September 08, 2008
Preserve Muscle with Produce!
By Cynthia Sass
A banana a day may help keep your bones strong and preserve muscle! Here’s why: in a nutshell, potassium (which bananas are chock full of) protects your skeleton and your muscles. Here’s how it works: too much protein or too many acidic foods can create a slightly acidic environment in the body, which triggers calcium (a base) to get pulled out of bones to neutralize the acid.
We’ve known this for some time now, but a brand new study confirms that a high potassium intake can help keep calcium in bones where it belongs, because one of potassium’s “jobs” is to buffer acids in the body. Potassium can also help preserve muscle, since muscle tends to weaken in an acidic environment.
To assess the relationship between acidity, potassium, bone density and muscle mass, researchers at Tufts University looked at the diets of nearly 400 men and women who were part of a three-year intervention. Physical activity levels, heights, weights, and percentages of lean body mass were all measured at the beginning and end of the study. The researchers concluded that the adults with the highest potassium intakes would retain 3.6 more pounds of lean tissue mass.
Potassium is important for a number of reasons. It helps nerves and muscles function properly, and helps control blood pressure. In fact, potassium offsets the effect of sodium on blood pressure. But most of us aren’t getting nearly enough. The Dietary Guidelines recommend taking in at least 4,700 mg of potassium each day. Unfortunately, unlike sodium, the mg of potassium are not required to appear on food labels, so tracking how much you’re taking in can be tricky.
This list of potassium-rich foods may help – check out the mg per serving compared to the recommended 4,700 per day. How does your intake stack up?
Potatoes, baked – 1 medium - 1,081 mg
Lima beans – 1 cup – 955 mg
Tomato sauce, canned – 1 cup – 909 mg
Winter squash – 1 cup – 896 mg
Prunes, dried – 1 cup – 828 mg
Spinach, cooked – 1 cup – 839 mg
Bananas, fresh – 1 cup sliced – 594 mg
Raisins – 1/2 cup – 545 mg
Beets, cooked – 1 cup – 519 mg
Brussels sprouts, cooked – 1 cup – 504 mg
Orange juice – 1 cup – 496 mg
Cantaloupe – 1 cup – 494 mg
Melon, honeydew – 1 cup – 461 mg
Apricots, dried – 10 – 407 mg
Nectarines – 1 medium – 288 mg
Dates, dried – 5 – 271 mg
Figs, dried – 2 – 271 mg
Kiwi, raw – 1 medium – 252 mg
Oranges – 1 medium – 237 mg
Pears, fresh – 1 medium – 208 mg
Peanuts dry roasted, unsalted – 1/4 cup – 187 mg