The recent study, published in the American Journal of Hypertension, involved data from more than 8,000 French men and women and found that BMI, age, and dietary factors like alcohol intake were more closely related to increases in blood pressure than sodium intake. In fact, researchers even concluded that salt is “statistically insignificant” in relation to blood pressure when it comes to people without hypertension. Time to welcome your bird-shaped salt shaker back to the table? Not so fast. “Sure, there’s mixed evidence on both sides of the salt debate, but there are some principles we’re pretty certain about,” says Steven Nissen, MD, chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who was unaffiliated with the French study. “One is that if you have hypertension or pre-hypertension, the more salt you eat, the higher your blood pressure goes. So for those people, restricting sodium still makes perfect sense.” MORE: The 50 Healthiest Foods For Women What about those without pressure problems? “I don’t think sodium is quite the evil that we once thought it was,” says Nissen. Good news, especially since studies that have measured sodium content in a person’s urine—a more accurate measure of sodium intake than dietary history—generally don’t link increased salt intake to adverse outcomes in healthy people. “But we still can’t say with certainty that unrestricted sodium is safe for these people,” he says. One thing the French study does make clear is that there are a number of ways to keep blood pressure in check. “Salt isn’t the only enemy,” Nissen says. “Obesity is the most common cause of hypertension in the U. S., so having a BMI over 25 is a problem. And alcohol contributes, too.” His advice: Don’t aim for a certain number of milligrams of sodium per day—that’s impossible to track accurately. Instead, exercise regularly and follow a diet similar to the DASH diet, which emphasizes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and fish, and limits packaged, processed foods that tend to be high in salt. These 13 ways to lower blood pressure naturally are a good place to start.
