The Perfect (Heart Healthy) Baked Potato

Looking for a great recipe for your heart healthy diet? Bring baked potatoes into your menu.

The USDA nutrition facts on a (raw) baked potato: 610mg potassium, 8mg sodium, 0.16g fat - that's a whopping 76:1 potassium to sodium ratio with almost zero fat! Incredible!

Ok, I know, eating a raw baked potato is not that exciting. So, let's dress up a baked potato into a heart healthy (high potassium, low sodium, low fat) treat with some of the following additional ingredients:

• Add an 1/8 to 1/4 a cup of low fat (2%) mozzarella cheese.
• Add a tablespoon or so of a low sodium salsa of your choosing.
• Add a 1/2 to 1 cup of steamed broccoli.
• Add a 1/2 to 1 cup of potassium rich vegetable medley.

Note: DO NOT add butter to your baked potato - you may as well kiss your heart goodbye by destroying the potato in this way. Add the low fat mozzarella cheese directly to the potato (before the other ingredients) and it will serve the same purpose as butter (but taste better and feel better).

Topping your baked potato with a selection of these ingredients gives you a ton of flavor with a wonderful potassium:sodium gift to your heart:

Ingredients	P(otassium)/S(odium)/F(at) Counts
Baked Potato	610mg P, 8mg S, 0.16g F	610mg P, 8mg S, 0.16g F	610mg P, 8mg S, 0.16g F	610mg P, 8mg S, 0.16g F
1/4 cup Low Fat Mozzarella	40mg P, 180mg S, 5g F	40mg P, 180mg S, 5g F	40mg P, 180mg S, 5g F	40mg P, 180mg S, 5g F
1 TBSP Low Sodium Salsa	40mg P, 43mg S, 0g F	40mg P, 43mg S, 0g F	40mg P, 43mg S, 0g F	40mg P, 43mg S, 0g F
1/2 cup Steamed Broccoli	130mg P, 10mg S, 0.1g F
1 cup Steamed Broccoli		261mg P, 20mg S, 0.2g F
1/2 cup Vegetable Medley			424mg P, 6mg S, 0.6g F
1 cup Vegetable Medley				848mg P, 12mg S, 1.2g F
Nutrition Facts	820mg P, 241mg S, 5.26g F	951mg P, 251mg S, 5.36g F	1114mg P, 237mg S, 5.76g F	1538mg P, 243mg S, 6.35g F
Potassium:Sodium Ratio	3.4:1	3.8:1	4.7:1	6.3:1

Summary: dress up a baked potato with low fat mozzarella & salsa for flavor, veggies for flavor & potassium and wind up with a tasty 3:1 to 6:1 high potassium/low sodium/low fat treat for your heart healthy meal.

Consider this... If you use 1/8 a cup of mozzarella (instead of 1/4) and do not find this as a sacrifice to taste, then your baked potato treat is a whopping 5:1 to 10:1 treat!

Revised Nutrition with 1/8 cup of Mozzarella instead of 1/4
Nutrition Facts	800mg P, 151mg S, 2.75g F	931mg P, 161mg S, 2.86g F	1094mg P, 147mg S, 3.26g F	1518mg P, 153mg S, 3.85g F
Potassium:Sodium Ratio	5.3:1	5.8:1	7.4:1	9.9:1

A Potassium Rich Vegetable Medley

Taking my background research in beans, frozen veggies and salsas, I created the following recipe for a delicious and heart healthy vegetable medley.

Preparation:

1. A can of high potassium/low sodium black or kidney beans: 2400 mg potassium, 35 mg sodium, 3.5 g fat.
2. 2/3 cup of (steamed or boiled) high potassium/low sodium lima beans: 640 mg potassium, 3 mg sodium, 0.5 g fat.
3. 1 cup of (steamed or boiled) high potassium/low sodium peas: 350 mg potassium, 8 mg sodium, 0.6 mg fat.

Mix these 3 ingredients and place in a sealed tupperware container to refrigerate between servings. The mixture should remain fresh for at least 7-10 days and yield about 4-5 servings.

Serving:

1. Roughly 1 to 1-1/4 a cup of the bean/pea mixture (about 1/4 of the preparation): 848 mg potassium, 12 mg sodium, 1.2 g fat.
2. 1 tablespoon (or less, depending on preference) of a low sodium salsa of your choosing (I like a corn relish or mango/peach salsa, among others): 40 mg potassium, 43 mg sodium, 0 g fat.
3. 1/8 a cup of low fat (2%) mozzarella cheese: 20 mg potassium, 90 mg sodium, 2.5 g fat.

Mix the bean/pea selection, salsa & mozzarella and serve cold.

That's it - a small amount of preparation for 4-5 servings and then a quick "mix & serve". What do you get? A delicious potassium rich vegetable medley to add as a salad component to any meal. The final analysis of each serving: 908mg potassium, 145mg sodium, 3.7g of fat - a 6:1 potassium:sodium recipe that is low in fat and tasty to eat!

A variation I often do on this recipe: skip the mozzarella and mix just the beans, peas and salsa. The result: 888mg potassium, 55mg sodium, 1.2g fat - a 16:1 tasty potassium:sodium recipe!

Read the Labels: Frozen Veggies

Vegetables are good for you, we all know that. But, which vegetables are best for your high potassium, low sodium, low fat heart healthy diet?

First off, let's focus on frozen vegetables for this post - frozen veggies are typically easy on your budget and easy on time to prepare. Going over the USDA facts in my reference data, I came across 3 vegetable gems that appeal to my taste buds and my heart healthy goals:

1. Peas (1 cup): 347 mg potassium, 8 mg sodium, 0.6 g fat (55:1 potassium:sodium).
2. Broccoli (1 cup): 261 mg potassium, 20 mg sodium, 0.2 g fat (13:1 potassium:sodium).
3. Lima Beans (1 cup): 955 mg potassium, 4 mg sodium, 0.7 g fat (239:1 potassium:sodium).

Wow, these are impressive potassium:sodium gems. So it seemed easy: go to the store, buy frozen peas, broccoli and lima beans and start adding to my diet. Oh, if only it was that easy...

Frozen Peas:

Kroger is the "store brand" at my local grocery store. So, buy Kroger frozen peas to save money and be healthy, right? WRONG! Take a look at the image to the left showing the nutrition facts of Kroger frozen peas. Look at the sodium line: 200 mg! You have got to be kidding - they added sodium to my peas. Scouring the frozen food shelves, I could not find a variety of peas from Kroger that did not have a huge amount of sodium - Ugh!

Kroger failed on peas, so I started scanning the nutrition facts on all the different brands of peas. Finally, I found Birds Eye with the same nutrition factsheet shown to the left. 0 mg of sodium, now that's a frozen vegetable remaining true to its fresh standards. Why on earth is Kroger adding sodium to their peas? Thanks to Birds Eye, I do not care - they cost about twice what the Kroger sodium bombs run; but they are healthy and good for my heart (and still less than 30 cents a serving).

Frozen Broccoli:

The Kroger frozen pea fiasco sure had me weary when I started my broccoli scan. But, see the nutrition facts to the left. Kroger frozen broccoli has only 20 mg of sodium - NICE! They can do it with broccoli but not with peas, go figure. Anyway, I now have the store brand frozen broccoli in my freezer - a cost effective & 13:1 gem to incorporate in my meals.





Frozen Lima Beans:

Ok, now on to lima beans. The Kroger brand comes in 2 types: Ford Hook with 5 mg of sodium and Baby with 240 mg of sodium. Argh - their they go again, adding 240 mg of sodium to baby lima beans. Why - don't ask me, I will just move on and add Kroger Ford Hook Frozen Lima Beans to my freezer: cost effective and a 239:1 potassium:sodium gem for my meals.

Kroger Ford Hook Lima Beans

Kroger Baby Lima Beans

Summary:

"Read the labels," have I said that before? It was amazing what a sodium spectrum I found in the frozen vegetable section of the store. But, alas, healthy is possible if you just read the labels.

I now have extremely cost effective broccoli & lima beans and affordable peas as staples in my hearth healthy list of ingredients.