Diet For Lowering High Blood Potassium

Potassium is a mineral in your blood that helps your heart beat normally, your nerves communicate with one anther and maintains proper fluid balance in your body. However, if you have a condition like kidney disease that affects your body's ability to filter potassium, your doctor may recommend that you limit your daily dietary potassium intake to prevent excess potassium from building up in your blood, which can affect your blood and body functioning.

Daily Intake

The daily recommended intake for a person without potassium-related health complications is 4,700 mg of potassium per day. However, if you have a condition like kidney disease that affects your blood potassium levels, you may need to consume between 1,500 and 2,700 mg of potassium a day, according to UpToDate. Because most foods contain potassium, you can choose low-potassium foods to make this daily intake goal. Foods considered high in potassium are those that have more than 250 mg per serving. You should pay careful attention to serving sizes when eating a low-potassium diet to ensure low-potassium foods do not become high-potassium ones.

Grains

For low-potassium servings of grains, limit your portions to about 1/2 cup. Low-potassium grain choices include rice, noodles and pasta. Your bread or bread products choices should be refined grains like white bread. Whole-grain foods tend to be high in potassium and you should avoid them. Angel food cake, cookies that do not contain nuts or chocolate, or pies that do not have high-potassium fruits are all dessert options on your low-potassium diet as well.

Vegetables

Vegetables tend to be high in potassium. However, low-potassium options do exist if you stick to 1/2 cup portion sizes. Some vegetables to include in your diet are alfalfa sprouts, green beans, cooked carrots, corn, kale, lettuce, mixed vegetables, onions, peppers and water chestnuts. Another option is to leach high-potassium vegetables like white and sweet potatoes. This process helps reduce the total potassium in a vegetable. To leach, peel and slice the vegetables, and then rinse them in warm water. Soak the vegetables in warm water for at least two hours. Rinse them again, then cook them in about five times as much water as the amount of vegetable.

Fruits

Low-potassium fruit options include a medium apple or 1/2 cup of blueberries, blackberries, cherries or cranberries. Mandarin oranges, peaches, pears, plums and raspberries also are low-potassium fruits. UpToDate recommends limiting your intake to 1 to 3 fruit servings of low-potassium fruits per day.

Protein Sources

On a low-potassium diet, you should limit your protein sources. You can have 1 to 2 servings of dairy daily such as a 1-oz. serving of cheddar or Swiss cheese or 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. Limit your servings of meat to 3 to 7 servings of low-potassium choices per day, which can include 3 oz. of chicken, turkey and tuna. Other low-potassium protein options include walnuts, almonds, cashews and peanuts -- but limit your serving size to 1 oz.