Potassium-based food additives - like alginate and bicarbonate – serve as an excellent alternative for reducing the sodium intake of the body. These can be used in baking apart from thickening and other purposes.
Our body needs sodium to function, but too much of it can damage the health. Indeed, excess intake of salt can raise the blood pressure and water retention in the body, not to mention the risk of heart disease and strokes.
The problem here is that most people just don’t realize how much sodium they are consuming every day. This is not just limited to the salt that is added to food and drinks while cooking – it should be noted that this already exceeds the daily dietary requirement by multiple times! Many foods contain natural sodium and people are not aware of this, just because it does not taste salty.
To add to the above, most of the canned, processed and convenience foods contain food additives that are high in sodium – right from processed meats to salad dressings and even condiments. Consider breads or even muffins that contain sodium without people being any the wiser for it!
While cutting down on salt intake along with going easy on processed foods is always advisable, another option is to, say, replace the traditional sodium loading baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) with potassium bicarbonate.
Similarly, potassium alginate can be used in place of the traditional sodium alginate for low salt diets and sodium intake suppression, as their properties are quite similar. The potassium alternative will dissolve in both cold and warm water to form a viscous aqueous solution.
This seaweed extract works as a thickener, emulsifier, stabilizer, gelling agent and foaming agent too. It can increase the viscosity, maintain unform dispersal of substances or even make some ingredients take a gel form. It is primarily used in making confectionaries, frostings, gelatin, puddings, processed fruits and fruit juices. It is even finding good usage in health food applications as a dietary fiber.
Keep in mind that this potassium powder can absorb a lot of water – 200 to 300 times its own weight. Therefore, it even works as a filler substance or bulking agent.
Those who want to keep hypertension and heart attacks at bay, can choose to source their potassium bicarbonate and potassium alginate substitutes from Cape Crystal Brands (https://www.capecrystalbrands.com/). All food products available here are of top quality, FDA approved and offered at the most reasonable prices.