the blood pressure lowering observed in the Salt Substitute and Stroke Study

Computational/Algorithm Study
2024 Apr

The study found that lowering blood pressure with salt substitutes was mostly due to adding more potassium, not just taking away sodium — which matches the claim that potassium helps more when people start with very little of it.

Contradicting (0)

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No contradicting evidence found

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Source Study

The contribution of sodium reduction and potassium increase to the blood pressure lowering observed in the Salt Substitute and Stroke Study

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DOI: 10.1038/s41371-024-00896-4

Similar Assertions

When people who don’t eat much potassium switch to salt with extra potassium, their blood pressure drops mostly because they’re getting more potassium—not because they’re eating less salt, since they’re still eating plenty of salt.

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If people eat less salt and more potassium-rich salt, the extra potassium might lower their blood pressure more than cutting back on salt alone — and most of that drop seems to come from the potassium.

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89%

When you eat less salt and more potassium-rich foods at the same time, your blood pressure drops more than if you just cut salt or just add potassium by itself.

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86%

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.

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86%

If you have high blood pressure, eating more potassium might lower it more than it does for someone with normal blood pressure.

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