Eat your bananas

Over the weekend I came across an interesting piece of information that provides a good follow-up to a recent e-Alert (“Hyper Drive” 1/7/03), about treatments for high blood pressure.

Traditional medicine tells us that patients with hypertension should avoid salt in their diets. More recently this idea has been questioned, and often dismissed by many doctors. According to Robert C. Atkins, M.D., author of “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution,” the problem for those with high blood pressure isn’t sodium, it’s a lack of balance between sodium and potassium levels. Dr. Atkins cites the results of 30 separate studies that show how increasing potassium intake (without decreasing the sodium) is an effective way to lower blood pressure. One of those studies demonstrated that with just one daily serving of a potassium-rich food the risk of death by stroke may be cut by as much as half.

Fortunately, it’s easy to increase the potassium in your diet. High potassium fruits include apricots, bananas, cantaloupe, honeydew melon and citrus fruits. Vegetables with good amounts of potassium are asparagus, potatoes, green beans, avocados, lima beans, winter squash, and cauliflower. Other foods high in potassium: grain products, red meat, poultry, seafood and dry beans, such as peas and lentils.

It would be difficult to get too much potassium from dietary sources alone. But if you’re already getting plenty of potassium in your diet, a potassium supplement would be unnecessary for most people, and in some extreme cases could lead to kidney damage and other complications. Obviously the key word here is “balance.”

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute