Potassium

Mike_take2

I'm always running 1500-2000 mg low on potassium. Any ideas on how to increase potassium levels without a lot of extra calories and fat? (Bananas are fairly calorie dense and have a lot of sugar)

pinggolfer96

Most foods don't label potassium on their nutrition facts. I'm sure you're getting an optimal amount if you have a mainly micro dense diet

Christine_72

Are you going off the numbers you're seeing in your diary? If so, you are likely getting more than you think. Potassium isn't required on food labels, so obviously it isn't going to be listed in your diary. If you drink coffee, it also has potassium which is the the only reason i log it in my diary What about milk? This also contains pot but not all manufactures list it on the label.

Check out this site, it lists all the nutrients in most fresh foods http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search You can edit foods here in the database to include their potassium numbers.

JeromeBarry1

I see one example from your today diary and I'll use it. "Generic banana". Many things in the mfp food database do not have potassium because the Nutrition Facts Label does not list potassium. The mfp food database allows users to create foods and edit the database. They might mean well, but bless their hearts, they don't do a thorough job of editing. Find the USDA food database. It's easy to find.

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2159?fg=&manu=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=35&offset=&sort=&qlookup=Bananas,+raw

You can see that 100 g of raw banana has 358 mg of potassium. There are dozens of banana listings in mfp and most of them don't have any value for potassium. Most bananas weigh more than 100g, also.

In order to know how much potassium you really are getting, you must use the database items which list potassium. For instance, in the food search, use this "09040, Bananas, raw " Which I cut and pasted from that link above. You'll find a mfp database element which does have potassium accurate.

Bad news, many of the database entries list wrong data for potassium.

Good news! The Nutrition Facts will have to show potassium beginning in 2018, and some already do.

Mike_take2

Thanks for all the great info!