Low Potassium Diet
Before getting into why a low potassium diet is needed, do you know what potassium does for your body? It is a mineral that helps maintain a normal blood pressure level and also helps the different muscles contract properly. And the largest muscle of all, the heart, benefits too. You can find potassium in a number of foods like grains, milk, fruit, beans and more.

There are a number of reasons why a doctor may prescribe a low potassium diet. For instance, if you have kidney problems or certain medications are raising your potassium levels. When you have certain kidney conditions, too much potassium can build up in the blood and can cause irregular heartbeats, disorientation and even a heart attack. A diet plan for low potassium is the best bet to combat the problem. Diabetics are often the ones with the different kidney problems. Therefore, your doctor may prescribe a low potassium diabetic diet or renal low potassium diet with low sodium too. Sometimes, too much salt can also work in tandem with the high potassium levels to cause the kidney problems.
As a sidebar, there are also reasons for a high potassium diet. If you have hypertension and need a dietary way to lower your blood pressure, a diet high in potassium can help regulate it. However, if you also have the kidney problems in tandem with the hypertension, your doctor will definitely prescribe a low sodium diet and will have to work with you on other dietary needs.

Back to the problem of needing a diet for high potassium levels, you can find a low potassium diet plan on the internet as well as magazine, through your doctor and your best bet, through a nutritionist. In fact, once your doctor prescribes a diet plan for low potassium levels, he will likely suggest seeing a qualified nutritionist to help plan a menu for a low potassium diet. While you can probably figure out a diet for high potassium levels, why bother when you can get expert help?

Of course, a nutritionist can only go so far in providing a low potassium diet for you. You need more variety! This is where the internet comes in. Did you know that you can find plenty of recipes for a low potassium diet online? Not only that, you can order a cookbook for low potassium diets too. A low potassium cookbook will have choices for every meal of the day including beverages, snacks and desserts. Plus, you may also find ethnic varieties of a low potassium diet as well. There is a Vietnamese low potassium diet and you can probably find even more like Mexican or Italian.