Potassium page

[Squeaker]

I've been tracking on fitday for the last couple of days and I seem to be routinely short on Potassium. While I am taking a very good multivitamin and mineral supplement, I'm still curious as to what the heck I'm missing.

What do you guys eat for primal sources of potassium?

[fxdwgmikeb]

Greens such as spinach, avocados, tomatoes, yogurt, tuna, bananas and melons are some good sources of potassium. Although not much supplies you with a full days worth of potassium, it is contained in many foods.

[Squeaker]

Ah, I'll make my BAS bigger in that case - more greens, toms and avocado for me! Nom nom nom. I'll make myself use tuna as the salad protein more often, too....its currently treated like bacon's ugly sister.

Thanks for that!

[TigerJ]

Yams! You can also do a search on nutritiondata.com for the highest foods, link here:

http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-0...0000000-w.html

There is a lot of non edible stuff but if you go to the individual categories it is easier to see the good foods. Also I don't have an article to link about this, but there is a relationship between sodium and potassium. When you eat less salt, the potassium you eat may be even more beneficial.

[Anand Srivastava]

I know it is not considered good but try good old potato.
A large potato 300gms will supply half your potassium requirement for the day.
Gram to gram Avocado is able to beat Potatoes, but others are way behind.
Banana is somewhat near but I think overall potato is better.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/v...roducts/2770/2

Reducing salt helps, as TigerJ mentioned above, but remember to supplement Iodine, the salt may be your main source of it.

[LittleNappingLion]

I started getting charlie horse-style cramping in my calves in the early AMs until I 1) started using that magnesium/calcium ionic "calm vitality" jazz before bed and 2) drinking the occasional container of coconut water
Together that's cleared up my muscle cramps that I wager were due to either/both magnesium & potassium deficiency.

[Canarygirl]

that magnesium/calcium ionic "calm vitality" jazz

What is this? I'm having the same problem with cramping in my calves.

[cillakat]

Ah, I'll make my BAS bigger in that case - more greens, toms and avocado for me! Nom nom nom. I'll make myself use tuna as the salad protein more often, too....its currently treated like bacon's ugly sister.

Thanks for that!

Tomatoes have the best calorieotassium ratio
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AV...drZnFmNw&hl=en
Primal Blueprint and Produce
Here's what The Primal Blueprint says about produce:

p40 TPB
"The gathering of berries and other fruit, leafy greens, primitive roots, shoots and other vegetation, nuts and seeds provide the bulk of Grok's food supply."

p.112 TPB
"'it may take some acclimation to center your diet around vegetables....Dont follow the example of restaurants that serve skimpy vegetable portions seemingly just for decoration; serve yourself heaping portions that crowd everything else on your plate"

p.111
"Plant foods..naturally promote a beneficial balance between acidity and alkalinity..inyour bloodstream. Almost all cells prefer a slightly alkaline environment to function properly, but many metabolic processes, including the normal production of cellular energy, result in the release of acidic waste products. The buildup of acidic waste is toxic to your body so it works very hard at all times to preserve a slightly alkaline environment, measured by the familiar pH levels."

p110 TPB
see food pyramid: the base is produce indicating that in terms of volume, this is a produce dominated
diet. His food pyramid is a clear supportive visual to both his writing, and the evidence available
regarding a primal diet (diet in our environment of evolutionary adaptation). Volume-wise, we're
eating mostly produce, though in terms of a percentage of calories, we are getting more calories from
protein and many more from saturated fat even when we don't add much, if any, free fat.

In this blogpost regarding inflammation and gut health, Mark said:


"I mentioned Dr. Art Ayer’s Cooling Inflammation blog last week, and I’m
to do so again. First, Art suggests adopting an anti-inflammatory diet. His dietary
recommendations are essentially identical to mine – high SFA, moderate animal
protein, low O-6, O-3 supplementation, leafy greens, some fruit and nuts."




❑ 3,500 mg potassium (K) is the "Daily Value" (DV) intake per the FDA, NIH,
ADA etc. Consdering that nutrient intakes from these organizations reflect
standard intakes, not optimal, consider viewing potassium needs through a
'primal' lens based on K intakes in traditional diets and what we know of diets
in environment closer to those in which we adapted.

❑ Potassium intakes in the above 'primal' diets - likely ranges
based on potassium to sodium ratio
5mg K:1mg Na to 16mg K: 1mg Na



based on potassium to calorie ratio
2-4mg K per calorie ingested


❑ 10-13 servings produce will often be required to supply potassium at
optimal or nearly optimal levels

❑ if needed to bring K:Na ratios or K:Kcal ratios into balance, tomato products
at each meal or by drinking homemade veggie peeling broths are easy, low
calorie, high potassium supplements. adding 99mg from a potassium tab
is essentially worthless when total potassium needs are 3,500-12,000 mg.

Think of magnesium and potassium as the relaxors and calcium and sodium as
the contractors. We need both - but it's all about ratio just like it is wrt Ω3 and Ω6.

[emmie]

Are you having symptoms, or are you relying on Fitday's analysis?

There's a difference between insufficient potassium in your diet and in your body. For example, low carbing is supposed to be diuretic, and potassium supplements are often recommended routinely (you lose potassium with the excess water). But I'm hypothyroid and have regular blood tests, and my potassium level is always at an optimum level.

So unless I was having symptoms of low potassium or a blood test that showed I was low, I wouldn't supplement. If you're concerned, just eat more of those great potassium-rich avocados.

[cillakat]

Are you having symptoms, or are you relying on Fitday's analysis?

There's a difference between insufficient potassium in your diet and in your body. For example, low carbing is supposed to be diuretic, and potassium supplements are often recommended routinely (you lose potassium with the excess water). But I'm hypothyroid and have regular blood tests, and my potassium level is always at an optimum level.

So unless I was having symptoms of low potassium or a blood test that showed I was low, I wouldn't supplement. If you're concerned, just eat more of those great potassium-rich avocados.

http://www.seminarsinnephrology.org/...143-4/abstract
Volume 26, Issue 6, Pages 447-453 (November 2006)

9 of 12

The Evolution-Informed Optimal Dietary Potassium Intake of Human Beings Greatly Exceeds Current and Recommended Intakes

Anthony Sebastian, Lynda A. Frassetto, Deborah E. Sellmeyer, R. Curtis Morris JrAn organism best fits the environment described by its genes, an environment that prevailed during the time period (millions of years) when evolution naturally selected the genes of its ancestors—those who survived to pass on their genes. When an organism’s current environment differs from its ancestral one, the environment’s mismatch with the organism’s genome may result in functional disadvantages for the organism. The genetically conditioned nutritional requirements of human beings established themselves over millions of years in which ancestral hominins, living as hunter-gatherers, ate a diet markedly different from that of agriculturally dependent contemporary human beings. In that context, we sought to quantify the ancestral-contemporary dietary difference with respect to the supply of one of the body’s major mineral nutrients: potassium. In 159 retrojected Stone Age diets, human potassium intake averaged 400 ± 125 mEq/d, which exceeds current and recommended intakes by more than a factor of 4. We accounted for the transition to the relatively potassium-poor modern diet by the fact that the modern diet has substantially replaced Stone Age amounts of potassium-rich plant foods (especially fruits, leafy greens, vegetable fruits, roots, and tubers), with energy-dense nutrient-poor foods (separated fats, oils, refined sugars, and refined grains), and with potassium-poor energy-rich plant foods (especially cereal grains) introduced by agriculture (circa 10,000 years ago). Given the fundamental physiologic importance of potassium, such a large magnitude of change in potassium intake invites the consideration in human beings of whether the quantitative values of potassium-influenced physiologic phenomena (eg, blood pressure, insulin and aldosterone secretion rates, and intracellular pH) currently viewed as normal, in fact disaccord with genetically conditioned norms. We discuss the potential implications of our findings in respect to human health and disease.


Keywords: dietary potassium, human evolution, diet net acid load


your body will maintain tight control of potassium *no matter what* until your potassium is so low that it is medical emergency Blood levels are one thing - sufficient potassium for optimal intracellular levels ad all bodily functions that require potassium is another thing entirely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypokalemia
"Normal serum potassium levels are between 3.5 to 5.0 mEq/L[1]; at least 95% of the body's potassium is found inside cells, with the remainder in the blood. This concentration gradient is maintained principally by the Na+/K+ pump."

http://www.krispin.com/potassm.html
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/potassium-000320.htm
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Potas...ase_and_Stroke