Eating the right balance of foods with dietary salt, which is also known as sodium chloride, and foods with potassium is important because these foods affect the amount of potassium and sodium in your blood. "Potassium works with sodium to maintain the body's water balance," according to Colorado State University's "Potassium and Health" report. Your risk of hypertension is higher if you eat a lot of salty foods and not enough high-potassium foods.
Explanation
Salt and sodium are "often used interchangeably," but they are not the same, according to "The New Pritikin Program." Approximately 40 percent of salt is sodium. Sodium, chloride and potassium are all minerals that are crucial to the electric activity of your body's cells, particularly your heart and nerve cells. All three minerals also regulate the amount of water in your blood and body tissues, according to "An Invitation to Health."
Significance
Salt is important, but excessive salt can be dangerous. Cultures where salt consumption is low have "without exception" very low rates of hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, and diseases that are often caused by high blood pressure, including heart disease, kidney disease and stroke, wrote "Pritikin Program" author Robert Pritikin, a well-known nutritionist. Excessive salt increases the level of sodium in your blood, but it can be counteracted by high potassium intake because the mineral promotes the excretion of sodium, Pritkin wrote.
Comparisons
People who live in Western nations eat three times as much salt as potassium, but non-Western people eat seven times as much potassium as salt, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. Changing your potassium intake by itself can be effective. Vegetarians in the U.S. have "markedly lower blood pressures" than non-vegetarians although they eat "similar amounts" of sodium because vegetarians eat almost twice as much potassium, wrote Pritkin, who estimated that Americans eat about 5,000 mg of sodium daily.
Recommendations
U.S. Department of Agriculture food labels list the amount of sodium in foods, not salt. The labels recommend eating fewer than 2,400 mg of sodium daily. Many nutritionists recommend fewer. Pritikin recommends a maximum of 1,600 mg. The Linus Pauling Institute recommends that everyone above the age of 14 eat 4,700 mg of potassium daily, while infants, 1- to 3-year-olds, 4- to 8-year-olds and 9- to 13-year-olds should eat 700, 3,000, 3,800 and 4,500 mg of potassium daily, respectively.
Sources
Table salt is not the only source of salt and sodium. Many bottled, boxed, canned and frozen foods, including meats, cheeses and breads, are high in salt and sodium. Potassium is in "all" fruits and vegetables, according to Pritikin. Fruits and vegetables with the most potassium include apples, apricots, bananas, cantaloupe, honeydew, mushrooms and oranges, writes Pritikin. "An Invitation to Health" reports that avocados, lima beans, potatoes, squash and tomatoes are also high in potassium.
References
- Colorado State University: Potassium and Health
- "The New Pritikin Program"; Robert Pritikin; 2007
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2003
- Linus Pauling Institute: Potassium
- "Essentials for Health and Wellness"; Gordon Edlin, Eric Golanty and Kelli McCormack Brown
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