Gaps in nutrition!

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shauna121211
shauna121211 Posts: 575 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey hey... Now that I'm keeping track of what I eat, I can see where I'm missing out! Any suggestions for tasty food high in potassium (besides bananas - they are ridiculously expensive in Aus) and high in Iron? Those seem to be my major gap areas. I've got high blood pressure, so I'm definitely concerned about my lack of potassium.

Also only getting about 50% of the calcium I need but milk products seem so high in calories! Any suggestions there would be good, too!

I might go down the route of a multi-vitamin, but I would feel better getting my nutrients from the food I eat. Any advice on whether or not to take them?

Replies

  • saadler
    saadler Posts: 116
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    For the calcium, try almond milk (especially the Silk Dark Chocolate kind... mmmm...). I think it has more calcium than milk, but with less calories per cup.
  • auntiebabs
    auntiebabs Posts: 1,754 Member
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    Top hit when I googled it.
    I didn't check out the validity of the site though.

    Interesting that banana's didn't make the top 10

    http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-sources-of-potassium.php
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Bananas are famous for potassium, but they aren't even a really big source of it. Potassium is actually found in just about everything, not sure about labels where you live, but in the US, potassium levels are required on nutrition labels, so most people don't even know how much they eat.
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
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    For the calcium, try almond milk (especially the Silk Dark Chocolate kind... mmmm...). I think it has more calcium than milk, but with less calories per cup.

    150% more than milk (so if milk has 10% calcium, almond milk has 15% :smile:) and only 60 calories per cup - and omg delicious. Even original flavor has a tasty flavor to it, just from being almond based. I love it and since I tried it have not used cows milk for anything (outside of work, when I forgot to bring my milk!)
  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
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    There's nothing wrong with taking a multi-vitamin.

    Saadler, almond milk is an extremely poor source of calcium. Just compared the labels on my 2% milk and my almond milk. Per 1 cup of each, real milk gives you 30% of RDA in calcium, almond milk only gives 2%. Maybe some brands are fortified with calcium, but then what's the difference between that and taking a multi-vitamin, which the OP wanted to avoid.
  • littlemiss837
    littlemiss837 Posts: 5
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    They seem to be gaps I need to focus on bridging too! I've come to find out that:
    Calci-plus Vitasoy milk is GREAT for calcium- 3/4 of a cup of it has like 38% of my RDI of calcium
    Wholegrain cerals like weet-bix, all bran and nutrigrain can give you like 25% of your RDI of iron in one serving.
    Quinoa is also pretty good for iron, as well as things like chickpeas and lentils.
    Also, flavoured tofu is excellent for iron, i get the flavoured brand called soyco, two of the squares of that tofu has 65% of my RDI of iron- and at only 175 calories, I'm not complaining haha

    Sorry I can't help you with the potassium since I don't track mine, but things like dried herbs, avocados, chili powder, cocoa powder and dark chocolate, pistachios and seeds, beans and dates are apparently good sources of it!
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Skim milk and fatfree natural yoghurt are good sources of calcium and not so high in calories.
    I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of other food where you can also get calcium too - fish, spinach, almonds, dried apricots spring to mind. I'd suggest googling and you should find some good suggestions.

    I don't pay too much attention to potassium, because I never see it listed on Aussie food labels, so it may be that you are getting more than you think. But, if this is a particular concern it would be worth checking out what foods are good sources (I hear you on the bananas, though I have a big bunch from Carnarvon at home at the moment, my sister brought them back from holiday as a present!)

    I agree about getting your nutrients from food rather than multivitamins, I think it much better because they are packaged up with lots of other good stuff too.
  • Bellyroll
    Bellyroll Posts: 316
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    You could try eating back some of your work out cals.
  • shauna121211
    shauna121211 Posts: 575 Member
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    Hmm this is all good to know! I don't often record dried herbs, and may miss out of potassium from things like that. Cheers everyone!

    Many things on the potassium top 10 list are in my normal everyday diet, so maybe I'm doing alright!
  • shauna121211
    shauna121211 Posts: 575 Member
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    You could try eating back some of your work out cals.

    I do :)

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