Get health information and advice from the experts at Harvard Medical School. What else can we do about stroke risk? We should eat more beans, sweet potatoes, and leafy greens, the latter of which is like giving you a double whammy, as they are high in potassium and nitrates. PS: If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my free videos here and watch my live presentations: Michael Greger, M.D. Potassium-rich foods may also act via a similar mechanism. The Sodium/Potassium ratio (henceforth known as the Na/K ratio) is the absolute most important ratio on the HTMA. You only need to activate your account once. FACLM, is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognized professional speaker on a number of important public health issues. That's a sodium-to-potassium ratio of 1 to 16. Today, we get more sodium (3,400 mg) than potassium (2,500 mg), for a ratio of 1.36 to 1. As you can see at 2:30 in my video, after two bacon slices’ worth of sodium, our arteries take a significant hit within 30 minutes. These kinds of studies “provide additional evidence that increases in dietary potassium should be encouraged,” but what does that mean? Can a smart watch diagnose a heart attack? A good range is between about 2.4 and up to about 4 or even 5 in a human being. Image Credit: Edi Libedinsky / Unsplash. Why? Can adopting a healthier diet help fight prostate cancer? © 2010 - 2020 Harvard University. Notice how all of the following foods in their natural form are low-sodium foods because they contain less than 140 mg of sodium per serving. The recommendation from a thousand years ago to eat spinach is pretty impressive, though bloodletting and abstaining from sex were also encouraged, so we should probably take ancient wisdom with a grain of salt—but our meals should be added-salt free. Flashback Friday: How to Prevent a Stroke. Now, the ratio is reversed, as we consume more sodium than potassium. Here’s everything you need to know. Both articles and products will be searched. Why might abstaining from sex not be the best idea for cardiovascular health? If we get even just the minimum recommended daily intake of potassium, we might prevent 150,000 strokes every year. They also have more potassium to sodium (or a higher K-to-Na ratio). Catch up with Dr. Greger at one of his live speaking engagements: Given the level of reported community transmission and the prospects of flattening the pandemic curve by preventing unnecessary public gatherings, I’m postponing my speaking tour until we have a better handle on the prevalence and spread after sufficient testing is completed. Can acupuncture help my menopause symptoms? As you can see at 2:30 in my video, after two bacon slices’ worth of sodium, our arteries take a significant hit within 30 minutes. By activating your account, you will create a login and password. Our Paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors took in about 11,000 milligrams (mg) of potassium a day from fruits, vegetables, leaves, flowers, roots, and other plant sources, and well under 700 mg of sodium. Try a medium- to high-intensity workout like a brisk 30-minute walk, an aerobics class, or a game of tennis. All green leafy vegetables are packed with nitrate, which our body can use to create nitric oxide that improves the flexibility and function of our arteries. Some people over age 60 have few, if any, symptoms of an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism), while others experience the same symptoms younger people do. Slowing Our Metabolism with Nitrate-Rich Vegetables, Best Brain Foods: Berries & Nuts Put to the Test, How Not To Die: The Role of Diet in Preventing, Arresting, and Reversing Our Top 15 Killers, Food as Medicine: Preventing and Treating the Most Dreaded Diseases with Diet, From Table to Able: Combating Disabling Diseases with Food. Interested in learning more about the dangers of sodium? Potassium to Sodium Ratio Food Chart. Four points might not sound like a lot, but even a 2-point drop in blood pressure could prevent more than 10,000 fatal strokes every year in the United States. The best sodium potassium ratio for good health as suggested by major health institutions tend to fall at or below the number 1. Just a few changes in your diet can make a big difference in the balance of sodium and potassium in your body, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.