Eureka! Potassium in salt substitute

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acogg
acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have always struggled to reach the 3500 mg of daily potassium. Usually I can only get about half of that. I looked into over the counter supplements but they were only 99 mg, equal to a bite of banana. Not worth my time or money. Today I discovered that Morton's Salt Substite and Original No Salt are loaded with potassium. 610 mg for 1/4 tsp. Now I can easily reach my potassium goals with just a few shakes of salt subsitute. I thought this might help others reach their recommended potassium levels.

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  • n0ob
    n0ob Posts: 2,390 Member
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    for those who didn't know, "salt substitute" is simply KCl where tablesalt is NaCl. Too much K+ can get dangerous in a hurry whereas your kidneys can easily filter forseeable amounts of Na+ (not that your kidney's don't remove K as well, but you get the idea). Suppliment companies have to careful supplying too much K+.

    The Cl- is what gives you the saltiness.
  • lewcompton
    lewcompton Posts: 881 Member
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    for those who didn't know, "salt substitute" is simply KCl where tablesalt is NaCl. Too much K+ can get dangerous in a hurry whereas your kidneys can easily filter forseable amounts of Na+ (not that your kidney's don't remove K as well, but you get the idea). Suppliment companies have to careful supplying too much K+.

    The Cl- is what gives you the saltiness.
    He's spot on... Potassium chloride can also be done to an excess so please track rather than going nuts with the new shaker...
  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
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    Thanks. I am not much of a table salt person, I expect to use about 1/2 tsp. per day, deliberately to get my potassium up. Is that safe? I mean, don't doctors tell older people to start using salt substitute instead of table salt? I searched on the internet and couldn't find any medical sites that recommended against salt substitute, not that there may not be any, but I couldn't find them. I did read several that warned against too low of potassium for people over 50, which I am one.
  • n0ob
    n0ob Posts: 2,390 Member
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    you may also want to check an average daily food consumption with data from nutritiondata.com to get your "real" potassium intake. It may be higher than you think as most K is underreported on MFP.
  • MyOwnSunshine
    MyOwnSunshine Posts: 1,312 Member
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    As a long-time cardiac nurse, I would caution you as well.

    Unless you have been told that your serum (blood) potassium is low by a doctor, I really would not advise supplementing it. Hyperkalemia (too much potassium) can be suddenly and quickly fatal. It is a direct cause of fatal cardiac arrhythmias (sudden cardiac death).

    Potassium is a very important electrolyte, and your body is more than able to regulate it's levels on it's own, without supplementation. Unless you have a medical condition or take specific prescription medications, you probably should not worry about it.

    If you are concerned about your potassium, you should see your doctor and have a quick, easy and cheap electrolyte level drawn before you decide to supplement.
  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
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    I swear, this getting healthy is going to kill me. LOL Thanks again, I'll do more research. Lots of conflicting info, that's for sure.
  • bchboy1206
    bchboy1206 Posts: 12 Member
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    Great info!!! I have been working out for a couple months really hard and I can not get anywhere close to my potassium goals actually less than a third of my goal. The past three days I have been waking up with cramps in my calves, hamstrings and back so I decided to take supplements as well.
    And yes, we do need to ensure we don't go too crazy with it but we do need to monitor it, too little is almost as bad as too much!
  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
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    I shot mine up by snacking on dried apricots. I still wasn't able to get past 50% but they helped. Pistachios are also loaded, though I can't have them because they are calorie laden, but you can. Muscle cramps suck. I am surprised there aren't more posts about them.

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