It’s not your race that affects how your blood pressure reacts to eating less salt—it’s more about your income, education, and living conditions. When scientists account for those social factors, differences between racial groups mostly go away.

In the same study, people from different ethnic backgrounds didn’t respond differently to eating less salt when it came to blood pressure — so the differences we’ve seen before might be because studies were done differently, not because of biology.

Some groups of people, depending on their ancestry or where they’re from, have bodies that react differently to salt—some get a bigger spike in blood pressure when they eat salty food, and that’s because of differences in their genes.

If you compare Asians and White people who start with the same blood pressure and eat the same amount of salt, cutting back on salt lowers blood pressure about the same amount in both groups—even though Asians usually eat more salt and are older on average.

People who are older, Black or Asian, or already have high blood pressure see a bigger drop in their blood pressure when they cut salt than younger, white, or healthy people do.

Cutting back on salt can lower your blood pressure a little bit—about 3 to 5 points for the top number and 1 to 3 points for the bottom number—and this works the same way whether you're Asian, Black, or White, as long as you start with similar blood pressure and salt intake.