-Increasing Your Potassium Intake Could Save your Life
from "Rust Out" by Dr. Royce Bailey, page 21

Juicy Fruits
Increase your fruit intake at every opportunity, add berries and orange slices to tossed salads, sip fruit smoothies for fast cooling snacks, munch on grapes instead of salted popcorn during your down time.  Especially feature high-potassium fruits like: apricots, bananas, figs, kiwi, melons, nectarines, oranges, papaya and peaches.  Increasing your potassium (unless you have kidney failure) has been shown to decrease your chance of a heart attack or stroke by up to 40%.

Eat Your Veggies
Meet or exceed the recommended five-a-day servings, focusing on high potassium veggies like: avocados, artichokes, greens, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkins, spinach, tomatoes and yams.  Some great ideas: add avocados and tomatoes to salads, serve sides of chilled steamed greens sprinkled with heart-healthy walnuts, toss new potatoes with chopped basil and olive oil.

Raisin’ Your Potassium Levels
Boost potassium intake fast with raisins and dates.  Toss a handful of raisins into steamed Swiss chard, add chopped dates to grain dishes and baked goods, stew prunes in apple sauce with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Go Bananas
Add more bananas to your diet.  Freeze peeled banana chunks for a healthy ice-cream alternative, or bake them in their skins for a fast, hot dessert.  Cut them in 1/4" slices and dry them for a snack.

Shake The Salt Habit
Use herbs and spices to add interest, not sodium, to foods.  Fill salt shakers with salt-free herb/spice mixtures, or make your own custom blends for different uses.  For every molecule of salt the body retains a molecule of water, thus increases your volume and then your blood pressure.

Brewing Trouble
Caffeine can speed potassium loss and raise your blood pressure.  Make fresh-squeezed orange juice your breakfast beverage to avoid caffeine and thus up your intake of potassium.

Bean There, Done That
Beans, especially kidney, lima, pinto and lentils, are good sources of potassium, as are nuts.  Another plus: walnuts are also high in heart-healthy oils.  Add lima beans to salads, toss lentils with steamed spinach and olive oil, sprinkle chopped walnuts on grain dishes.

Pass The Butter
Use olive oil instead of butter.  Drizzle it on steamed veggies, and serve whole-grain bread with a small dish of olive oil and chopped fresh rosemary.  After following a very low-fat diet and your blood pressure is still high, consider adding a tablespoon of olive oil to your daily diet.  It is a great laxative too.

Change Of Life
Couch potatoes, hear this: even with dietary changes, lifestyle changes are necessary!  The top three are: quit smoking, lose weight and get moving!

References:
“Ten Tips To Lower Blood Pressure,” www.veggielife.com, Summer 2001; 29.
“Salt Intake And Blood Pressure In Humans,” Contemporary Nutrition, General Mills Nutrition Department, Vol 13, No. 8, 1988.
“Diet And Cancer: What Do We Know, So Far?” Your Patient & Cancer, Condensed from Mazola’s Nutritional Material, June 1982, 49-60.
Roubenoff, R.A, “Nutritional Risk Factors in Cardiovascular Disease. Part Five: Fast Foods-High Fat, High Sodium Fare,” Choices in Cardiology, Vol 2, No. 5; 253-254.



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