As one of the alkali metal we could find in the nature, potassium is indeed important. While we might know it as its other name, Kalium, potassium has many benefits and role in the human body. This particular element is very important to be consumed by us in a balance state though, because too much potassium is dangerous for the body. Too little potassium is also not healthy as it will brings many negative effects that we will talk further in the article. Indeed, here are potassium uses and properties in daily life:
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Potassium Properties
Potassium is a chemical element with K symbol (which was taken from Neo-Latin, kalium) and has an atomic number of 19. It was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants (this is where the names come from). Potassium is one of the alkali metal in periodic table and occurs only in ionic salts. It can be dissolved in sea water and is part of many minerals in the body.
There are many things that should be taken into consideration when we are talking about potassium, as this particular chemical indeed has so many roles for our body. A necessary element to make sure that our body has the right fluid and electrolyte balance is just one of its various benefits.
Potassium is the third most abundant element in the body after calcium and magnesium. It is an absolute element that is needed by our body to make sure that some organs function properly. These organs are vitals, such as kidney, brain, heart, and muscular tissue.
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If you are consuming rich potassium food, you would definitely reaps many benefits as you should. What are they? Let’s find out the potassium uses and properties in daily life.
1. Boost Your Heart Health
To be alive means to have your hearth work as it should, this is definitely a no brainer. However, when we are consuming a good amount of potassium for our body, we could definitely feel better. The heartbeat rhythm that is good and balance is necessary in order for us to feel well. Potassium is having a great role in make sure that you have a good heartbeat. Therefore, if you have a problem with your hearth beat, potassium deficiency could definitely be taken into consideration.
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2. Decrease Cramps
Muscle weakness, muscle aches and muscle cramps are common signs of potassium deficiency. When you are consuming enough potassium in your day to day life, you could definitely lessen and cure all of these problems regarding your muscle power. Potassium is also helps for cramps in menstruation in women.
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3. Reduce the Risk of Getting Stroke
Studies found that people that is consuming a good amount of potassium is having a higher chance of avoiding strokes. The positive relation between the low risk of getting stroke and consuming of potassium is believed to be achieved when the people is using potassium rich food as their dietary source, and not merely their supplement.
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4. Alleviate High Blood Pressure
Studies shows that people nowadays consumed much sodium accompanied by lower potassium intake. This is definitely a recipe for disaster (a.k.a high blood pressure in this case). Consuming fruits and vegetables that contains high level of potassium has proven to be good for our blood pressure, this is especially true if the intake doesn’t accompanied by an also high level of sodium intake. People with kidney problem is advised to consume just enough amount of potassium as it could encourage more problems to their metabolism system.
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5. Reduce The Appearance of Cellulite
Most people nowadays consume far more sodium than they need and far less potassium. Cellulite usually appears because there is a fluid retention in the body and this could be reducing if we are taking an enough amount of potassium as this can effectively fight cellulite from the body. Sodium brings nutrients to your cells while potassium clears our excessive waste out of your cells.
6. Osteoporosis Protection
Studies has found that there is a direct correlation between consuming a good amount potassium and an increasing amount of bone density. Two potassium salts that are naturally found in rich potassium foods (citrate and bicarbonate) are tremendously helping us when it comes to strengthening our bones and therefore, lowering our chance of getting osteoporosis.
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7. Proper Food Processing and Growth
Potassium in the body could help you and make sure that your body grows as balance and as good as it should. It is very good in maintaining the balance of various nutrients in your body including carbohydrate. Potassium process and utilizing carbohydrate as well as building protein and muscle.
8. Maintaining The Balance in Our metabolism
Our body needs potassium in order to balancing our metabolism. Potassium helps our body to make sure that the excessive amount of anything will be gone and therefore, it keeps us healthy as it should be.
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9. Cure Insomnia
If we are having insomnia, this could be because we have some sharaf in our brains that are needed to be fixed. Potassium helps relaxing the brain cells and therefore release all the anxiety or whatever causes us to wake up in an inappropriate times. Curing insomnia is another benefits that we can definitely get from consuming enough potassium in our day to day life.
10. Prevent The Body from Dehydration
Consuming foods that are rich in potassium is really good for preventing our body from getting dehydration. This is because foods that are rich in potassium contains spare ions in the body that can be used whenever needed.
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So there you have it, top ten benefits of consuming potassium in your daily diet. Interesting, is it not?
Those ten are not even all benefits you can reap if you are consuming an enough amount of potassium for your body. Some other benefits are including :
- Potassium helps increase your energy
- Potassium helps balancing the water in the body
- Potassium helps reducing the risk of kidney stones
- Potassium helps neutralize the acid in the body
- Keeping the health of Brain
- Keeping the Skin health
- Maintaining the health of your body overall
- Preventing you from depression
- And many more
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Foods That Are Rich in Potassium
Too little potassium can deplete us out of our energy and therefore, we need to choose the right food to consumed. Below are the lists of top five foods that are rich in potassium and definitely good for our body (as long as we don’t consume it excessively).
1. Avocado
A whole fruit of avocado contains 1,067 milligrams of potassium and this is definitely one of our favourites when it comes to this list. Several studies has found that people who consume avocado in their daily life tend to have healthier diet overall as well as reducing their own risk of having metabolism diseases. The more nutrients are also guaranteed to entering our body when we consume avocado routinely.
2. Acorn Squash
Acorn squash are not that famous yet, but it definitely could’ve been more famous than this. This is because in one serving of acorn squash, we could get many antioxidants that are very much needed by our body. We can even find carotenoids in it, a type of antioxidants that are famous for being able to prevent some serious health condition like cancer. This is including skin cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. A cup of acorn squash can provide us with more or less 896 milligrams of potassium.
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3. Spinach
You can find as much as 839 milligrams of potassium in just a cup of cooked spinach. Popeye the sailor has his own reason when he use spinach to boost his energy levels at an instant, apparently. This is because not only spinach contains various health benefits in it, it could also helps us in preventing cancer. Yes, spinach contains an effective cancer fighting agent called chloroplast glycoglycerolipids.
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4. Sweet Potato
A large fruit of sweet potato contains about 855 milligrams of potassium inside of it. This is very good to consume (of course, not excessively) compare to the white potato as it has higher amounts of nutrients inside of it. You can also find high quantity of beta carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin B6 in sweet potatoes. Not only that, it is also a food that is very good for fighting peptic ulcers as there are many successful case effectively handled using only the consumption of sweet potatoes.
5. Salmon
Half-fillet of salmon contains about 755 milligrams of potassium. Other than that, it also contains many nutrients, vitamins, minerals and proteins, as well as omega-3 fatty acids. This essential acid could prevent us from having depression, hearth disease and stroke, as well as ADHD, high blood pressure and chronic skin pain like eczema. Consuming salmon regularly could be one of our strategy to lead a healthy and full of nutrients life.
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- Harmful Chemicals in Antibacterial Soap
- Harmful Cleaning Chemicals
So, are you interested in just grab those rich potassium yet and put it in your daily diet? Go for it, and feel your best as soon as possible!
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