Three potassium rich food to lower blood pressure
- Dietitian.Lauren Hmede
- Mar 27, 2019
- 1 min read
High blood pressure: Three potassium-rich foods to help lower your reading
High blood pressure cause arteries to thicken and harden which increase risk of both heart disease and stroke.
When it is left untreated it can lead to serious complications. High blood pressure can be controlled through healthy weight, exercise, moderate alcohol consumption along with healthy diet that lower sodium intake and encourage potassium consumption.
Kidneys are responsible for controlling blood pressure and this is done by controlling amount of fluid in the body. As fluid become high, the blood pressure raises. So the kidneys sucking out extra fluid which is then stored in your bladder as urine.
During this process, there is a balance between sodium and potassium to pull water across a wall of cells from blood stream into a collecting channel that leads to the bladder.
Eating high salty food will raise sodium into bloodstream and then reduce the kidneys ability to work properly.
What you can do is to lower salt intake while you are increasing intake of fruits and vegetables rich in potassium in order to restore balance.
Avocado, beetroot and edamame are rich in potassium and you can add them safely to your diet.
One half of an avocado (100g) contains 487mg of potassium.
So if you eat a whole avocado, you would get 20 per cent of your daily potassium needs at once.
One cup of edamame (155g) provides 676mg of potassium and around 170g of boiled beetroot can give you 518mg.
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