When you go to the doctor and the nurse shakes her head at your high blood pressure (also called hypertension), you may not be able to blame it on your salt bagel cravings or your old Aunt Thelma. New research shows it could be caused by your lack of potassium. Of the over 3,000 women who were tested, the ones with high blood pressure had low levels of potassium in their urine. It turns out these Read more

Bananas are great sources of potassium, but eating one of these yellow fruits won't be enough to supply your body with the recommended daily intake (RDI) of this important mineral. Every day, you need to make sure to get 4,200 mg of potassium for digestion, to maintain healthy blood pressure, to carry out muscle contractions, and also for proper nerve, kidney, and heart functions. Since potassium Read more

Potatoes, reviled during the low-carb days of yore, are once again showing up on many American plates. Labor Day means potato salad, and potato salad means boiling potatoes. I just read in the Berkeley Wellness Letter that you should boil your potatoes unpeeled and whole, which is easy to do if you buy the small red-skinned variety. Potatoes are a great source of potassium, especially the skin, Read more

I'm sure when you hear the word potassium, you automatically think of bananas. While it's true that they're great sources of this valuable mineral, many other foods contain potassium too. Before I get into that you should know how much you need everyday and why you need it. The RDI of potassium is 4,200 mg. Potassium is necessary for maintaining blood pressure, proper nerve, kidney, and heart Read more

I know there are many people out there who go out of their way to avoid eating mushrooms. They feel they are not missing anything, nutritionally speaking, by picking out the edible fungus from their meals. Things couldn't be farther from the truth, so I thought I should clear up some misconceptions concerning mushrooms. Not only are mushrooms a low calorie food, containing only 18 calories per Read more

I crave greens, no matter the season. When it is cold outside, I often choose a cooked green over salads. I just want to eat warm food. One of my favorites greens to cook is Swiss chard, and it comes in colors too. The leaves are green, but the stems and veins can be white, yellow or red. The red is my favorite since the color combination is quite dramatic. Not only is it tasty, and similar to Read more

Dear FitSugar, Since you have been covering a lot of ground on sodium and potassium, I heard that sodium and potassium levels compete with each other, so if the presence of one mineral rises, the amount of the other drops. Is that true? I thought this was an interesting question, but a little out of my league, so I asked my friend, nutritionist Rania Batayneh, MPH of Essential Nutrition For You. Read more