Low Potassium Diet

Is a Low Potassium Diet making you feel restricted in food choices? You will be glad to know there are delicious options that fit your needs.

Here you can explore tasty and safe foods that support your well-being, offering a natural solution to make daily meals more enjoyable.

Low Potassium Diet

Potassium is a necessary mineral required by the body, which performs various functions vital for health. A high level of potassium can lead to a health condition called hyperkalemia.

The symptoms of this problem are debilitating, and this condition can cause serious heart problems along with impaired muscular functions.

The low level of potassium actually disturbs the pH balance of the stomach. During digestion to break down complex food items, the body secretes acids.

If these acids stay in the stomach, the body becomes acidic, and an acidic body is a sick body, as it becomes vulnerable to diseases and disorders.

It is potassium’s job to nullify these acids and maintain a healthy PH balance of the body and stomach. But high levels of potassium are hazardous for health too, usually almost every food supplements potassium in small or large amounts, eating a low potassium diet by knowing the amount of potassium each serving of food provides will help you to control excessive intake of this mineral by eating a low potassium diet.

People suffering from a high level of potassium can identify the problem by checking a few symptoms. High potassium level in the body causes tingling or feeling of numbness in any limb or part of the body, causes fatigue and breathlessness easily, causes frequent nausea or vomiting, and palpitations and skipped heartbeats.

There are medical methods to treat this condition, but unless a person checks their dietary intake, this problem cannot be controlled for a long period of time.

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List of Low Potassium Foods

Switching to a low potassium diet is the best way to gain relief and protect health from the problem. The best way to find out a high level of potassium is through a blood test, as sometimes marginally high levels of this mineral do not cause any symptoms in a person, but silently keep affecting the health negatively.

Vegetables – Good Amount of Potassium in the Diet

Vegetables are rich sources of potassium. Almost all types of vegetables contain a good amount of potassium, and if you include these in every meal of the day, your potassium intake will increase easily.

You can adopt a method before cooking to wipe off potassium content from commonly used vegetables like potatoes, carrots, squash, beets, cauliflower, mushrooms, frozen green vegetables, etc., and prepare a low potassium diet.

Cut these vegetables after peeling them into small pieces and soak these pieces in enough water. Cover the bowl and keep these in a refrigerator for half an hour. The potassium will get attracted towards water, and you can drain this water out before cooking.

This will reduce your potassium intake considerably. But remember that this method does not work for all the vegetables.

Include vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, and carrots more in the diet as these are low-potassium vegetables.

Six spears of asparagus contain 190 mg of potassium, one bunch of broccoli contains 370 mg, one head of cabbage contains 2200 mg, and one medium-sized carrot contains 230 mg of potassium.

Apart from these, other vegetables that are low in this mineral and can be included in a low potassium diet are cauliflower, cucumbers, corn, celery, white mushrooms, okra, onion, green peas, green beans, red radish, zucchini, turnips, squash, and green turnips.

One should limit the servings of these vegetables to 2-3 per week, as these all contain some amount of potassium, and their indiscriminate use can prevent the good effects of a low-potassium diet.

Grains – Best Low Potassium Diet

Refined grains are better for a low potassium diet compared to whole grains, as these contain a lower amount of this mineral. Rice, pasta, and noodles are good foods to eat for a low-potassium diet.

Fruits – Best Food for a Low Potassium Diet

Almost every fruit is a source of potassium, hence even their intake should be kept according to the content of this mineral, which can be supplemented.

Commonly used fruits like apples, apricots, blackberries, blueberries, sweet cherries, and grapefruit are good for a low potassium diet, as these foods provide this mineral in relatively lesser amounts than other foods.

One medium-sized apple supplements 160 mg of potassium, 2 medium-sized apricots supplement 185 mg, 1 pint of blackberries contains 460 mg, 1 pint of blueberries supplements 230 mg, 1 pint of sweet cherries supplies 630 mg, and one whole grapefruit supplements 360 mg of potassium.

Other than these fruits, like grapes, peach, Asian pear, plums, Rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, and watermelon are good for a low potassium diet.

Non-Veggie Foods – Best Diet for Controlling High Potassium Levels

Limit intake of non-veggie foods and take care of the number of servings per week to control high levels of potassium in the body. Broadly speaking, one ounce of non-veggie foods like unsalted bacon, beef, chicken, turkey, tuna, salmon, lamb, veal, pork, and liver contains 120 mg of potassium.

If servings of these foods can be kept to a minimum, you can include them in your low potassium diet. If you can stop consuming non-veggie foods, it is even better, and you can use peanut butter and tofu as their perfect alternates, which can provide protein as much as non-veggie sources do without adding to potassium levels.