Salt and Banana Balance for Heart Health
Joint effects of sodium and potassium intake on subsequent cardiovascular disease: the Trials of Hypertension Prevention follow-up study.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Sodium alone wasn’t significantly linked to heart disease risk, but the sodium-to-potassium ratio was.
Public health campaigns have long focused on reducing salt, but this study shows the balance between sodium and potassium matters more than sodium by itself.
Practical Takeaways
Balance your salt with potassium-rich foods like bananas, sweet potatoes, spinach, avocados, and beans.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Sodium alone wasn’t significantly linked to heart disease risk, but the sodium-to-potassium ratio was.
Public health campaigns have long focused on reducing salt, but this study shows the balance between sodium and potassium matters more than sodium by itself.
Practical Takeaways
Balance your salt with potassium-rich foods like bananas, sweet potatoes, spinach, avocados, and beans.
Publication
Journal
Archives of internal medicine
Year
2009
Authors
N. Cook, E. Obarzanek, J. Cutler, J. Buring, K. Rexrode, S. Kumanyika, L. Appel, P. Whelton
Related Content
Claims (6)
If you're a middle-aged adult with slightly high blood pressure, peeing out more potassium might mean you have a lower chance of heart disease — one study found a 36% lower risk for those with the highest levels, but the result wasn't strong enough to be sure it wasn't just by chance.
When scientists look at both salt and potassium levels in pee, they see that more salt might raise heart disease risk, while more potassium might lower it — and checking both together gives a clearer picture.
If you're a middle-aged adult with slightly high blood pressure, having more sodium than potassium in your body may raise your chances of heart disease by 24% for every unit increase in the balance — and this combo predicts heart problems better than either mineral alone.
For people with slightly high blood pressure between 30 and 54 years old, how much salt they eat — measured by what shows up in their urine — doesn’t seem to clearly raise their risk of heart disease when looked at on its own.
Your body’s ratio of sodium to potassium in urine might be a better clue for heart disease risk than looking at either one alone — and the numbers suggest this ratio really does track with higher risk.