High Blood Pressure? Consider Sodium AND Potassium
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by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
High blood pressure (also called hypertension) affects close to a third of adults globally. Generally, it is defined as a blood pressure reading of 130/80 mm Hg or higher. High blood pressure makes it harder for the heart to pump blood. If high blood pressure is not treated, it increases the risk of having a heart attack or a stroke or of dying from heart disease.
Reducing sodium intake is a cornerstone of prevention and treatment of high blood pressure. While sodium is significant, another nutrient, potassium, also plays an important role. Potassium helps to balance the amount of salt in one’s body.
Increasing potassium intake along with reducing sodium intake is increasingly being seen as the best dietary strategy to promote for population-based recommendations to reduce the risk of high blood pressure (1, 2).
Vegans eating a mostly whole foods diet are likely to get abundant potassium from the dried beans, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds that make up the majority of their diet. Vegans in general tend to have somewhat higher intakes of potassium than nonvegetarians (3). Perhaps that’s why studies show that vegans have a lower risk of hypertension (4,5).
If you’d like to increase your potassium intake, try adding more cooked dried beans to your meals, especially if you’ve been eating a lot of processed plant meats which tend to be high is sodium. Eat fruits and vegetables for snacks. Consider trading in some commercial bread, which tends to be high sodium, for a filling whole grain or starchy vegetable. A cup of cooked quinoa has close to 300 milligrams of potassium while a cup of mashed sweet potatoes has 572 milligrams of potassium. You can control how much salt you add to the grain or starchy vegetable, thereby controlling sodium and increasing potassium.
To read more about potassium see:
The New Sodium and Potassium Recommendations and What They Mean for You
References:
- Sriperumbuduri S, Welling P, Ruzicka M, et al. Potassium and hypertension: A state-of-the-art review. Am J Hypertens. 2024;37:91-100.
- Fukagawa NK, Welling PA, Johnson J, et al. Rethinking the impact of dietary sodium and potassium on blood pressure to advance public health. Am J Clin Nutr. 2026;124:101396.
- Mangels R, Messina V, Messina M. The Dietitian’s Guide to Vegetarian Diets, 4th edition. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2023.
- Fraser GE. Vegetarian diets: what do we know of their effects on common chronic diseases?. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89:1607S-1612S.
- Appleby PN, Davey GK, Key TJ. Hypertension and blood pressure among meat eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians and vegans in EPIC-Oxford. Public Health Nutr. 2002;5:645-654.
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