Eating more bananas - and cutting down on crisps - could prevent thousands of stroke deaths, say researchers.The potassium-rich fruit helps drive down blood pressure levels, as does lowering your salt consumption in snacks like crisps.A study found people with a high potassium intake had 24 per cent less risk of stroke.Previous data suggested older people could be harmed by potassium as their kidneys may be less able to remove it from their blood. But the research, on journal website bmj.com, said these fears can be dismissed. It found potassium did not negatively affect kidney function.
The authors said there was ‘high quality evidence’ that people with high blood pressure improved when they increased their potassium intake.