Low Potassium Foods for Diabetics

Diabetes is one of the most common diseases among adults in the US. It is challenging to manage your diet with diabetes. You may need to meet a professional nutritionist who can suggest you suitable food if you have diabetes.

Along with other minerals, it is essential to take the right amount of potassium in your diet to keep your nerves and muscles healthy. Excessive potassium can cause serious heart problems. Food that is high in potassium can lead to complications and risks of diabetes. You need to focus on your diet if you have diabetes. 

Also, take advice from your health care provider about the right amount of nutrients to include in your diet as preserving each day. Because you need to take each nutrient in a certain amount, your doctor can help you in this case.

Potassium is present in almost every food. Typically people take about 3500 to 4500 milligrams of potassium per day. As per the report from the US panel on Dietary Reference Intake, the adequate amount of potassium intake is about 4.7 g per day for adults. 

Here is the list of foods for diabetes that have low potassium. The following foods can produce healthy results since they can maintain the right potassium level in your body. 

Low Potassium Foods for Diabetes

Potassium is a mineral that is present throughout your body and is essential for muscle function. The kidney controls the amount of potassium in your blood. When your kidneys do not function properly, your potassium level is likely to get high. High levels of potassium make you feel unfit and are also harmful to your heart condition. In more severe cases, it affects heart rhythm and can lead to a heart attack.

Proper dietary intake can help control potassium levels but make sure to take appropriate nutrients since it is essential for a healthy body. The purpose is to select the food with enough minerals and not cause an imbalance in the diet. However, a healthy diet for diabetics includes fruits, vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats, sugar, less salt, and other healthy foods.

List of Low Potassium Foods

It is possible to control potassium levels with the help of taking foods that are low in potassium. In addition, the doctor may suggest a medical plan to control potassium in your body that may also include dialysis. Check this list of foods that are low in potassium.

There is a specific type of bread that has low potassium and is a good option for diabetes. The bread includes white, wholemeal, granary chapatti, naan bread, pitta bread, croissant plain bread, crumpets, muffins, and bagels. 

If you have diabetes, you need to limit your cereals containing fruits like coconut and nuts. Conversely, you can include low-fiber cereals in your diet. It can include cornflakes and cheerios. Additionally, you can take porridge, whole grain cereals like Weetabix, shredded wheat, etc.

Being a diabetes patient, you can include potatoes in your diet, but you should limit its intake to 150g portion per day. You can eat potatoes in roasted, mashed, or fried form. You may also make pasta, noodles, and rice. Make sure not to eat potato crisps, jacket potatoes, chips, and processed potato products.

Low potassium fruits and vegetables can be healthy for you if you are a diabetic patient. You can take fruits like apples, blackberries, aubergine, blueberries, and cherries. 

In addition, vegetables may include beetroot, broccoli, Clementine, cabbage, boiled/carrots, cauliflower, celery, lime courgette, cucumber, gherkins, nectarine, lettuce, mushrooms, and mixed vegetables. Further, you may add grape juice, pineapple juice, strawberries, cranberry juice, and raspberries to your diet.

In addition to vegetables and fruits, some sources of protein that have low potassium levels are eggs, beef, canned tuna, poultry, and certain types of cheeses. 

Moreover, you can include low carbohydrate food in your diet with low potassium levels, like white rice, white pasta, white bread, and some corn products like cornmeal grits and polenta. 

Alcohol consumption can be harmful to diabetes, but you can take a specific amount of alcoholic beverages, like 1 pint of beer per day. Your health care provider can suggest better about the right amount of alcohol intake. Make sure you do not exceed the daily limit of potassium intake.

Salt is also high in potassium. While buying salt, you need to check if the list includes potassium chloride as an ingredient. Some commercial baked goods may also increase your potassium level, so make sure to avoid them.

The Link between Potassium and Diabetes

Our body processes the foods we eat and turns them into a sugar called glucose. Glucose is essential for energy. In addition, insulin is an important hormone produced by the pancreas. The body uses insulin to help spread glucose into cells throughout the body. Diabetic patients face difficulty because either their body is unable to make or use insulin efficiently.

It is rather challenging to prevent type 1 diabetes. However, it is possible to prevent type 2 diabetes. It usually occurs in people aged 35 or older.

At the same time, potassium is an electrolyte and mineral that maintains fluids in your body. It can help in muscle contraction without pain and maintain your heartbeat at an average level. Also, it increases your brain functionality at the highest level.

Maintaining the right potassium level is essential to avoid muscle cramps and other severe conditions like seizures. Experts claim that there is an association between low potassium levels and diabetes.

How to keep Potassium Levels in Control?

Potassium supports the cells and important functions, including kidneys, heart, nerves, and muscles. It has interaction with sodium. If your body does not have the right potassium level, it may be harmful. Like, high sodium levels can increase blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke. 

• The first and foremost thing is to limit food intake that is high in potassium. 
• Make sure to eat a diet in moderation.
• Avoid using the liquid present in canned vegetables and fruits. Also, do not use the juice from cooked meat. 
• Almost every food has potassium but in different amounts. Make sure to take a proper diet because a large amount of food with low potassium tends to have high sodium. 

How to Deal with High Potassium level?

Suppose you have diabetes and your potassium level is high. In that case, your health care provider will suggest you limit your potassium intake. Food containing high potassium is tomatoes, legumes, cantaloupe, bananas, etc. It does not mean that you need to avoid it altogether. 

The thing is to consume these foods in the right amount and keep monitoring your potassium level. Also, make sure not to take potassium supplements unless a professional dietitian recommends you. A trained dietitian can help you select a low potassium food meal plan. In addition, they may recommend some medicines like sodium polystyrene sulfonate that can remove high potassium from your body. 

As mentioned above, the suggested amount of potassium per day is 4.7 grams to maintain the right potassium level. You can manage it by monitoring your daily potassium intake by focusing on the food you eat. 

Following are the best food sources for maintaining the fluctuation in potassium levels.

• Plain yogurt
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Kidney beans
• Fruits like avocado and peach
• Fish like salmon, cod, and tuna

Make sure to limit the use of processed food because they do not have the right amount of potassium. If you sweat excessively, you can add banana smoothies to your diet. It can balance potassium in your body. 

The Pro-Tip

You can minimize the potassium levels in some vegetables through a cooking process called leaching. You need to soak vegetables like sweet potatoes, beets, winter squash, and carrots before cooking.

How can you do it?

• You need to fill a pot with warm water, peel the vegetables and rinse them well in warm water. After that, cut the vegetables into 1/8th inch thick slices. Then rinse the pieces again and soak them in warm water for some time.
• After some time, you need to rinse them again with warm water, then drain them through water and cook the vegetable. The water will pull out some of the potassium from the food.
• Take the right amount of potassium intake per day

Bottom Line

Potassium is an essential mineral that is good for the functioning of the body. For diabetic patients, doctors suggest a low potassium diet to prevent the excessive use of this mineral. A higher level of potassium in diabetes can cause specific health problems. So, it is essential to monitor potassium levels properly and keep them in control. 

Sources

The best foods to help lower potassium levels

What is potassium and why is it important to you?

Diabetes and Kidney Disease: What to Eat?