Getting enough Potassium

Hi, kale, spinach and avocado (I think) are all high in potassium. Green leafy stuff!

You are getting enough potassium.
The US does not require potassium on food labels, so the info in the MFP data base is lacking.

I try to keep my potassium intake 1.5x greater than my sodium intake. I eat small portions of dried fruit (apricots, figs, dates, raisin, or prunes). It doesn't take a large portion to provide an adequate amount of potassium for each meal. Green leafy vegetables are also a good source, but not as concentrated as dry fruit.
Let me know your thoughts.

I was also concerned with a lack of potassium but have realized that many entries (even official ones from the food vendor labels) often do not have potassium information. I still look at the daily totals and have convinced myself that overall I'm doing OK.

I had the same concern. No matter how hard I tried to me MFP recommendation, I couldn't meet it. I asked my doctor about it during a recent visit. She said not to worry about it. She said that healthy kidneys are enough to regulate potassium. I feel much better now about never hitting MFP's target.

GotaGrip wrote: »

I had the same concern. No matter how hard I tried to me MFP recommendation, I couldn't meet it. I asked my doctor about it during a recent visit. She said not to worry about it. She said that healthy kidneys are enough to regulate potassium. I feel much better now about never hitting MFP's target.

Unless you take in a lot of sodium. I like salt and need to keep a high ratio of potassium to balance my sodium intake. 1.5:1 to 2:1 for blood pressure.
Also, yes your kidneys regulate potassium, as in excrete excess, but they don't create it, so I'm not sure what your doctor means.

dlr165 wrote: »

I tried to get enough potassium but It just wasn't happening. I was getting leg cramps daily so I started taking a potassium pill everyday. I was still getting cramps at night when I stretched. Then, I increased it to 2 pills a day. The cramps are gone!

Potassium chloride supplements are usually a very small dose (80mg), and if larger can damage your stomach, hence the small dosage.
It's easy to get potassium from food. One cup of V8 has 900 mg (10 pill supplements) for only 60 kcals. V8, meat, fish, tomatoes, coconut water, mushrooms, squash, potatoes, dark chocolate, shellfish, mussels, green leafy veg, milk products, fruit.
Plants, and animals through eating plants pick it up from the soil. It's pretty easy to get 4500 mg on a balanced diet or to supplement with some of the low cal options above.
I wouldn't take supplements unless directed by a physician.

So glad to read this - i set a goal to try to hit the MFP potassium goal today and found no matter how many high potassium foods I ate, I wasn't getting even close! Thought perhaps I was missing something glad others are having similar issues

You aren't getting enough potassium on low-carb because you can't. I've been doing the low carb thing for 2 years and tracking most of it. Looking back at my log, i've always lacked fiber but even more so.. potassium.

So then I took it upon myself to create a "potassium smoothie", with fruits and veggies all high in potassium (+1 for flavor): 500ml coconut water, 1 large orange, 1 large banana, 1 lemon (for flavor), 50g of kale, 1 cup of spinach, half of a large cucumber, 1/2 cup of strawberries, 1/2 cup of blueberries, 1/3 cup of blackberries, 1/3 cup of raspberries, 2 shots (3 fluid oz) of black cherry concentrate, 100g of carrots, and 100g of high fat plain greek yogurt (high in potassium and adds texture).

All that puts me at about 80-85% of the RDA (4700mg), do you really want to know the carb total on that.. 147g of carbs.

So a smoothie that makes roughly 2L worth (and tasty I might add), is 147g of carbs with 19g of protein, and 14g of fat, 790 cal smoothie. All that and were still not at the 4700 total.

Round out the rest with whatever else you like and you'll get there, but I'm telling you, you won't get there doing low carb. Maybe with supplements you can, but there is no way to tell if your body is even absorbing it given you'll be lacking nutrients elsewhere. You'll be pushing 175-200g of carbs when your done. There are protein sources that add potassium, but then good luck getting enough fiber, as well as, other crucial micro-nutrients.

As I've said, I've gone over this with a fine tooth comb every which way. If you want top up your potassium (and absorb it ), you won't be doing it on less than 160g carbs per day.

If your really diligent and want to keep on top of all you other micro nutrients, as fiber, magnesium, calcium, omega 3, and omega 6 to name of few; you won't be reaching your RDA levels on low carb.

I'm not trying to bash low carb, but coming from it myself doing it for 2 years religiously and finally looking back at my micro-nutrient totals, it really isn't what it's cracked up to be. A standard american diet of 300-500g of carbs per day, definitely not necessary. A low carb diet of less than 125g per day (what I consider low carb), definitely not doable when you take all the important micro-nutrients into consideration and the consequences of not having them. The sweet spot for me personally: 150-200g on average + an extra 50 on days I exercise.