Cholesterol is a type of lipid, or fat, that your liver produces daily to help with digestion. Despite negative perceptions, cholesterol performs many vital functions in your body that keep you well. Potassium is a type of electrolyte that helps maintain healthy nerve communication and muscle contraction. Although there is evidence a high-potassium diet can lower your cholesterol, more research needs to establish a strong connection between potassium and cholesterol levels, according to dietitian Ellen Coleman, author of "Ultimate Sports Nutrition."
Function
Cholesterol is a component of all cell membranes that form a barrier between the cell's internal structure and its external fluid environment. Cholesterol regulates what goes in and out of the cell, makes up bile acids and helps to form steroid hormones, such as estrogen. Because a potassium-rich diet is plant-based, it helps reduce your cholesterol level and decrease your risks of heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke.
Potassium works with calcium and sodium to maintain proper nerve impulse conduction, nerve communication and muscle contraction, according to biologist George Mateljan, author of "World's Healthiest Foods." Cells have channels that move electrolytes, such as potassium and sodium, in and out of them. When the concentrations of potassium and sodium exchange between the environments inside and outside the cell, the process allows nerve impulses to properly conduct from one cell to the next.
Sources
Cholesterol is abundant in all animal sources, such as milk, beef, poultry, fish, pork and most fried foods. According to Mateljan, the best sources of potassium include potatoes, bananas, crimini mushrooms, romaine lettuce, spinach, melons and citrus fruits. Two cups of romaine lettuce contain 325 mg of potassium, 1 cup of boiled spinach contains 838 mg and one orange contains 237 mg.
Few animal sources contain enough potassium. One cup of 2-percent milk contains 377 mg of potassium and 4 oz. of scallops has 445 mg.
Recommended Intake and Level
The American Heart Association recommends you keep your total cholesterol level below 200 mg per deciliter of blood, which is equivalent to four or five grains of sand in every half cup of blood.
The Linus Pauling Institute recommends you take about 2,300 mg of potassium a day if you are an adult female and 3,100 mg a day if you are an adult male.
Toxicity
Too much cholesterol increases your risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure and liver disease. Too much potassium in the long term can cause hyperkalemia, which is the condition when your kidneys' rate of excreting potassium is below the amount of potassium accumulating in your blood, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. This causes irregular heartbeats, tingling hands and feet, muscle weakness and even cardiac arrest.
Deficiency
Potassium deficiency, or hypokalemia, prevents nerve impulses from conducting through your central nervous system, nerve fibers and muscles. This causes muscle weakness, muscle spasm, abdominal pain, cramps and bloating.
Although cholesterol deficiency is rare, it can cause depression, anxiety and other mental disorders. This is common among people who are suffering from gastrointestinal infections.
References
- Linus Pauling Institute: Potassium
- World's Healthiest Foods: Potassium
- American Heart Association: What Your Cholesterol Levels Mean
- "Ultimate Sports Nutrition"; Ellen Coleman; 2004
