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Yogurt for reducing edema (swelling)

Maintaining just the right amounts of water and salt in our bodies

Do your legs or feet often become so swollen at night that you have difficulty taking off your boots?
If so, perhaps yogurt could help you reduce this sort of swelling?

We asked the following questions to Ms. Hisako Yamauchi who is a registered dietitian.

What causes the swelling?

If it’s a young female suffering from swelling (i.e., edema), there are usually two main causes. First, the swelling might be caused by standing up or maintaining the same posture for a long time, as this causes your blood to go to the limbs and stay there, resulting in the buildup of fluid in those areas. As they are distant from the heart, it’s physically difficult for the blood to return. The other possible cause of edema is excessive salt intake. If you eat too much salt, your body becomes deficient in potassium, which helps rid the body of excess sodium. Many people suffering from edema are ingesting too much salt unknowingly, in the form of processed foods such as ham, sausages, and cured fish paste. This occurs more often with those who tend to eat out. When you go to traditional Japanese taverns, you may notice there are many salty things on the menu. People who fall into this category tend to be used to eating salty dishes, having lost their sensitivity to normal levels of taste signals.

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What can I do to effectively ease the swelling?

As far as physical activity is concerned, the best way to improve your swelling is to exercise and enhance your blood circulation. If you are an office worker, I recommend stretching once every hour, and also taking the stairs instead of elevators or escalators in the office, train stations, etc. Even such small actions are good. What’s important is not to remain in the same posture for a long period of time. You can also massage the areas around your ankles where the lymph flow might be restricted, or stick your fingers between the toes to rub and loosen the area. Another thing you can do is to take a nice relaxing bath, and get a good sleep. If you take good care of yourself every day, you won’t carry the damage from one day to the next. But if the swelling doesn’t go away for days even when you are getting enough sleep, or you push in the swollen area but it doesn’t bounce back quickly, your body might be sending a warning sign, in which case you should go see your physician.

How can I avoid consuming too much salt?

Potassium is a nutrient you can get enough of by normally eating three meals a day, so you should review your diet to improve its balance. You could make a conscious effort to eat more vegetables and fruits. In terms of vegetables, potatoes are high in potassium, which include sweet potatoes, potatoes, and taro. As potassium is water-soluble, I recommend cooking dishes that will allow you to drink the liquid containing the potassium from the boiled potatoes in addition to the potatoes themselves. As the weather gets warmer, one delicious and stylish culinary idea is to cook some cold soup with potato, such as vichyssoise. You can add some yogurt to it, to give it extra acidity and make it a refreshing dish. Eating a banana, some avocado and dried fruit like raisins is also a good idea. They are all perfect toppings for yogurt.

Top 10 rankings of fruits with the highest potassium content (per 100 g of edible part)

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If I eat a large amount of potassium in one meal, is it a problem?

Even if you eat a lot of potassium at once, your body will get rid of the excess, so it’s better to ingest potassium in small amounts every day. As eating is known to awaken the body, how about integrating yogurt and fruits into your regular breakfast menu? They don’t require much effort and are easy to eat quickly. If that’s difficult, you could have a banana, strawberries, and other fruits as snacks between lunch and dinner. Switching your usual tea to 100% pure orange or apple juice is also a convenient way to get your daily dose of potassium. While there are dietary supplements available, if you get your potassium in the form of natural whole foods, you can also gain many other nutrients at the same time. You can’t cram lots of potassium into your body for a couple of days and then forget about it. It’s important to be consistent by taking in potassium continuously. Keep this in mind as you improve your dietary lifestyle.