Potassium in your diet: How to get more of a heart-healthy mineral

The labels on food packages may soon include the amount of potassium in the food. That's because the Food and Drug Administration's proposed changes to nutrition labels, announced on February this year, includes a requirement for listing potassium content.

Some Americans aren't getting enough potassium, a mineral that is beneficial in lowering blood pressure, in their diets, the FDA said in a statement. This proposed label change is one of many, but if the FDA is recognizing the need for increased dietary potassium, it may be time for us all to sit up and take notice.

How important is this mineral? Well, a 2011 study in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine found that Americans who eat a diet low in potassium were about twice as likely to die from a heart attack, compared with those whose diets have high levels of the mineral. The study doesn't prove cause-and-effect, but it does suggest a role of potassium in health.