According to Danish scientists, consumption of potassium -rich foods such as avocado, bananas or spinach can reduce the risk of heart disease, hospitalization and death by up to 24 percent. Previous research shows that the restriction of salt in food significantly benefits the heart. Potassium increases the amount of salt that the body removes from the bloodstream. Scientists therefore They examined whether an increase in its income could benefit people by reducing cardiovascular risk.
“The human body has developed on a potassium rich and sodium of a poor diet – at a time when we feeded on fruit and vegetables. Now we eat with modern industrially processed foods that are increasingly sodium and less potassium. The ratio has changed from 10: 1 to 1: 2 – which is a dramatic change. Potassium is crucial for heart activity. We know from the monitoring studies that low potassium levels increase the risk of arrhythmias, heart failure and death. We also know that potassium levels can be raised. The simple question we asked was: will benefit patients when we increase potassium intake? ” He said the chief author, Professor Henning Bundgaard of the University of Copenhagen.
1,200 patients in Denmark with heart implants (ICD) were involved in the study. Half of them received dietary recommendations to increase potassium intake. “We have a list of food we provided to patients. We followed the general nutritional recommendations, the so -called. food pyramid. White radish, beetroot, cabbage and the like have a high potassium content. We did not recommend the meat, although it is rich in potassium, because it also contains a lot of sodium and it counteracts the effect of potassium, ” Vysvetlil Bundgaard.
The results of the experimental study show that an increase in blood potassium levels was associated with a statistically significantly lower risk – twenty -four percent – cardiac difficulties, heart -related hospitalization or death from any cause. The data was presented at the Congress of the European Cardiology Society in Madrid, the world’s largest cardiology conference.
