Potassium - how important is it??

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PrairieRoseNE
PrairieRoseNE Posts: 268
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi friends.....

Is it a bad thing to not get enough potassium per day??

It's one of the categories I track, and I know I don't get enough from foods.

Should I try alot harder to get enough from foods OR should I take a supplement??

If I go the supplement route - does anyone have a brand or type of supplement to take??

Thanks.......

Replies

  • Sweetlost
    Sweetlost Posts: 29 Member
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    Eat banana and Pomegrante loaded with tons of potassium.
  • Bridgetc140
    Bridgetc140 Posts: 405 Member
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    I don't know. I eat a banana every morning with breakfast. The amount seems almost ridiculous, but then some days I go over. I guess green veggies are the key. I take a women's daily multi-vitamin to help cover things that my regular diet doesn't. However, eat reasonably clean and cook almost many things from scratch which I'm sure helps a bunch.
  • NightOwl1
    NightOwl1 Posts: 881 Member
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    Try to get more from foods if you can. Potassium is an important part of your diet, and of weight loss (it helps keep off water weight). Milk and Orange Juice are also a good source of potassium.
  • sarglava
    sarglava Posts: 206 Member
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    Potassium is essential to muscle and brain function. It works in sync with sodium which is also essential (but not so lacking) in our diets. White potatoes have lots of potassium as do bananas. I wouldn't take a supplement because you can easily get your daily potassium from food. Check out wikipedia for a list of foods high in potassium.
  • Shadowcasting
    Shadowcasting Posts: 124 Member
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    Sometimes if you do not have enough potassium it causes painful charlie horses! For me they usually wake me up in the middle of the night, which is the WORST! Thankfully I haven't had any in a very long time. Aside from leg cramps, I don't know of other effects.
  • KeyMasterOfGozer
    KeyMasterOfGozer Posts: 229 Member
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    There are salt substitutes that replace some sodium with potassium. Take care with these, though, as consuming too much potassium can be lethal as well. Sweetlost is probably right, though, Bananas, Pomegranites, and Potatoes have good amounts of potassium, and that's probably safer. I don't like bananas, and I try not to eat potatoes because of there high starch content, so I'm really in the same boat as you.
  • gallegosmagaly
    gallegosmagaly Posts: 32
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    Potasium is supposed to trump sodium.... I have started just on MFP and belive I have been to gone to the br quite a bit. I have pineapple, strawbereies, avacado, grapefruit. and really watch my sodium intake.

    Just a little history,my body retaines alot water esp in my feet and face and i have noticed a diffrence in just this one week. so for sure I am going to keep at it.
  • kcphilly
    kcphilly Posts: 71
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    It's definitely an important nutrient especially if you're exercising a lot. I track potassium as well and never make it to the 3,500mg goal but I shoot for at least half, higher if I'm doing a hard workout that day.

    Personally it's also one nutrient I don't want to mess around with in supplement form. As others have said there's tons of potassium rich foods out there, including some you normally wouldn't think of, like peanut butter, one of my fav snacks, two tablespoons has 200mg!
  • robertf57
    robertf57 Posts: 560 Member
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    Nosalt or orther salt replacements will help significantly. You lose potassium in your urine and some in sweat, so you should look for ways to increase your untake if you are really low... People taking certain blood pressure or heart failure drugs as well as those with kidney problems need to be very careful with potassium and should have their potassium level checked by their healh care professional before supplementing.
  • jtl6713
    jtl6713 Posts: 4 Member
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    I had the same question. Great to see all the responses
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
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    Eat banana and Pomegrante loaded with tons of potassium.
    And white potatoes.
  • squishycatmew
    squishycatmew Posts: 151 Member
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    I find that a lot of packaged foods (fresh and processed - I literally just mean "food that comes in a package", including milk and pre-packaged raw meats etc) don't list their potassium content at all, even though they definitely contain it. So I end up coming in under goal based on the nutrition facts on the package, but am probably actually getting enough.
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
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    Just a few examples from the USDA food database:
    http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/

    05011, Chicken, broilers or fryers, meat only, raw 100g
    Potassium: 229 mg

    23584, Beef, top sirloin, steak, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/8" fat, select, raw 100g
    Potassium: 357 mg

    11260, Mushrooms, white, raw 100g
    Potassium: 318 mg

    11529, Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average 182 g
    Potassium: 381 mg

    11482, Squash, winter, acorn, raw 100 g
    Potassium: 347 mg

    Q. For how many of your MFP food entries have people entered the correct potassium?
    A. Not many

    I make my own entries for this reason if I can't find the official MFP entry (with an asterisk)

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