Bananas are rich in it, dried fruits such as raisins, prunes and apricots are, too. Potatoes, white beans and tomato sauce are great sources as well. You may have guessed the nutrient I’m talking about—potassium. And what does getting enough potassium do besides help your muscles move and regulate your blood pressure and heartbeat? It’s crucial to heart health, especially for postmenopausal women. And a recent study showed that postmenopausal women who consumed more potassium were less likely to have strokes.
In this study, women who consumed the most potassium (at least 3,194 milligrams [mg] per day) were 12% less likely to suffer any type of stroke than women who consumed the least potassium (less than 1,926 mg per day). And they were 16% less likely to suffer an ischemic stroke, the most common type, caused when a blood clot blocks oxygen and nutrients to the brain. For women who kept their blood pressure and weight in check and knew to bulk up on potassium, protection against ischemic stroke was more than doubled (a 27% to 30% lower risk) compared with women who consumed a minimum of dietary potassium. That is a huge risk reduction.
Incidentally, even the high-range number for potassium intake mentioned above—around 3,200 mg per day—may be considered on the low side. The World Health Organization recommends 3,510 mg…while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends 4,700 mg a day. But the sad fact is that most postmenopausal women are nowhere near that goal. In the latest study, the average daily intake of potassium among the 90,000-plus participants was only 2,611 mg—that’s barely more than half the daily amount that the USDA says we need!
The irony is that potassium is found in nearly all food groups, especially fruits, vegetables, dairy products and fish and seafood. You can make every meal—breakfast, lunch and dinner—potassium-rich. See for yourself…
• Breakfast or Snack Time. A banana provides 422 mg of potassium. A cup of cantaloupe, 430 mg. Eight ounces of yogurt gives you up to 579 mg. Toss in a cup of strawberries and you get 255 mg more. Prune juice packs 707 mg in a cup (a cup of stewed prunes, 796 mg). And a cup of orange juice will provide 496 mg. Dried apricots or peaches are sweet and tasty sources of potassium, too, delivering between 378 mg and 398 mg per quarter cup.
• Lunch and Dinner. A small baked potato, including the skin, has 738 mg of potassium, a medium sweet potato with skin, 542 mg. Tomato products are great sources of potassium…one-half cup of tomato sauce provides 405 mg. All types of beans, especially white beans (595 mg per half-cup) are excellent sources, too. And a cup of cooked spinach packs 840 mg. Fish and seafood are also great. For example, three ounces of yellowfin tuna provides 484 mg of potassium.
That’s just a small sampling, but you can see how having a deliciously varied diet of healthful foods can provide all the potassium you need for heart health and stroke risk reduction. For more information on the potassium content of foods, check out this cheat sheet of low-calorie, high-potassium foods from the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine.
The benefits of potassium come from dietary intake. Supplements do not seem to have the same beneficial effect, said Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, PhD, who participated in the study on potassium and stroke risk in postmenopausal women. Dr. Wassertheil-Smoller is chair of social medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Brooklyn, New York. She and other experts agree that having too much potassium in the blood can be dangerous to the heart. So do check with your doctor before taking a potassium supplement. If a potassium supplement is recommended to you, your doctor should monitor your blood potassium levels to make sure they do not go higher than what is healthy and normal.
