'Superfood' 'reverses' high blood pressure and can help 'wean off drugs' says expert

A top nutritional expert has dished out some appetising advice that could see bananas rival blood pressure medication in promoting heart health. Professor Tim Spector, sharing his insights on the Zoe podcast, emphasised the remarkable impact of potassium over merely slashing salt intake.

Feasting on more fruit and veg is a 'natural' solution according to the nutritional scientist. He said he has seen cases where people have managed to come off their blood pressure pills, all thanks to changing their diets - under medical supervision.

He highlighted how eating bananas and other potassium-rich fruits like kiwis can steer people away from blood pressure medication. Moreover, this dietary switch doesn't have to break the bank—a six-pack of bananas is available at Tesco for a mere 76p - or 13p each.

Spector, who's an authority in genetic epidemiology, pointed out: "Tests have shown that it's the sodium to potassium ratio that's much more important than just salt on its own. It looks like from these trials, where they've either observed potassium or salt intakes, the potassium intake is an even bigger intake than salt.

"Potassium is good for you - it's acting in the opposite direction. So if I want to reverse high blood pressure, I'm going to increase my potassium intake. And you do that classically by giving you some bananas, which have a reasonably high potassium intake, but also things like kiwi fruit, even more, and most green leaf vegetables also have high potassium intake."

"So people on vegetarian diets, high plant diets are naturally getting a lot of potassium, and this is another reason why your holistic diet is more important than just whether you are getting a lot of added salt."

Zoe CEO Jonathan Wolf then posed a query to Prof Spector: "People are going to ask what can I do instead of going to the doctor and asking for a pill? Is there anything people can do in terms of their lifestyle."

To which Prof Spector responded: "Absolutely yes lifestyle changes as we've discussed many times are important. So if you're too sedentary that's going to put your blood pressure up, so try to do some exercise.

"Sitting on your bum all the time. Modern lifestyle, working from home very bad for you. Get out there do some walking do some exercise. That's good for blood pressure.

"Sleeping well is also related to blood pressure so sort out your sleep as much as you can. A poor night's sleep or doing lots of shift work will actually raise your blood pressure."

Prof Spector mentioned that stress was also a contributing factor, suggesting meditation, yoga, and saunas could all help lower blood pressure.

He stressed: "The main thing everyone should focus on is what in their diet can they do to get their blood pressure down because every millimetre counts."

Regarding the diet culprits causing hypertension, Prof Spector emphasised that processed foods with high sodium levels are to blame.

He revealed: "We think that about 85 per cent of the salt you get in the average American or British diet comes from prepackaged, manufactured, highly processed food."

He noted that surprisingly, items such as canned soups, biscuits, muesli, and children's cereals harbour significant amounts of salt.

"The other big thing is realising that just by increasing your potassium level you will be improving your blood pressure. The best way to improve your potassium level is to eat more varied plants."

He singled out kiwi fruit as being particularly rich in potassium and remarked: "Fruit or vegetables in their natural form is a fantastic source of potassium.

"The more you do that the more you will improve your blood pressure naturally before you even go onto blood pressure medication."

For those already medicated, he advised increasing intake of potassium-rich fruits like bananas and kiwis, which could help control the condition and reduce the need for higher medicinal doses or additional drugs with more side effects.

"We should be seeing diet as another arm of medication not as a complete alternative. For this condition, the evidence is so clear that medication will save your life and will stop you getting a stroke and a heart attack, so I don't want anyone to think this is instead of, it's in addition to.

"It might mean you could get off your medications if you're someone who started them when they were on a really poor junk food diet, your doctor didn't tell you the reason you were getting all these terrible blood pressure inducing effects from the food, you change that, you've improved your life, you've improved your gut microbes you might be able to wean yourself off these drugs. That's possible, I've certainly heard stories of this from people who have written to me, so bear that in mind, but do that under medical supervision."