Potassium benefits the body and its food sources
Potassium performs many functions in the body. Learn about the benefits of potassium for the body and its most prominent sources in this article.
Potassium is one of the most important minerals essential for health, as it performs many functions, most notably regulating body fluid balance, as well as regulating the heartbeat, strengthening muscles and nerves, and is necessary for protein synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism.
Let's learn in this article about the benefits of potassium for the body:
Potassium benefits the body
Let's get acquainted in detail with the most important benefits of potassium for the body:
1. Maintain blood pressure and heart health
Eating foods rich in potassium helps maintain normal blood pressure levels. This is because it helps reduce sodium levels in the body, which is essential for lowering blood pressure.
Thus, increasing potassium intake with decreased sodium can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease that may result from high blood pressure.
2. Decreased chances of having a stroke
High blood pressure, one of the main risk factors for stroke, which means link potassium levels in the body decrease stroke incidence.
As the body's need for potassium ensures maintaining blood pressure and preventing it from rising.
3. Maintain healthy bones and muscles
Bone problems are associated with low levels of calcium in the body, and potassium plays a key role in reducing the amount of calcium lost by the body and thus may help prevent osteoporosis.
Foods rich in potassium also contribute to maintaining an alkaline environment in the body that increases bone density, in contrast to the role of an acidic environment, which causes nitrogen excretion, loss of bone mineral density, and muscle weakness.
4. Prevention of kidney stones
Calcium is a common mineral in kidney stones, which are clumps of material that form in the urine.
Potassium can help prevent kidney stones; Because potassium citrate helps reduce calcium levels in the urine and prevent the formation of kidney stones.
5. Reduce water retention in the body
One of the benefits of potassium to the body is that it is used in the treatment of water retention in the body; This is because it helps to increase urine production and reduce sodium levels in the body.
When the level of sodium in the body rises, it will develop edema or water retention, which can lead to swelling in some parts of the body.
The body's need for potassium
After knowing the benefits of potassium in the body, it became necessary to ensure that the body needs potassium daily to maintain health, especially for elderly people, as they are most susceptible to diseases that can result from low potassium in the body, such as high blood pressure, strokes, Heart disease, kidney stones, and osteoporosis.
To maintain good potassium levels in the body, it is recommended to consume an amount of potassium ranging from 3500 to 4700 mg of it.
Potassium-rich food sources
The following are the most prominent food sources of potassium and the percentage of potassium they contain:
| the food | Potassium content (mg/100g) |
| gourd | 139 mg/100 g. |
| apple | 107 mg/100 g. |
| raw artichoke | 286 mg/100 g. |
| avocado | 485 mg/100 g. |
| the banana | 358 mg/100 g. |
| beet | 325 mg/100 g. |
| broccoli | 316 mg/100 g. |
| baked beans | 231 ammunition / 100 grief. |
| cantaloupe | 157 mg/100 g. |
| Carrots | 320 mg/100 g. |
| cherry | 222 mg/100 g. |
| the milk | 167 mg/100 g. |
| Pepper | 429 mg/100 g. |
| potato | 105 mg/100 g. |
| spinach | 559 mg/100 g. |
| tomatoes | 306 mg/100 g. |
| Yogurt | 150 mg/100 g. |
It is cautioned to take potassium supplements without consulting a doctor and after making sure of its deficiency in the body, as increasing its levels may lead to an imbalance in the proportion of salts.