The many benefits of a potassium rich diet

By Robert Mann


One's body requires a wide variety of vitamins and minerals in order to function appropriately and potassium is among one of those critical minerals since our system needs to allow our muscles, cells, and organs to function properly. Potassium is also one of three minerals that make up the electrolyte family of minerals (the other two are sodium and chloride). Potassium is considered an electrolyte since it helps conduct electricity when it is dissolved in water.

Consuming an appropriate amount of potassium within our diet permits us to capitalize on its many benefits that include controlling the supply of nutrients in our body, i.e., assimilation of nutrients into our cells, and transporting waste materials out of our cells, assisting in the proper function of the heart, playing a crucial role around healthy muscle tissue and nerve activity, lessening the potential risk of hypertension, assisting with the storage of carbohydrates used by the body as energy, and slowing calcium loss that may end up in diminished bone density.

There have also been assertions that a diet regimen full of potassium and low in sodium would help restore the natural activity of human cells and result in the arrest or reversal of cancerous tumors.

Reduced concentrations of potassium in our blood causes hypokalemia and can result in several health concerns like muscular fatigue which can lead to muscle cramping, irregular bowel motions and/or constipation, unnatural heart rhythm, elevated blood pressure levels, and abdominal cramps.

Severe hypokalemia can result in major disturbances in the operation of skeletal muscle tissue and nerves eventually inducing respiratory depression.

The advocated dose of potassium is anywhere between 4g and 5g per day. That being said, it is very difficult to overdose on potassium. A 150 lbs. (68 Kg) person would have to consume 170g of potassium from a single sitting to reach this lethal quantity. That's the equivalent of consuming 170 avocados (or 400 bananas, or 180 baked potatoes) in just one meal!

Potassium can be found in a mixed assortment of foods which includes everything from vegetables and fruits, to legumes, dairy, and even meat. Some common sources of potassium are tomatoes, bananas, apricot, avocados, and yogurt. This makes it simple to obtain the advised 5g of potassium each day when you keep a healthy sensible diet.

Potassium fun facts: Physicians can recommend substituting regular table salt, which contains sodium chloride with potassium chloride for those who need to reduce their intake of sodium. Other living things need potassium to thrive too. For example, a lack of potassium in plants can leave them looking gray and with turned out edges. Potassium has a great many applications. Besides being an important nutrient, potassium is used in various medicines, in explosives and fireworks, to make soap and glass, and to develop photographs (potassium bromide).




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