(CNN) – According to a recent study, eliminating a teaspoon of salt from your daily diet can lower blood pressure as much as traditional high blood pressure medications, even if you don’t have high blood pressure.
One teaspoon of salt is equivalent to 2,300 milligrams, the maximum daily intake recommended in the latest U.S. Dietary Guidelines for people over 14 years old. However, the American Heart Association recommends a diet with less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.
“This is the first study to show that people already taking blood pressure medication can lower their blood pressure even further by restricting sodium intake,” said Norrina Allen, co-principal investigator and professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine University.
“And regardless of medication, we found that 70 to 75 percent of people are likely to see a reduction in their blood pressure when they reduce sodium in their diet,” Allen said.
High blood pressure is often called the “silent killer” because it causes no symptoms and the only way to find out if you have it is to get tested. However, according to a 2023 World Health Organization report, high blood pressure affects one in three adults worldwide and can lead to heart attack, heart failure, kidney damage and stroke.
According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of Americans suffer from high blood pressure. About a third of them suffer from “resistant” hypertension, i.e. high blood pressure that does not respond despite taking three types of medication at the same time. According to a 2021 study, men ages 20 to 49 are up to 70% more likely to suffer from uncontrolled high blood pressure than women of the same age.
“Most people eat too much salt these days because it is added to almost everything we eat,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver.
“A teaspoon of salt may seem like a small amount. However, the added salt appears to have a surprisingly large impact on blood pressure,” said Freeman, who was not involved in the study.
Middle-aged and older adults
The study, published Saturday in the journal JAMA, assigned 213 people between the ages of 50 and 75 to a high-sodium or low-sodium diet for one week. After following this diet for seven days, each person switched to the other diet.
About 25% of participants had normal blood pressure, while another 25% had untreated hypertension. Of the remaining group, 20% had controlled blood pressure, while 31% did not.
During the high-salt week, people ate their regular diet, along with two packets of broth, each containing 1,100 milligrams of sodium. During the low-salt week, people ate low-sodium foods purchased and provided by dietitians. The goal was to only consume 500 milligrams of salt per day, which corresponds to a drastic reduction.
According to the study, the drop in blood pressure during the low-sodium diet was rapid and significant. Compared to the high-sodium diet, blood pressure fell by 8 millimeters of mercury on the extremely low-salt diet.
“Compared to their normal diet, people lowered their blood pressure by about 6 millimeters of mercury, about the same effect as a blood pressure medication,” Allen said.
“Furthermore, this decline occurred fairly quickly and was consistent in people with normal blood pressure, mildly elevated blood pressure, or those already taking medication.”
Reducing that amount of salt hasn’t had any significant side effects, Allen said, unless you count adapting to a gentler diet.
“If you go from a high-salt diet to a low-salt diet, everything tastes bland,” he said. “I would encourage people to stick with it because your taste buds will adjust in a few weeks or so and you’ll really get the flavor and aroma back, and normal things will taste very salty.”
“The taste buds take a little longer to adapt, but the improvements in blood pressure occur quite quickly,” he added.
However, blood pressure medications can cause many side effects such as cough, constipation or diarrhea, dizziness, lack of energy, headaches, muscle pain, nausea, nervousness, fatigue, weight gain or loss, and erection problems. According to the National Library of Medicine, these effects usually wear off over time.
Overcoming fear of salt
Leaving the salt shaker aside is a good start, “but most people don’t get their salt from there,” Freeman explains.
“It’s in foods that you wouldn’t expect to contain a lot of salt: a few slices of bread can contain 400 or 500 milligrams of salt, a cucumber can contain a whole day’s worth of salt, and a bowl of soup can contain salt for several days.
But careful shopping can get the job done, Allen said. Dietitians purchased the foods offered in the study on low-sodium diets after reading labels at local grocery stores, Allen said.
CNN examined the low-salt menu and found that most breakfasts included store-bought oatmeal, Greek yogurt and grapes, while lunches included grilled chicken, salads dressed with oil and vinegar, and low-salt versions of lentil soup, bread, peanut butter and tortilla chips. Dinner included brown rice and ready-to-eat vegetables, burritos and lasagna.
“It was the low-salt versions of vegetable lasagna,” Allen said. “It was apples and bananas and things that anyone could get at the supermarket. They weren’t specially prepared by a chef.”
The award-winning DASH diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is an expert-approved method for reducing salt intake. The premise of DASH is simple: eat more vegetables, fruits, and low-fat dairy products; Limit foods high in saturated fat and limit sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams per day, just as in this study.
The DASH meal plan includes four to six servings of vegetables and four to six servings of fruit, three servings of whole grains, two to four servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy products, and several servings of lean meat and fruit daily. dried, seeds and legumes.
Regardless of the diet plan you choose, it’s best for those looking to reduce salt content to prepare their own foods at home, where they can read labels and calculate sodium content, says Freeman.
Eating out at a restaurant can be problematic, even if it’s healthy.
“Take a plate of vegetables at a restaurant: Those green beans might have been prepared with salted butter and crispy salted onions or whatever on top. “Soon you’ve consumed a huge load of salt that you weren’t expecting,” Freeman explains. “The best way to eat is to make it as unprocessed as possible.”