Top 11 Healthy Potassium-Rich Foods You Should Eat Often

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

While you tend to think of bananas when it comes to potassium, many other foods – like avocados and sweet potatoes – naturally pack more potassium.

When it comes to filling up your plate with potassium-rich foods, knowing which sources to reach for and having a range of healthy options are essential.

Discover why this nutrient is key to your health, and the top eleven foods that are chock-full of potassium.

What is Potassium?

Potassium functions as an electrolyte in the body, controlling fluid balances and muscle contractions.

This essential mineral lives mostly in muscle cells but is also found in red blood cells, the liver, and the bones.

Potassium intake today is well below what it would have been for people who lived in the pre-agricultural time. This is because the soil is no longer as rich in minerals as it was before the age of agriculture.

Symptoms of low potassium can range from fatigue and muscle cramping to insomnia, depression, and even irregular heartbeat.

To ensure proper electrolyte and fluid levels, you should eat plenty of potassium-rich foods every single day.

6 Benefits of Potassium

Potassium is crucial for healthy bones, kidneys, and blood pressure. While we don’t often think of potassium as being involved with our health issues, it can play a bigger role than we may realize. Here are six of the biggest health benefits that potassium can provide.

1. Reduces High Blood Pressure

Potassium helps to regulate fluid levels in the body, supporting a healthy blood pressure. This helps reduce the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease.

2. Supports the Nervous System

The nervous system is the great communicator of the body and requires healthy muscles to function. Potassium supports proper muscular contraction, which influences how the nervous system sends messages throughout the entire body.

3. Aids in Muscular Function

As we touched on above, potassium can alter how muscles work by changing the way nerve cells are able to communicate. The heart – a particularly important muscle – can be dramatically impacted by too little or too much potassium, leading to an irregular heartbeat.

4. Balances Fluids

Without electrolytes, the body’s fluid balances would be out of sorts. More than 60 percent of the body is water, and this balance of fluids in and out of the cells is carefully regulated by electrolytes and potassium. When potassium is out of balance, muscle contractions, heart problems, and kidney stones or disorders can occur.

5. Provides Healthy Bone Mass

Got potassium? While many studies focus on calcium for strong bones, some research shows that potassium also directly strengthens bones.

Osteoporosis and bone density problems are mostly genetic, but as much as 40 percent can be influenced by diet.

6. Promotes Kidney Health

Kidney stones often form when excess calcium isn’t buffered by the right fluid balance. Potassium can help lower the amount of calcium in urine, preventing kidney stones and keeping the bladder and kidneys free from calcifications.

11 Potassium-Rich Foods

Here are the top nine Paleo-friendly foods with the highest amounts of potassium.

1. Winter Squash

Winter squash, including varieties like acorn, butternut, and pumpkin, is rich in potassium, B vitamins and vitamin C. Roast them for savory or sweet side dishes, soups, and chilis.

2. Cooked Spinach

Raw spinach has less than five percent daily value of potassium, but lightly cooking spinach until soft increases its potassium levels significantly. Try stuffing cooked spinach into Portobello mushrooms, top it on a burger, or jazz up your next pot of soup.

3. Sun-dried Tomatoes

While raw tomatoes contain some potassium, sundried tomatoes are an epic source of this mineral for such a small serving. Get your fill with this recipe for chicken smothered in a creamy sun-dried tomato sauce.

4. Bok Choy

Bok choy is a nutrient-dense leafy green vegetable perfect for stir-fries, sautéed veggies, and Asian-inspired dishes. Just one cup cooked – which shrinks down fairly small – contains 18 percent of your daily value.

5. Avocado

This beloved fruit is rich in fiber and B vitamins and packs a wallop of potassium with nearly a quarter of the day’s needs in just one cup of mashed avocado. Mix it into a hearty guacamole and pile it onto burgers and sandwiches.

6. Banana

While most people associate bananas with potassium, it’s definitely not the food highest in this nutrient. Still, a single banana contains more than 10 percent of your daily value, making it a great choice for a snack.

7. Wild-caught Salmon

Salmon is rich in potassium and other minerals like phosphorous, selenium, and magnesium. Bake it any night of the week for a hearty meal rich in healthy omega-3 fats.

8. Broccoli

When steamed or boiled, broccoli contains well over 10% of the day’s potassium needs. It also contains lots of healthy B vitamins and fiber. Add them to stir-fries, toss them into broccoli salads, or blend them up into a soup.

9. Sweet Potato

These yam-like vegetables carry a nice amount of potassium, but also manganese, vitamin A, and vitamin B6. Roast them, spiral them up into savory “noodle” dishes, or even whip them up into sweet potato pancake batter.

10. Watermelon

This juicy fruit is considered by many to be mostly water, but it’s actually packed with plenty of nutrients like vitamins A and C as well as 14 percent daily value of potassium. Slice it up and enjoy as a delicious snack.

11. Coconut water

Coconut water is better than any sports drink for fighting off muscle cramps and dehydration – it contains natural electrolytes like magnesium, calcium, sodium, and manganese alongside a healthy dose of potassium to help you bounce back quickly. Plus, it has no artificial coloring or refined sugars.

Potassium-Rich Recipes

If you want to add more potassium to your diet, try these delicious home-style recipes.

1. Salmon Sweet Potato Cakes with Avocado Salsa
This recipe packs the double whammy of potassium from both the salmon and sweet potatoes.

2. Roasted Acorn Squash
This squash makes the perfect anti-inflammatory side dish for holidays or just everyday eating.

3. Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownies
Potassium-rich sweet potatoes are the not-so-secret ingredients in these moist, decadent brownies.

4. Keto Avocado Brownies
Speaking of brownies: this batch of goodness relies on the creamy perfection of avocado for a superb texture.

5. Cream of Broccoli Soup
Cooked broccoli contains plenty of potassium and what better way to enjoy it than blended up in a dairy-free soup.

Watch this video – 20 High Potassium Foods (700 Calorie Meals) DiTuro Productions

Bottom Line

Potassium is required for healthy functioning muscles and nerves. There are plenty of foods rich in potassium, so be sure to eat a lot of them to get enough electrolytes in your system.

Written by Aimee McNew

Author Bio:

Aimee McNew is a Certified Nutritionist who specializes in women’s health, thyroid problems, infertility, and digestive wellness. She ate her way back to health using a Paleo diet, lost 80 pounds, and had a healthy baby after numerous miscarriages. She focuses on simple nutrition practices that promote long-lasting results.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

Boost Brain Health – Dementia Defeated Using This Delicious Treat

 

Click Here for Help with Alzheimer’s, Other Types of Dementia and General Memory Loss

It’s sweet. It’s delicious.

And it instantly boosts your brain health, according to a new study conducted by scientists from the University of Birmingham and published in the journal Scientific Reports.

What’s more, it comes in various forms from the foods we all love to eat and drinks we all love to drink.

Flavanols are a group of flavonoids that appear in especially high amounts in cocoa, grapes, red wine, berries, citrus fruit, onions, parsley, and tea.

It has proven benefits for cardiovascular health, but the researchers decided to establish exactly what effects it has on the brain and cognitive abilities.

They recruited 18 adult subjects who were non-smokers and free of brain, heart, and respiratory diseases.

The researchers devised two trials: one in which the subjects received a cocoa drink enriched with flavanols and another in which they received a plain cocoa drink.

The researchers conducted the same tests after both trials to see whether subjects performed better after drinking the flavanol-enriched drink.

The first test consisted of the inhalation of air with 5% carbon dioxide two hours after consumption of the cocoa drinks. This is air with carbon dioxide at approximately 100 times the normal level.

This is a common test for checking how well the brain’s blood vessels work, because our bodies usually respond to high carbon dioxide levels by increasing blood flow to the brain. This helps to protect the brain from oxygen starvation, as the blood contains oxygen.

The scientists discovered that the subjects who drank the flavanol-enriched drink had three times more oxygen in their brains than those who drank the normal cocoa drink, and that their brains were one minute quicker in oxygenating.

This proves that the vascular structures of brains on a high amount of flavanols are superior to those of brains on fewer flavanols.

But the scientists did not stop here. They also gave their subjects some cognitive tests that ranged from easy to complex.

They noticed that the subjects taking the flavanol-enriched drink were better at completing complex cognitive tasks, and that they managed to complete them 11% faster than the other subjects did.

Therefore, people’s brains recover faster from a vascular challenge and perform better on complex tasks after they’ve consumed flavanols.

Another interesting finding was that 14 of the 18 participants benefited from the flavanols.

The researchers noticed that the minority that did not benefit already showed high performance on oxygenation and cognitive tests without the flavanols, and speculated that they were probably fit, healthy dieters who had little room for improvement from additional flavanols.

So why not defeat dementia for good and make yourself a fit, healthy brainer by loading your brain with the one ingredient it needs? Learn all the details here…

This Enjoyable Activity Defeats Dementia and Boost Brain Health

The traditional medical system has no solution for Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. There are no drugs that cure it or stop it from progressing.

That’s why we celebrate a new study in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

It reveals how a quite pleasant activity can change your brain’s microstructure to tackle dementia.

The scientists from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health recruited 293 people with an average age of 83 years.

The data were originally collected by something called the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study.

They specifically collected information regarding social interaction and the frequency of their social interaction, such as whether they were married, lived alone, worked, volunteered in church, or engaged in other activities, such as regularly getting together with friends or relatives, and so forth.

They also gave their subjects a new sensitive brain scan called diffusion tensor imaging MRI, which measures the cellular integrity of the brain cells that make up several parts of the grey matter in the brain.

In particular, the scientists were interested in the gray matter in parts of the brain that had previously been associated with both social engagement and dementia.

They found exactly what they expected: that greater social engagement helped maintain the microstructure of the gray matter, thereby maintaining the cells that need to stay alive to prevent dementia.

The researchers attributed this finding to the fact that social interaction activates regions of the brain required for emotional processing, decision-making, and the recognition of faces and relationship histories.

Best of all, seniors don’t have to turn into social butterflies to receive this benefit. Once or twice per week is enough.

Neither do they have to go out and meet large groups of people in busy environments. Merely interacting with one or two relatives at home is sufficient.

Being social is helpful, but it’s probably not going to be enough to completely reverse dementia, especially if you’re already experiencing some memory loss. For that, you need to load up on one free ingredient explained here…

Boost Brain Health – High-protein Diet May Cause Alzheimer’s

Those who are fan of high-protein weight loss diets, beware! You may be putting yourself at a greater risk to Alzheimer’s disease. New studies points that high-protein diet may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s.

The Study

Researchers studied the link between the progression of Alzheimer’s in mice and different diets. In this research, mice were given four different diets:

–        low fat diet / high carb

–        low carb diet / high fat

–        low carb diet / high protein

–        regular diet

After feeding mice on these four diets for some time, the researchers measured the weight of their body, as well as their mind. Researchers also studied the buildup of plaque in the sections of the brain that are responsible for cognitive functions – these sections of the brain are most affected in Alzheimer’s.

The Findings

The researchers found that total brain size of the mice that were given a low carb / high protein diet had shrunk by 5%. It was also found that certain regions of hippocampus – one of the first part of the brain that suffer damage in Alzheimer’s disease – were less developed in mice that fed on a low carb diet / high protein diet.

The researchers believe that consumption of a diet which is rich in protein, over time makes the brain cells more susceptible to plaque buildup.

According to lead author of the study, Sam Gandy, these new findings have got medical fraternity speculating that the consumption of high-protein diet at particular ages may contribute to the development or fasten the progression of Alzheimer’s.

Experts say that inflammation may be the reason why diet rich in protein contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s. Constant entry of foreign proteins may cause chronic inflammation, which subsequently may damage the blood vessels and obstruct the flow of blood.

The Conclusion

In the study mentioned above, mice were genetically engineered to carry amyloid-beta, the plaque that accounts for death of brain cells in people with Alzheimer’s. So, while medical fraternity acknowledges that more studies are needed to determine for sure whether diet rich in protein contributes to Alzheimer’s disease or not, they accept that these studies clearly show that people who have Alzheimer’s or at risk to this disease should avoid consuming diet that are high on protein.

A balanced diet, one that is rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and includes some amount of meat and fish helps in reducing your risk to Alzheimer’s and also slow the progression of the disease in existing patients. Further, regular exercise is also found to decrease the chances of acquiring Alzheimer’s.

Watch this video – Brain Foods for Brain Health – Boost Brain Health with Good Eats

Click Here for Help with Alzheimer’s, Other Types of Dementia and General Memory Loss

This post is from the Brain Booster Exercise Program created for the purpose of helping to reverse Alzheimer’s, boost memory. It was made by Christian Goodman Blue Heron health news that has been recognized as one of the top-quality national health information websites.  This is an all-natural system that utilizes the power of exercises to slow down, prevent, or even reverse memory loss and boost your brain with energy and power. These exercises work to deliver as much nutrition and oxygen to your starving brain as possible and begin the restoring of the damaged brain cells.

To find out more about this program, click on Boost Brain Health

How to Clear Out All Cholesterol Build-Up in Your Arteries?

 

Click Here to Find Out How You Can Completely Clean Out the Plaque Build-Up in Your Arteries

The Best Cholesterol-Lowering Seeds to Clear Out All Cholesterol Build-Up in Your Arteries

Seeds are some of the most powerful foods you can consume. The list of their health benefits is endless.

One of these benefits is lowering cholesterol.

In today’s article, I’ll list six of the most powerful seeds to lower cholesterol levels.

1. Chia seeds. In two literature reviews, published in Nutricion Hospitalaria and the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, scientists found a lot of evidence that shows that chia seeds can lower LDL (bad) cholesterol. According to the research, it will increase the amount of omega-3 fat in your blood and improve your HDL (good) cholesterol, which are both positive effects.

2. Flaxseeds. When scientists from Iowa State University’s Nutrition and Wellness Research Center gave 150 mg of flaxseeds (three tablespoons) per day to 90 people with high cholesterol, they found an almost 10% reduction in cholesterol. They attributed this effect to its omega-3 oil and lignans, which have previously been found to lower cholesterol.

3. Sesame seeds. A Taiwanese study in the Journal of Nutrition and an Iranian study in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition have both found that these seeds and their powdered forms lead to a 10% reduction in LDL cholesterol if you take two ounces (57 grams) per day.

4. Sunflower seeds. When American scientists analyzed 27 nuts and seeds to measure their phytosterol contents, they found that sunflower and sesame seeds topped the list. Phytosterols are plant chemicals that have been proven to lower cholesterol and general heart health. They published their study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

5. Pumpkin seeds. A team of researchers showed in the journal Climacteric that pumpkin seeds, with all their nitric oxide, antioxidants, and magnesium, improved HDL cholesterol.

6. Fenugreek. Usually thought of as a spice, it is a seed when unground. According to researchers at the academic center of Michigan Medicine, these seeds slow down the absorption of cholesterol in your intestines and slow your liver’s production of excess cholesterol.

Eating seeds may not be enough to clear out all cholesterol plaque build-up in your arteries; for that, you need to cut out one ingredient, as explained here

Clear Out All Cholesterol Build-Up in Your Arteries – This Supplement Makes Cholesterol Levels Skyrocket

Nowadays, almost everyone who’s serious about working out uses supplements to aid their progress.

It can be a simple protein shake, creatine, or pure amino acids.

But one kind of supplement should be avoided at any cost.

A new study by the European Society of Cardiology, presented at the annual congress of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology, reveals the devastating effects of this supplement on your cholesterol level and heart.

Anabolic androgenic steroids increase protein in your cells (especially muscles) and are therefore popular as supplements to a weightlifting program intended to build large muscles or increase lean body tissue.

As such, they may seem healthy, but these European researchers argue that they actually are not.

These researchers recruited 51 men between the ages of 23 and 43. Of these men, twenty-one were weightlifters who had taken anabolic androgenic steroids for at least two years, 20 were weightlifters who did not use the substances, and the other 10 were sedentary but healthy.

All subjects were given a urine test to confirm steroid use.

In addition, they were given computed tomography coronary angiography tests to check for narrowing of the coronary arteries (called atherosclerosis).

Lastly, the researchers took blood samples to test the participants’ HDL (good) cholesterol levels and the ability of this HDL to remove LDL (bad) cholesterol from their bloodstreams.

While none of the non-steroid takers and sedentary subjects had atherosclerosis (serious plaque build-up in the heart arteries), 24% of the steroid users did.

In addition, the steroid users had much lower levels of HDL cholesterol, and it functioned poorly.

This study is important because it shows how steroids can bring about terrible health consequences in people who are quite young and very healthy.

If your cholesterol level is already too high, learn how to get it under control—in 30 days or less—by cutting out just one single ingredient you didn’t even know you were consuming…

Clear Out All Cholesterol Build-Up in Your Arteries – Cholesterol: The Healthiest of the Healthiest Diet Revealed

This delicious health diet has been proven again and again to be absolutely the best diet for improving cholesterol levels, blood pressure, blood sugar, and every other health metric.

So a new study published in the journal Heart decided to put it to an ultimate test.

What if you put this already healthy diet on overdrive by making it even healthier?

Results: participants had a 500% greater drop in cholesterol levels and a 30% greater drop in blood pressure than those who only followed the normally healthy version of this healthiest diet on earth.

The ability of the Mediterranean diet to bring about lower heart disease risk is primarily attributed to the higher intake of the polyphenols that are so abundant in plants, the consumption of healthier fats, increased fiber intake, and lower animal protein consumption.

This made the researchers wonder what would happen if the Mediterranean diet was put on overdrive to contain even more polyphenols, more fiber, and less animal protein than the traditional diet.

For this purpose, they divided their subjects into three groups:

1. The first received guidelines for physical exercise and basic dietary advice.

2. The second received the same advice along with help to follow the traditional Mediterranean diet—low in refined carbohydrates, with poultry and fish replacing most red meat, and including 28 grams of walnuts per day.

3. The third received the same basic advice as the first two groups along with help to follow a green Mediterranean diet, which included 28 grams of walnuts per day, completely excluded red meat and poultry, and included more plant matter in the form of three to four cups of green tea and a Mankai strain of Wolffia globosa, a high-protein aquatic plant.

Both Mediterranean diets were calorie-restricted to 1,200–1,400 daily calories for women and 1,500–1,800 for men.

The subjects were all overweight/obese with a high waist circumference.

During the six-month study period, the GreenMed diet group lost an average of 6.2 kilograms compared with 5.4 in the Mediterranean diet group and 1.5 in the basic advice-only group.

In terms of waist circumference, there was a big difference, with a loss of 8.6 centimeters in the GreenMed group compared with 6.8 and 4.3 in the Mediterranean and advice groups.

The GreenMed group lost 3.7% of LDL cholesterol compared with 0.8% in the Mediterranean group and lowered diastolic blood pressure by 7.2 mmHg compared with the 5.2 mmHg reduction in the Mediterranean group.

In addition, their insulin resistance and the inflammatory chemicals in their blood decreased more than those in the Mediterranean group. These are two of the major risk factors for heart disease.

These changes almost halved the risk of the GreenMed participants developing serious heart disease in the following 10 years, as calculated by the Framingham Risk Score model.

Therefore, take a traditional Mediterranean diet, omit the red meat and poultry, and replace them with plant proteins for the absolute best heart health.

Watch this video –  How I Reversed 20 years of Arterial Plaque

But if you’re going to lower your cholesterol to the healthiest levels, then cut out this ONE ingredient you didn’t even know you were consuming…

And here’s how to drop your blood pressure below 120/80—starting today…

This post is from the Oxidized Cholesterol Strategy Program. It was created by Scott Davis. Because he once suffered from high cholesterol, so much so that he even had a severe heart attack. This is what essentially led him to finding healthier alternatives to conventional medication. Oxidized Cholesterol Strategy is a unique online program that provides you with all the information you need to regain control of your cholesterol levels and health, as a whole.

To find out more about this program, go to Clear Out All Cholesterol Build-Up in Your Arteries.