Why Cutting Salt Isn't Lowering Your Blood Pressure (Dietitian Explains)

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]If you've got high blood pressure, you've probably been told to cut the salt. But, for a lot of people, cutting salt at the table is not moving the needle. Why? Well, because most of the salt advice online is outdated since 2017.

[00:00:16]I'm a registered dietitian who has helped hundreds of people lower their blood pressure. And in this video, I'm going to show you what the salt advice gets wrong. And I'm going to give you one simple swap that takes 2 seconds that can bring down your blood sugar significantly.

[00:00:39]Now, I want to be clear that I'm not saying that salt doesn't matter. It does. All the most up-to-date medical guidelines reflect this. But, what has changed is that the science has finally caught up to something that I see with my own clients all of the time. Because it's not just too much salt that's the problem. It's also not enough of something else. [music] And these two work as a pair. And when people obsessively cut salt without addressing the other half of the equation, their blood pressure barely moves. So, let me walk you through it. So, firstly, we need to bust the biggest myth of them all. When most people hear that you need to cut out salt, the first thing that they picture is that salt shaker on the dining table. But, that is not where most of your salt is coming from. About 70% of the sodium in the average diet comes from packaged, processed, and restaurant food. Bread, deli meat, canned soups, sauces, ready meals, and takeouts. Even things that you would not expect, like cottage cheese, breakfast cereals, and salad dressings. The salt that you're sprinkling on your own food at home, that is the smallest piece of the pie.

[00:01:55]And this is exactly why so many people that obsessively cut out salt, they're not seasoning their food, they're not having it at the table, they don't see results. It's because they're cutting from the wrong source. So, the single most effective eat less salt move is actually really simple. Eat more meals that you cook yourself at home. That's it. You can still season your food and come out miles ahead because the sodium that is in these restaurant and these packaged foods is in a complete other league in itself. But now, I want to talk about the parts that almost nobody is talking about.

[00:02:31]>> [music] >> Mainly because most people who talk about salt on the internet do not know what they're talking about. Queue all the wellness influencers promoting electrolyte supplements. The other half of the blood pressure equation is potassium. The recommended daily intake of potassium is 3,500 to 5,000 mg a day.

[00:02:51]Want to know what the average adult gets? Women average around 2,300 mg. Men do slightly better at around 2,900. Both numbers are well below the recommendation. Most people are roughly getting half of what they need. So, what does potassium actually do?

[00:03:09]Three things. [music] First, it helps your blood vessels relax. It supports healthy nerve and muscle function. And this is the big one, it counterbalances the effect of sodium in your body. The two minerals work as a pair. If your sodium is high and your potassium is low, you're getting the worst of both.

[00:03:27]If you can bring up your potassium, you can actually buffer some of the sodium effect. This is why the most up-to-date clinical guidelines push this so hard.

[00:03:36]The 2025 American guidelines says that hitting 3,500 to 5,000 mg can lower your systolic blood pressure by around six points. That is a serious drop, comparable to what you might get from a low dose of a blood pressure medication.

[00:03:51]And the good news is potassium is in a lot of very normal, affordable foods. A lot of people think of bananas when they first hear of potassium, and that's a good source. But, here's where I would start. Potatoes and sweet potatoes.

[00:04:05]These are loaded with potassium and are also actually a very good weight loss friendly food. People seem to think potatoes are unhealthy, but they're not unless you're having them like as potato chips. I'm talking about the real thing.

[00:04:16]A baked potato, make some air fryer oven chips with them. But, these are an excellent versatile food with lots of potassium. Then, beans and lentils, like your kidney beans, your chickpeas, black beans, lentils. Half a cup of these most days will make a really big difference.

[00:04:31]Add them into stews, stir-fries, salads.

[00:04:34]Get creative. Then, your leafy green veg that we all know is good for us, but we do all want to be eating more of it for a plethora of reasons. [clears throat] You have your spinach, your broccoli.

[00:04:43]But, honestly, all vegetables are good.

[00:04:46]Then, your fruit like your bananas, oranges, kiwi, and melon are great sources. Beyond this, foods like salmon and tuna, very heart healthy. Yogurt and milk, also great for your bones. And dried apricots and dried prunes are also great sources of potassium. And believe it or not, even coffee and tea can give you a little bit of a mix. So, your morning brew might be helping you in ways you don't even realize. The one you don't need to do is obsess about numbers of potassium. The practical approach that I take with my clients is to try to get in two portions of fruit, four to five servings of vegetables, and a serving of beans and lentils or potatoes almost every day. Do that and you're going to move from the lower 2,300 mg to the target coming up to 4,000 mg a day, which really is a massive shift. And lastly, the second swap that the new guidelines are unanimously recommending and almost nobody talks about is potassium enriched salt substitutes.

[00:05:39]Sounds fancy, but it's not. These are products where some of the regular salt has been replaced with potassium chloride. Brands like low salt and new salt, for example. They taste very similar to regular salt and they do two things [music] at once. They cut your sodium and they boost up your potassium.

[00:05:56]Win-win. But this is a really big deal and almost nobody knows about it. And there was a story that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2021 and they took 21,000 adults at high cardiovascular risk and they randomly assigned them into two groups. One group just continued on with their regular salt and the other group used this potassium enriched salt substitute. And after about 5 years, the group that had the potassium enriched salt substitute, they had fewer strokes, fewer cardiovascular events, and fewer deaths.

[00:06:26]That is not a small finding and that is why the European guidelines now give salt substitutes their highest level of recommendation. And the new American guidelines include them, too. But, and this is important, they are not for everyone. So, I do want you to skip them if you have kidney disease or renal disease. If you're on certain blood pressure medications like ACE inhibitors, ARBs, potassium sparing diuretics, or aldosterone antagonists.

[00:06:50]And if you take any prescription medication that affects potassium. And I would advise that if you're on any regular medication that you do check with your GP first. Just a 30-second check-in. Because as a former ICU dietitian, the balance of potassium and sodium in your body is more important than you would think. But for most healthy adults, it's one of the easiest, cheapest, most evidence-based swaps that you can make for your blood pressure.

[00:07:14]So, from this video, if you only take three things away, this is what I want you to do. Number one, cook more meals at home than you currently do. You don't have to cook everything from scratch, but start somewhere. Number two, add in some of those potassium rich foods, even if it's just a one meal a day that you have extra veggies. Or you have potatoes with your dinner instead of rice. And number three, if it is safe for you, try a salt substitute. I'll leave links to some of the common ones in the description box down below. If you do these three things consistently, I promise that you will see a finally see a drop in your blood pressure. But, what I will say is that salt and potassium, they are not the only things that we need to consider when it comes to diet and lifestyle and blood pressure. There are some seriously underrated things that can also move the needle, too, including some supplements and some habits. And I'm going to talk about these in next week's video because this is actually part one of a three-part blood pressure series because blood pressure is so important and it's not talked about enough and I want to change that, especially if you're a woman, which we will get to in video three.

[00:08:14]Now, if this video helped you, please do give it a like. It really helps support me and it helps other people find this content, too. I think there's a hype button over as well. If you want to press that, I'd be very, very appreciative. But, as always, thank you very much for watching. Comment below if you have any questions. Stay happy and stay healthy, and I'll see you again next week. Thanks for watching.