How to Increase Your Potassium Intake

The recent study of data on Potassium and Sodium in our diets showed that having more potassium than sodium reduced the incidence of heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke.

So how can you increase potassium in your diet? It’ simple: cut the salt (that’s common table salt), which is made mostly of sodium, and increase potassium-rich foods. It’s not hard to do, because most fruits and vegetables contain lots of potassium. Swiss and regular Chard, Romaine lettuce, crimini mushrooms, spinach, mustard greens, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cantaloupe, cauliflower, eggplant, ginger root, turmeric, cabbage, strawberries, tomato paste, parsley, dried apricots, potatoes, almonds, pistachios, bamboo shoots, avocados, grapes, soybeans, and bananas all contain higher amounts of potassium. Raw fruits and veggies have more potassium, and boiling them significantly reduces it, so try for raw versus cooked or canned. You’ve probably seen recent heart bypass patients buying a banana-a-day, usually for breakfast, as part of their recovery regime. That would be a fine addition, as most bananas contain a 467 mg of potassium and only 1 mg of sodium, and it’s just what the doctor (and the FDA) ordered.

The crazy thing is that most fruits and vegetables have potassium, because it is a building block in the cell walls of plants (that’s where potash comes from, after wood is burned). Fertilizers contain a lot of it because the plants need it to grow. So simply increasing your intake of fruits and veggies will take care of it. By the way, even fish and meat contain some potassium. The key is to keep the table salt down, while raising the potassium. Processed meats often contain way too much sodium (a preservative). Finding ways to decrease table salt is another problem (which is why Mrs. Dash has been so popular). Using lemon or lime as a substitute for table salt can go a long way.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to go too crazy with the potassium, especially in supplemental forms like pills and drinks. Too much potassium can lead to gastro-intestinal upset, diarrhea, and even acute renal shutdown, especially in people who already have some kidney disease or loss of kidney function. It’s used in the famous lethal injection and in heart operations, where the doctors need the heart to be still to operate on it. So too much of it is definitely not a good thing. Still, it’s very hard to overdose on potassium unless you’re taking it in supplemental form. See your doctor for recommendations before using any supplement.

In the final analysis, one of the easiest ways to raise your potassium intake would be a smart fruit salad of bananas, cantaloupe, strawberries and grapes! Even snacking on one of these would give you more potassium than you’re probably getting right now. Enjoy some mushrooms, eat a green veggie with your dinner, and add a salad. Not too tough, eh? And it may just save your life.

http://blogs.forbes.com/larryhusten/2011/07/12/study-finds-sodium-potassium-ratio-strongly-tied-to-mortality-and-cv-disease/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium

http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/LabelClaims/FDAModernizationActFDAMAClaims/ucm073606.htm

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid;=7

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid;=90