High Blood Pressure Diet

Primitive societies exposed to very little salt suffer from little or no hypertension. Salt (sodium chloride) intake has also been definitively linked to hypertension in western societies. Reducing salt intake in the diet lowers blood pressure in most people. The more salt is restricted, the greater the blood pressure-lowering effect. Individual studies sometimes come to differing conclusions about the relationship between salt intake and blood pressure, in part because blood pressure-lowering effects of salt restriction vary from person to person, and small to moderate reductions in salt intake often have minimal effects on blood pressure—particularly in young people and in those who do not have hypertension. Nonetheless, dramatic reductions in salt intake are generally effective for many people with hypertension.

With the prevalence of salted processed and restaurant food, simply avoiding the salt shaker no longer leads to large decreases in salt intake for most people. Totally eliminating salt is more effective, but is quite difficult to achieve. Moreover, while an overview of the research found “There is no evidence that sodium reduction presents any safety hazards,” reports of short-term paradoxical increases in blood pressure in response to salt restriction have occasionally appeared. Therefore, people wishing to use salt reduction to lower their blood pressure should consult with a doctor...