People with high blood pressure (hypertension) should eat more potassium-rich food such as bananas, according to a Canada-based team of scientists.

And while hypertension patients are usually told to cut back on salt, such advice could be something of a banana skin if not accompanied by more potassium, it seems.

“Our research suggests that adding more potassium-rich foods to your diet, such as bananas or broccoli, might have a greater positive impact on your blood pressure than just cutting sodium,” said University of Waterloo professor of applied mathematics, computer science, pharmacy and biology Dr Anita Layton.

Usually ranked alongside the tomato as the world’s most-consumed fruit, the banana is popular as a filling, energy-laden snack and as a hangover preventive due to the same potassium that makes it a must-eat for hypertension patients.

“Early humans ate lots of fruits and vegetables, and as a result, our body’s regulatory systems may have evolved to work best with a high-potassium, low-sodium diet,” said Melissa Stadt, a PhD candidate under Prof Layton and lead author of the research paper, which was published in the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology.

“Today, Western diets tend to be much higher in sodium and lower in potassium.

“That may explain why high blood pressure is found mainly in industrialised societies, not in isolated societies,” Stadt says.

Increasing consumption of salty, processed food has in turn seen a rise in so-called lifestyle ailments such as diabetes and heart disease, as more and more people adopt more sedentary, less physically demanding work and lifestyles.

And with high blood pressure affecting an estimated three in 10 of adults globally, the prevalence of stroke and kidney disease has grown in turn.

“In recent years, the prevalence of hypertension has risen globally,” the researchers warn, putting the increase down to factors including “the ageing of the global population and heightened exposure to lifestyle risk factors, including decreased physical activity and the popularity of Western diets.” – dpa