Adjust Your Diet
A poor diet that’s high in processed foods containing lots of sodium, leads to An electrolyte imbalance,
low in electrolytes like magnesium or potassium, paves the way for a dangerous imbalance. In many cases, a minor electrolyte imbalance can be corrected by simply making dietary changes and cutting way back on junk foods, while instead cooking more fresh foods at home.
Focus your diet on — plenty of vegetables and fruits that provide potassium and magnesium. Some of the best include leafy greens, cruciferous veggies like broccoli or cabbage, starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes or squash, bananas, and avocados.
A diet that’s rich in magnesium or potassium likely can be enough to solve problems like low potassium levels that can lead to blood pressure problems or magnesium deficiency that can contribute to anxiety, restlessness and muscle cramps.
A diet that’s rich in magnesium or potassium likely can be enough to solve problems like low potassium levels that can lead to blood pressure problems or magnesium deficiency that can contribute to anxiety, restlessness and muscle cramps.
To prevent dehydration and restore electrolytes, focus on these foods —
- Cucumber
- Celery
- Kefir, yogurt
- Pineapple
- Watermelon
- Kiwi
- Bell peppers
- Orange
- Carrots
- Coconut water
Another thing to consider is whether you’re consuming enough calcium. With or without eating dairy products, it’s possible to get calcium from leafy greens, other veggies, beans and legumes. To obtain enough calcium naturally without needing supplements, consider adding high-quality and ideally raw dairy products to your diet if you can tolerate them. Foods like organic probiotic yogurt, cultured raw cheeses and raw milk provide high levels of electrolytes in addition to other important nutrients.
2. Monitor Your Sodium Intake
When you do consume packaged or processed foods, check the sodium levels. Sodium is an electrolyte that plays a significant part in the body’s ability to retain or release water, so if your diet is very high in sodium, more water is excreted by the kidneys, and this can cause complications with balancing other electrolytes.
Here’s how sodium works within the body: Essentially, water follows salt, which means if you increase sodium too much, water retention also occurs. At the same time, the opposite is also true: A loss in sodium results in a loss in water, potentially causing dehydration and extreme thirst. Hypernatremia (the name of the condition that develops when either too much water is lost or too much sodium is obtained) is more common among older adults, people with diabetes and those who eat heavily processed diets. People can also lose a high level of sodium through diarrhea, taking certain diuretics or laxatives, and exercising to extreme levels and overtraining without staying hydrated — all of which cause problems of their own.