Potassium Ploy

Zinka61

Eating at least 5 servings of fruit and veggies a day goes a long way toward sufficient potassium consumption. Squash, including zucchini, potatoes of all kinds, and mushrooms are surprise potassium stars, but not the only good choices. My suspicion is that Americans are not getting enough potassium in general because so few of them eat enough fruits, veggies, legumes and whole grains. If you look for USDA listings in the database, those are more likely to include potassium content.

justanotherloser007

Thank you so much for this thread! I have to eat a low-histamine diet because of hives and I absolutely have a difficult time getting my needed potassium (well and I bet other things, but this is on my radar because of other unrelated issues). Thank you for the posts, as I am on a not very high cal day because I am old, short, and generally sedentary and I had the hives before the lower cal diet. I immediately ran into super hives because all the really healthy good for you foods are high-histamine (not completely true, but the ones I generally ate on a consistent basis it was). I save my histamine abuse for my essential fatty acids, because fish oil and algae both are hive givers if I don't save my histamines for them. If I could find an omega 3 that wasn't such a hive thing (me and everyone else who has issues), I would save my histamine for bananas!

russellholtslander1

A banana has 422 mg of potassium.. you need 3500-4700 mg per day, so you need a lot of potassium besides a banana.

How about meat? a 3 oz. serving of chicken, beef, or fish, tends to be around 300 mg.

A large egg has 70 mg.

Better than a banana? A medium potato.. 926 mg. An avocado.. 975 mg. A cup of lima beans.. 955 mg.

Potassium is easy, if you know what foods have it.. use Google, and if necessary, enter your own values into your food tracker.. many entries fail to add that, since most people just care about calories, and macros.. maybe sodium.

If you really want accurate nutrition, you will struggle to find it.. most foods are not required to list the majority of nutrients.. just a couple are required. Some people offer more, but if you go by labels, you are going to be short in MOST nutrients, even if you are getting proper nutrition. If it is a concern, ask your doctor and get tested. I think most people are low in many nutrients, but your doctor will then be able to tell you, if any one of them is a danger.

The goal is average nutrition, since any one day, you'll hit some nutrient goals, and not others, and the next day, these will change. Usually, if it is a problem though, your doctor will address it, but if you think it is a problem, ask if you can be tested. I wouldn't worry about it though.. usually just bad tracking. Which is why tracking nutrients will cause you to panic.

callsitlikeiseeit

If I were to go by the MFP reports, there are several nutrients that I am deficient in. Potassium being one of them.

While I have bloodwork done monthly for liver and kidney function due to meds, last week I had a full workup done for other reasons. All of this other stuff thats not normally seen (or maybe I just never look for?), like these nutrients.

Bloodwork shows I'm not deficient in any of them.

I think this just goes to prove that if you feel that you are deficient in a particular nutrient, especially if you are only basing it off an MFP report, that it is probably best to confirm that deficiency with your Doctor and make a decision with them regarding what action to take to correct that deficiency.

amorfati601070

Eat your vegetables (legumes, potatoes, pumpkin like a million others), drinking coconut water. Tomato paste has insane amount of potassium in it.