Potassium

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I have been tracking on here for about three months and have been improving my nutritional balance according to the statistics there. I have dropped my cholesterol 50 pts into a normal range. But I can't come anywhere near the potassium goal. I had 2 bananas, 2 helpings of brocolli, a serving of tomatoes and roasted edamame on my salad today. I am still only 2/3 of the way to the goal. I stopped at the store today and looked at potassium supplements. Each pill provided 3 percent!!! of daily requirement. Any feedback?

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  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,112 Member
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    I'm sure you're getting enough if you're eating all those fruits and vegetables. The foods in the database often don't have potassium entered because they are user-entered and most people don't worry about potassium. Look up your foods on a database like USDA and use those numbers.

    As far as packaged food, in the US the potassium content isn't even a labeling requirement, so it's not usually in the database either, unless you use USDA entries.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,112 Member
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    It's easy to over-supplement, and potassium is not a issue unless you have some medical problem, in which case you'd be under doctors' care since low potassium (or any electrolyte imbalance) is pretty serious. Most people get plenty - it's not usually an issue if you are getting enough calories in general.
  • kampers2000
    kampers2000 Posts: 4 Member
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    Thanks for the feedback. I may look around the USDA info also.