Nearly half of American adults live with high blood pressure, and for decades the standard advice has been to cut back on salt. A new review published in 2026 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition argues that the guidance has been missing its other half. Boosting potassium, the authors say, deserves equal weight in how we manage hypertension.
The practical payoff sits on the plate. Potassium-rich foods include potatoes, spinach, beans, avocado, bananas and yogurt, and eating more of them may help the body handle sodium and relax blood vessels. The message from the review is additive, not a swap. Keep bringing salt down, but bring potassium up alongside it.
What the new review actually says
The paper was led by Naomi Fukagawa, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine Emerita at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. In a statement accompanying the review, Fukagawa said, "Growing evidence shows that increasing dietary potassium as well as reducing sodium intake work together to better manage hypertension."
Sodium reduction remains a foundational strategy, but the authors argue it has proved hard to move the needle on population intake alone. Potassium consumption, meanwhile, is far below optimal levels in both developed and developing countries. Around the world, high blood pressure affects more than 1.28 billion adults.
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The numbers behind the potassium case
The clinical support comes largely from a dose-response meta-analysis of ten randomized trials published in June 2025 in Clinical Kidney Journal. The pooled data covered 684 participants and separated people with hypertension from those without.
Among people with hypertension, an increase of about 2,000 mg of potassium a day, measured through urinary excretion, was linked to a 5.3 mmHg drop in systolic blood pressure and a 3.62 mmHg drop in diastolic pressure. In people with normal blood pressure, the same increase barely moved the numbers. The effect, in other words, is concentrated where it matters most.
A 5 mmHg shift may sound modest, but at the population level it is not. Reductions on that order across a whole population are linked to meaningful drops in strokes and coronary events over time.
Where to actually get potassium
The National Institutes of Health sets the daily adequate intake at 3,400 mg for men and 2,600 mg for women. Most Americans fall short. According to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, reliable food sources include potatoes, beans and lentils, spinach and broccoli, avocado, bananas, oranges, yogurt and salmon.
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The Fukagawa review points to the same food groups, fruits, vegetables, legumes and dairy, as the practical route to raising intake. That aligns with the DASH eating pattern, which pairs lower sodium with higher potassium and has been shown to lower blood pressure in people with hypertension.
A caveat before you load up on bananas
More potassium is not the right move for everyone. People with reduced kidney function, or those taking certain blood pressure medications such as ACE inhibitors and potassium-sparing diuretics, can develop dangerously high blood potassium if intake climbs too fast. Anyone on prescription medication or with a kidney condition should talk to their doctor before making a deliberate push to eat more potassium-rich foods.
For most healthy adults, the shift is simpler. Add a baked potato with the skin, a handful of spinach, a serving of beans or a cup of yogurt to more meals, and the numbers on the label matter less than the pattern on the plate. As Fukagawa put it, "It is time to view dietary interventions holistically because food components interact and physiology is integrative across systems."
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.