
In 1997, there was a meta-analysis (a “study of studies”) that looked at 33 clinical trials for potassium intake and supplements. What Studies Say about Bananas and Blood Pressure More sodium means you need more potassium, so lowering your sodium intake can go a long way to keeping you from needing a banana bunch every day. It also matters how much extra sodium you have in your diet. Due to this, it is very important not to use potassium supplements unless advised by a doctor and rely mainly on dietary sources. It’s also important not to go overboard-the body likes it when things are in balance and if you let potassium get too out of hand you’ll start to suffer toxicity effects. Heart conditions, high stress, swollen arteries, or other health problems that affect blood pressure won’t necessarily be counteracted by boosting the kidney’s filtering ability. It is worth keeping in mind, however, that this only applies if your high blood pressure is related to diet and excess sodium. Consuming around twice as much potassium as sodium should tilt the balance of your kidneys towards lowering blood pressure. Since potassium’s effectiveness depends on your sodium levels (and vice versa), you would only see a blood pressure decrease if your potassium levels are the larger of the two. Strictly speaking, there is no special banana number to aim for. How Many Bananas Should You Eat to Lower Blood Pressure? This makes a banana an excellent source of the nutrient and capable of giving your diet the boost it needs to get your potassium levels back into balance with your sodium. A single banana has around 422 mg of potassium, roughly 10% of the daily recommended value of 4,700 mg for the average adult. Where the bananas come in is with their impressive potassium content. As a result, fluid can’t be disposed of in as timely a manner as it should, and your blood pressure suffers. However, modern American diets make it very easy to get too much sodium and/or too little potassium, heavily skewing this dynamic. When in balance, these two substances maintain a proper equilibrium and don’t negatively impact your health. Potassium helps draw fluid into the kidneys, while sodium helps keep it in the body. The kidneys, like many other parts of the body, carry out their function thanks to a careful balance of chemicals-in this case, sodium and potassium. Too much fluid raises blood pressure, while too little reduces it. The body’s blood pressure, in turn, is affected by this process. Your kidneys help balance the level of fluids in your body and will filter out any excess into the bladder, where it gets expelled as urine. Is there a link between bananas and blood pressure? To understand how that might work, we need to begin with the kidneys.

In this case, however, the truth is exactly what it sounds like: bananas are capable of helping lower your blood pressure, but it isn’t as simple as chowing down and letting the fruit get to work.

You may have heard that bananas are a great food for lowering blood pressure, but might be skeptical due to how often such claims are bandied about regarding the latest “superfood” fad. Nutrition, of course, also plays a key role, as exemplified by the humble banana.

Lifestyle remedies, stress management techniques, medications, and more are all employed to try to keep blood pressure in check. Managing blood pressure can be a difficult task and many people often look for ways to make the process easier and less taxing.
