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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Using salt with more potassium might lower blood pressure the most in people who usually eat very little potassium but a lot of salt—like some adults living in rural China.