“Avocados?” I was incredulous.
“Oh, yes. And, of course, bananas.”
I knew about the bananas. When I just to jog [before my knees interfered], I would come back after 10 or more miles and devour banana nectar. Loved the stuff. That potassium hit was supreme restoration. The sugar was not bad, too.
Now, I was being told to avoid one of my favorite fruits. And avocoados to boot. [I know, avocados are fruit, just like bananas, but I find it hard to consider them a fruit. More like nirvana.]
I was having a conversation with an assistant to a urologist. I was paying a painful visit because I was in the midst of an attack of kidney stones. The assistant was giving me a list of foods to avoid. The key: keep your potassium consumption low.
Thing is, the night before, when I was having bad muscle spasms from the stones, I was eating comfort food — guacamole — and plying my pain with a banana daiquiri. Now I was learning why I just might have been aggravating my situation.
I was given two lists: foods with high potassium to avoid and foods that are low in potassium and safe. Having learned a painful lesson, I thought I would pass the information along. Yes, I think I won’t have any issue avoiding prune juice. And chocolate, well, I certainly can cut down from my daily one pound. 15, maybe even 14 ounces.
Life is not fair.
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Foods High in Potassium To Avoid |
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| Fruit | Avocados, bananas, coconut, dates, dried fruits, figs, kiwi, mango, nectarines, oranges and orange juice, prunes and prune juice, raisins |
| Vegetables | Artichokes, baked beans, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage [raw], carrots ]raw], chard, olives, potatoes [white and sweet], pickles, pumpkin, rutabaga, squash, tomatoes and tomato juice |
| Proteins | Black beans, clams, ground beef, kidney beans, pinto beans, salmon, sardines, scallops, steak, whitefish |
| Other | Chocolate, dairy products, granola, milk, peanut butter, soups that are salt-free or low-sodium, soy milk, sports drinks, tomato sauce, wheat bran and bran products, whole-grain bread, yogurt |
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Foods Low in Potassium |
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| Fruit | Apple juice, apples and applesauce, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, grapefruit, grapes and grape juice, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, raspberries, strawberries, watermelon |
| Vegetables | Alfalfa sprouts, asparagus, cabbage [cooked], carrots [cooked], cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, green peas, green peppers, kale, lettuce, okra, onions, radish, rhubarb, spinach, water chestnuts, wax beans, yellow squash, zucchini |
| Proteins | Almonds, cashew, chicken, eggs, flax seeds, shrimp, sunflower seeds, tuna, turkey, walnuts |
Source: Wolters Kluwer Health and www.uptodate.com