What foods contain potassium? Dried apricots, wheat bran, yellow carrots and other potassium-containing foods

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-18 00:50

Do you constantly want to sleep, every movement is difficult and is accompanied by convulsions? Or, on the contrary, does the heart beat intermittently, the fuss does not stop, the sweat pours in hail? Perhaps these conditions are associated with a lack in the body of such an element as potassium. And before we grab the pills, let's understand what this ingredient means to us.

Potassium and sodium - rivals or friends?

Potassium performs several tasks in the body, and the most important of them is the water-s alt balance of the cell, which ensures the he alth of all muscle tissues. 97% of all potassium is inside the cell. Outside, the blood contains sodium in the NaCl compound - table s alt (normal blood tastes s alty).

This ratio: potassium inside, and sodium outside, - ensures the normal functioning of the cell and the transmission of nerve impulses K↔Na. This transmission leads to normal muscle contraction, timely excitability of nervous processes.

If there is not enough potassium in the cell, its antagonist sodium will penetrate inside along with a lot of water, the cellswells, and nerve impulses (Na↔Na) are blocked. Hence lethargy, swelling, muscle cramps. With an excess of potassium in the blood, it displaces sodium along with water, dehydration occurs. Blocking of nerve impulses (K↔K) leads to acute oxygen starvation of cells, especially nerve cells, which can be fatal.

Card friend - potassium

The second task of potassium is to ensure the normal functioning of the heart in tandem with another heart element - magnesium. Potassium inside, and sodium outside the cells keep the heart muscle in good shape and do not allow it to swell, transmit nerve impulses smoothly. If there is not enough potassium and sodium with water is allowed inside the cells of the heart muscle, then such an edematous heart muscle works with anguish, the rhythm of contractions is disturbed.

The friendship of potassium with magnesium is very important - the main nutrient of the heart. With an insufficient amount of potassium in the blood, there will be little magnesium in it, which means that vasospasms will begin, nutrition will be disturbed. An edematous heart, exhausted by spasms, lack of oxygen and nutrients, is a signal that it misses potassium.

So necessary, so indispensable

Besides the first two important functions, this element is useful in many life processes.

• Protein and carbohydrate metabolism. In this area, potassium plays the role of a keeper of glycogen stores - a carbohydrate, an energy supplier for muscles, and if it is in excess, this is fraught with diabetes.
• Removal of liquid. This ability of potassium can lowerblood pressure, cleanse the vessels of toxins, remove puffiness and help the kidneys to correctly remove urine from the body.
• Oxygen supply and mental activity of the brain are also achieved with the participation of this active alkali metal.

Everything in the world is poison - not poison, just a measure

Having learned about the important role of potassium in the body, you should not immediately consume potassium-containing foods without measure: tea, dried apricots, wheat bran. The benefits and harms of potassium in the body depend on the balance of its content with other macronutrients, and primarily with sodium.

A he althy person has constantly 160–250 g of potassium in cells and blood, and the daily need to replenish its reserves is 1.5–5 g. It is not enough to know which foods contain potassium in the largest quantities. If, for example, we eat a potato rich in this element, sprinkled abundantly with s alt, then we will not be enriched with potassium.

For the right balance of macronutrients, you need to consume 2-4 times less sodium, otherwise there will be an excess of it in the body with all the consequences. An excess of potassium is no less dangerous. Let's not forget that hydrocyanic acid, the oldest and most powerful poison known to mankind, is also called potassium cyanide.

Let's see what happens to us when the potassium-sodium balance in the body is disturbed.

Hypokalemia - lack of potassium

Unlike sodium, potassium does not accumulate in the body, but is quickly excreted. And if you still have the habit of adding s alt to food and eating foods with preservatives, then the lack of potassium will not take long.wait.

Potassium deficiency is easy to determine by how you feel. Its main signs are: involuntary contraction of the muscles of the palms and trembling of the hands; cardiac arrhythmia and insufficiency; frequent seizures. All this is accompanied by a constant desire to sleep, irritability, high blood pressure, poor coordination. There are changes in the psyche: depression, psychosis, impaired mental activity, memory.

Self-examination will lead to one or more reasons for such a state:

1. Not eating enough potassium-rich foods.
2. Eating too much sodium-rich foods.
3. Stress removes potassium from the body very quickly.
4. Physical activity combined with diets and hunger strikes.
5. Medications, diuretics that flush out potassium.

To improve your condition, you need to determine which foods contain sufficient amounts of potassium, make a balanced diet and gradually increase its content in the body.

Basics of clinical nutrition

In order for nutrition to become curative, let's see how much potassium is contained in foods. The table provides material for calculating the daily intake of this element: 1.5-5 grams per day, while using sodium 0.5-1.3 grams. If more sodium is consumed, the intake of potassium-containing foods should be increased accordingly.

Potassium in foods

Foods most commonly eaten	Potassium in mg per 100g of food	Amount of product (in grams) to replenish the daily dose of potassium (1.5-5 g)
Tea black, green	2480	100-200
Dried apricots	1880	100-250
Wheat bran	1150	150-450
Nuts: pine nuts, walnuts, peanuts, almonds, seeds	660-780	650-800
Potatoes	610	300-800
Mushrooms	440-470	400-1000
Apricots, peaches, bananas	300-400	400-1200
Halva, honey	350-380	400-1200
Buckwheat, oatmeal, millet	360-380	400-1200
Tomatoes, beets, peas, apples	280-290	500-1300
Radishes, eggplant, yellow carrots	235-255	600-1800
Bread, chickens	207-210	750-2500
Milk, kefir, cheese	146-180	1000-2700

Some tips

After getting acquainted with the foods in which potassium is available for the body, let's consider the features of using some of them. For example, wheat bran (the benefits and harms of them are interconnected) require proper use. The hard husk of wheat, which used to be thrown out for livestock feed, turned out to be richer in macro- and microelements than refined grain flour. For our problem, it is valuable that this product contains potassium and magnesium together, which means that wheat bran is healing for the heart. But they are difficult to digest with the stomach, they can injure the gastrointestinal tract if there are adhesions or ulcers in it. The intake of bran is also limited: no more than 10 days and no more than 30 g per day.

Heart healer is also yellow carrots with a high content of potassium. Six carrots a week is enough to normalize slightly lost blood pressure and avoid a stroke. Just don't cook it. And all foods containing potassium are best consumed, if possible, raw or steamed. Potassium is lost when cooking.

Potassium in dried apricots, which is one of the top three products in terms of the content of this element, will cope with heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure, remove excess water and reduce swelling. It is enough to eat 5 fruits a day for this, of course, if there is no allergy to it.

What to do if there is a lot of potassium

An excess of potassium in the body, perhaps moremore dangerous than a disadvantage. When compiling a diet for weight loss, it is imperative to take into account which foods contain potassium in large quantities. If you abuse these products when losing weight (for example, eat fresh porcini mushrooms with potatoes often), you can ensure metabolic disorders and hyperkalemia. Failures in the work of the heart, increased sweating and frequent urination against the background of general anxiety with paralysis of certain muscle groups should be very, very alert.

It is dangerous to self-medicate with this disease, food will not help. If the necessary drugs are not administered in time, acute renal failure will develop, an increase in blood acidity, there is a high risk of diabetes mellitus and even death. Potassium does not joke with those who do not understand what role it plays in the body.

Sport element

And yet for people with an active lifestyle, athletes, those who are engaged in physical work, potassium is a friend. What other element will quickly provide energy and strengthen endurance? And where can the heart wait for support during rapid movement, if potassium and magnesium do not work in concert and smoothly?

During exercise, a person loses a lot of potassium with sweat. After training and competition, athletes consume drinks rich in this element to make up for its losses. Potassium deficiency is flaccid muscles, weak heart, rapid breathing. All problems are solved by potassium, which enters the body with food.