Potassium - Help

hersheythecat
hersheythecat Posts: 117 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I can typically hit all my macros but potassium. I'm type 2 diabetic so I watch my carbs pretty closely so while it would be easy to throw a banana into my diet, sometimes it's hard. What are some good ways to increase my potassium. From what I read it's not good to take a supplement for this that it should be through food.

Replies

  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,106 Member
    If you are basing your belief that you're not getting enough potassium on your MFP food diary, you may be mistaken. Historically, potassium was not required on U.S. food labels, so there are a great many database entries that don't include potassium, enough though the food has potassium.

    In general, I wouldn't worry about a potential micronutrient deficiency absent medical advice/bloodwork, especially if I were generally eating a balanced, varied diet.

    That said, this chart might help you identify good sources of potassium that can fit in your carb limits:

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/?component=1092https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/?component=1092
  • therealme_lissa
    therealme_lissa Posts: 95 Member
    There is a correlation with diabetics having low potassium levels. However, unless you’ve had excessive vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, or fatigue & have been advised by a medical professional that you are hypokalemic (low on potassium), then you’re correct; it isn’t necessary to supplement with anything over the counter- in fact, doing so could cause adverse reactions!

    If you’re eating a well balanced diet then you should be getting all the potassium that your body needs.

    If you do feel like you are low on potassium then I suggest speaking with your doctor about getting a BMP (Basic Metabolic Panel) which will check your body’s electrolyte panel.

    If you are purely going off nutrition info & feel like you aren’t getting enough potassium in your diet then you shouldn’t be concerned with that. Chances are- you’re getting plenty!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    If you are basing your belief that you're not getting enough potassium on your MFP food diary, you may be mistaken. Historically, potassium was not required on U.S. food labels, so there are a great many database entries that don't include potassium, enough though the food has potassium.

    In general, I wouldn't worry about a potential micronutrient deficiency absent medical advice/bloodwork, especially if I were generally eating a balanced, varied diet.

    That said, this chart might help you identify good sources of potassium that can fit in your carb limits:

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/?component=1092https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/?component=1092

    To build on this, I'm anemic and look at iron values. More often than not, iron values are wrong for the USER-created database entries.

    I've never spotted an issue with micros in the ADMIN-created entries.

    Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

    To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP. All ADMIN entries from the USDA will have weights as an option BUT there is a glitch whereby sometimes 1g is the option but the values are actually for 100g. This is pretty easy to spot though, as when added the calories are 100x more than is reasonable.

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

    Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

    Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

    For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)

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