Potassium-Rich Diet Recommended for Heart Health in Women

The relationship between dietary salt intake and health remains a long-standing topic of debate. A recent ecological study has reignited this controversy by reporting that sodium intake was inversely associated with the risk of all-cause mortality and positively associated with healthy life expectancy in 181 countries around the world. In particular, previous studies investigating the association between sodium intake and mortality risk have produced conflicting results, showing positively linear J-shaped or inversely linear associations.

The low precision of sodium measurement is an important reason for the inconsistent results related to sodium intake and disease outcomes in previous studies. Sodium intake varies greatly from day to day. However, most previous studies have relied heavily on single-day urine collection or a dietary survey to estimate sodium intake, which is inadequate to assess an individual’s usual intake levels. .

Furthermore, it is difficult to separate contributions from intakes. of sodium and potassium for health based on current methods for measuring sodium and potassium in the diet since both dietary intake and sodium metabolism in the kidneys are closely related to potassium. In particular, these two essential cations have opposite biological effects on human health, so their collinearity may confound the association between sodium intake and health outcomes.

The hypothesis that high potassium intake may attenuate the adverse association of high sodium intake with health outcomes has been proposed for many years while studies particularly evaluating the interaction between sodium intake and potassium intake in the risk of mortality are low.

Adding salt to foods (usually at the table) is a common eating behavior directly related to an individual’s long-term preference for salty-tasting foods and habitual salt consumption. In fact, in the Western diet, adding salt at the table represents 6–20% of total salt intake.

While ~70% of sodium intake in Western populations comes from processed and prepared foods, another 8–20% comes from added salt at the table

Additionally, commonly used table salt contains 97–99% sodium chloride, which minimizes the potential confounding effects of other dietary factors, including potassium. Therefore, adding salt to foods provides a unique assessment to evaluate the association between habitual sodium intake and mortality. However, very few studies have investigated the association between the frequency of adding salt to foods and mortality.

In this study, we analyzed the association between the frequency of adding salt to foods and the hazard of premature mortality and life expectancy. 

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Women who eat bananas, avocados and salmon could reduce the negative effects of dietary salt, according to a study published in the European Heart Journal , a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 The study found that diets rich in in potassium were associated with lower blood pressure, particularly in women with high salt intake.

"It is well known that high salt consumption is associated with elevated blood pressure and an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes," said study author Professor Liffert Vogt, from the University Medical Centers of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Low. “Health advice has focused on limiting salt consumption, but this is difficult to achieve when our diets include processed foods. Potassium helps the body excrete more sodium in the urine. “In our study, dietary potassium was associated with the greatest health benefits in women.”

The study included 24,963 participants (11,267 men and 13,696 women) from the EPIC-Norfolk study, which recruited people aged 40 to 79 years from general practices in Norfolk, United Kingdom, between 1993 and 1997.

The average age was 59 years for men and 58 years for women. Participants completed a lifestyle questionnaire, blood pressure was measured, and a urine sample was collected. Urinary sodium and potassium were used to estimate dietary intake. Participants were divided into tertiles based on sodium intake (low/medium/high) and potassium intake (low/medium/high).

The researchers analyzed the association between potassium intake and blood pressure after adjusting for age, sex, and sodium intake. Potassium intake (in grams per day) was associated with blood pressure in women: as intake increased, blood pressure decreased.

When the association was analyzed according to sodium intake (low/medium/high), the relationship between potassium and blood pressure was only observed in women with high sodium intake, where each increase of 1 gram of potassium daily was associated with a 2.4 mm Hg lower systolic pressure. blood pressure. In men, there was no association between potassium and blood pressure.

During a median follow-up of 19.5 years , 13,596 (55%) participants were hospitalized or died due to cardiovascular disease. The researchers looked at the association between potassium intake and cardiovascular events after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, sodium intake, use of lipid-lowering medications, smoking, alcohol intake, diabetes, and heart attack. previous stroke.

In the overall cohort, people in the highest tertile of potassium intake had a 13% lower risk of cardiovascular events compared to those in the lowest tertile. When men and women were analyzed separately, the corresponding risk reductions were 7% and 11%, respectively. The amount of salt in the diet did not influence the relationship between potassium and cardiovascular events in men or women.

Professor Vogt said: “The results suggest that potassium helps preserve heart health, but that women benefit more than men. "The relationship between potassium and cardiovascular events was the same regardless of salt intake, suggesting that potassium has other ways of protecting the heart besides increasing sodium excretion."

The World Health Organization recommends that adults consume at least 3.5 grams of potassium and less than 2 grams of sodium (5 grams of salt) per day.2 Foods rich in potassium include vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, dairy products and fish. For example, a 115-gram banana has 375 mg of potassium, 154 grams of cooked salmon has 780 mg, a 136-gram potato has 500 mg, and 1 cup of milk has 375 mg.

Professor Vogt concluded: “Our findings indicate that a heart-healthy diet goes beyond limiting salt to increasing potassium content . Food companies can help by switching from standard sodium-based salt to a potassium salt alternative in processed foods. On top of that, we should all prioritize fresh, unprocessed foods, as they are high in potassium and low in salt.”