If you have high blood pressure, the nutrition advice you hear most often is “eat less salt.” That’s not wrong, but sodium is only half the equation: getting more potassium may actually be more important.

Potassium and sodium work against each other inside your kidneys. More potassium means more sodium (and water) excreted in urine, which lowers blood volume and blood pressure. The two minerals operate like a seesaw. The ratio between them matters as much as the absolute amount of either one.

Most Americans eat roughly 3,400 mg of sodium per day and only about 2,600 mg of potassium — the inverse of what their cardiovascular system would prefer.

How much does potassium actually lower blood pressure?

The DASH diet, the most well-studied dietary pattern for blood pressure, gets much of its effect from potassium. The original DASH trial (Appel et al., NEJM 1997) reduced systolic blood pressure by 11.4 mmHg in hypertensive adults compared to a typical American diet. The DASH diet targets 4,700 mg/day of potassium — more than 80% above average American intake.

A meta-analysis in the BMJ (Aburto et al., 2013) pooled 22 randomized controlled trials and found that increasing potassium intake to 3,500–4,700 mg/day reduces systolic blood pressure by 3.5 mmHg in normal adults and by 5.3 mmHg in people with hypertension. Stroke risk dropped by 24%. That’s roughly half the effect of a first-line antihypertensive medication achieved through food alone.

The sodium-to-potassium ratio is the strongest blood pressure factor

Individual sodium or potassium targets matter less than their ratio. A large study in BMJ Open (Perez & Chang, 2014) found the sodium-to-potassium ratio was a stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease and mortality than sodium or potassium alone.

The target: a sodium-to-potassium ratio below 1.0 (ideally closer to 0.6). Most Americans sit at roughly 1.3 — meaning they eat more sodium than potassium by weight.

Getting there doesn’t require cutting sodium to near-zero. It requires adding potassium-rich foods while reducing the most sodium-heavy ones (processed foods, deli meats, canned soups). For many people, the potassium side of the equation is the easier lever.

How to actually get more potassium

The foods high in potassium don’t neceessarily obey a simple rule. They’re a variety of colors and come in many categories (vegetables, legumes, fruits, meats.) Here’s a basic rundown.

Potassium-rich vegetables

Vegetables are the highest-density potassium sources per calorie. Leafy greens and root vegetables dominate.

Food	Serving	Potassium (mg)
Beet greens (cooked)	1 cup	~1,300 mg
Swiss chard (cooked)	1 cup	~960 mg
Spinach (cooked)	1 cup	~840 mg
Edamame	1 cup	~676 mg
Acorn squash (baked)	1 cup	~644 mg
Sweet potato (baked, with skin)	1 medium	~540 mg
Artichoke (cooked)	1 medium	~474 mg
Broccoli (cooked)	1 cup	~457 mg
Brussels sprouts (cooked)	1 cup	~494 mg
Kale (cooked)	1 cup	~296 mg

Beet greens are the outlier here — a single cup delivers more potassium than almost any other food. They’re often thrown away when people cook beets. Don’t.

Potassium-rich legumes

Legumes are the workhorses of a blood pressure diet: high in potassium, high in fiber, low in sodium, and cheap.

Food	Serving	Potassium (mg)
White beans (cooked)	½ cup	~500 mg
Lentils (cooked)	½ cup	~365 mg
Kidney beans (cooked)	½ cup	~358 mg
Black beans (cooked)	½ cup	~305 mg
Chickpeas (cooked)	½ cup	~239 mg

Half a cup of white beans with dinner adds more potassium than a banana — with essentially no sodium (if you cook from dried, or rinse canned beans well).

Potassium-rich fruits

Food	Serving	Potassium (mg)
Avocado	1 whole	~975 mg
Prunes/dried plums	½ cup	~637 mg
Pomegranate juice	1 cup	~533 mg
Orange juice (fresh)	1 cup	~496 mg
Banana	1 medium	~422 mg
Cantaloupe	1 cup	~427 mg
Kiwi	2 medium	~468 mg
Apricots (dried)	¼ cup	~378 mg

Avocado is the most potassium-dense fruit. Even higher than a banana: an avocado has twice as much potassium as a panana.

Potassium-rich proteins

Food	Serving	Potassium (mg)
Salmon (wild, cooked)	3 oz	~534 mg
Halibut (cooked)	3 oz	~490 mg
Tuna (fresh, cooked)	3 oz	~484 mg
Pork tenderloin (cooked)	3 oz	~382 mg
Chicken breast (cooked)	3 oz	~332 mg
Yogurt (plain, low-fat)	1 cup	~573 mg

Fish is a double benefit: potassium plus omega-3s, which address blood pressure through an independent mechanism (reducing vascular inflammation and arterial stiffness).

Avoid foods high in sodium

Potassium-rich foods don’t cancel out a high-sodium diet; but they work better when sodium is also reduced. The two biggest sodium offenders are Processed and packaged foods (a single serving of canned soup can have 800–1,200 mg of sodium). Deli meats and cured products (three slices of deli turkey averages 500–700 mg of sodium).

If cutting sodium directly feels difficult, adding potassium first changes the ratio. Many people find it easier to add foods than to restrict them — and the cardiovascular math works either way.

A warning on potassium supplements

Potassium supplements exist, but they’re not the same thing as dietary potassium. The FDA limits over-the-counter potassium chloride supplements to 99 mg per tablet, a tiny fraction of the daily target, due to risk of gastrointestinal injury and hyperkalemia in people with kidney disease.

Eat the food.

Summary on potassium, blood pressure, and heart health

Blood pressure is one of the most modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, and diet is one of the strongest levers within it. Knowing which specific foods to prioritize (not just “eat less salt”) is where most people get stuck.