Video: How Does Potassium Help Your Body?

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Potassium, referred to as one of the electrolytes, is used to regulate fluid balance and for stimulating the kidneys to remove waste products. Discover the benefits of potassium with tips from a licensed dietitian in this free video on nutrition.

Video Transcript

My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic and I'm going to talk to you about how our bodies use potassium. Potassium is another mineral that is referred to as one of the electrolytes. It works in concert with sodium to regulate fluid balance. It also actually stimulates our kidneys to remove waste products. And it can help with our skin health. In addition to those particular functions potassium is also responsible for helping regulate blood pressure. So it's very effective at lowering blood pressure. It's very important to balance between sodium and potassium. Often times people will consume excess of amounts of sodium and that actually ends up increasing our blood pressure. When people consume too much sodium a lot of times that sodium is replacing potassium so it's very important that you make sure that you make an effort to actually include a lot of high potassium foods. When people think about high potassium a lot of times people think of bananas, that's the most common thing that pops into people's minds. But there are actually many other choices. Potatoes actually have even more potassium in them then bananas do. Cantaloupe is another fruit that has more potassium in it then bananas. Some other good sources, apricots and oranges and orange juice. Avocados as well the only caution with avocados is that it does have a lot of fat. So if you are working on weight management you want to make sure if you use avocado that it's a small portion. So there's many different ways to actually get a lot of potassium in your diet. Remember potassium is actually used for fluid regulation, to maintain your skin health, to regulate your acid balance, to help stimulate your kidneys to release waste products and to actually lower your blood pressure. So just a little information for you on how our bodies use potassium.

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How Does Potassium Help Your Body?

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