Whether or not you eat a well-balanced breakfast in the morning, you should consider adding a banana to your morning routine because Experts Say Eating Bananas Everyday is Good For You. Here’s Why…
In a recent study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, they found that eating bananas can help prevent heart attacks and stroke! Isn’t that awesome?
The study was conducted on mice and they found that mice with reduced dietary potassium promotes elevated aortic stiffness in a mouse model, as compared with normal-potassium-fed mice. The mice with increased dietary potassium levels lessened vascular calcification and aortic stiffness. The same would hold true for humans.
A UAB team led by Yabing Chen, Ph.D., UAB professor of pathology and a Research Career Scientist at the Birmingham VA Medical Center, explored this mechanism of vascular disease three ways: living mice fed diets that varied in potassium, mouse artery cross-sections studied in culture medium with varying concentrations of potassium, and mouse vascular smooth muscle cells grown in culture medium.
Working from living mice down to molecular events in cells in culture, the UAB researchers determined a causative link between reduced dietary potassium and vascular calcification in atherosclerosis, as well as uncovered the underlying pathogenic mechanisms.
So, aside from eating bananas, what other foods are rich in potassium? Well, other foods include:
Potatoes
Spinach
Milk
Artichoke
Raisins
Broccoli
Carrots
Cauliflower
So, how much potassium is enough? Well, according to the National Institutes of Health, people ages 14 years of age and older should consume a minimum of 2,300 mg of potassium daily for females and 3,000 mg for males. The amount increases with age and depending on whether you are female or male (see the chart below).
Credit: National Institutes of Health
The conclusion is to increase your daily potassium to keep a healthy heart and avoid heart attacks or stroke. It is important at any age but especially important as you get older. Now go buy all the bananas!
In a recent study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, they found that eating bananas can help prevent heart attacks and stroke! Isn’t that awesome?
The study was conducted on mice and they found that mice with reduced dietary potassium promotes elevated aortic stiffness in a mouse model, as compared with normal-potassium-fed mice. The mice with increased dietary potassium levels lessened vascular calcification and aortic stiffness. The same would hold true for humans.
So, aside from eating bananas, what other foods are rich in potassium? Well, other foods include:
So, how much potassium is enough? Well, according to the National Institutes of Health, people ages 14 years of age and older should consume a minimum of 2,300 mg of potassium daily for females and 3,000 mg for males. The amount increases with age and depending on whether you are female or male (see the chart below).
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