Newcomer with a question

In the U.S., manufacturers are not required to include potassium values on their nutritional labels. Thus, the information is lacking from the MFP database entries that are based on those labels. (To make matters worse, some user-added entries don't include the information even when it is on the label, because the users that added the entries don't track potassium, so they didn't bother including it.)

When you make meals from whole foods (fruits, veggies, meats, poultry, fish, dairy products, eggs) that have only been washed, cut, etc., but have not had other ingredients added to them, you can use USDA-based entries (rather than the manufacturers' label info), and those entries should include potassium values.

So, the good news is you're quite possibly getting a lot more potassium than you think you are, but you still may not be getting enough.

On the vitamin, I believe that it's illegal to sell over the counter vitamins with more than 100 mg of potassium (because of the danger to your stomach lining from larger amounts of concentrated potassium), so possibly the maker of your particular multivitamin doesn't see any point in putting it in at all, since 100 mg is less than 3% of the recommended daily amount.

sharideasy155 wrote: »

Hi, I have been using this app for about a week and a half and doing well with the calories and most of the nutritional guidelines but find myself way under the recommended potassium level everyday. Even after adding a daily banana. I also don't see potassium listed in my daily vitamin. Does anyone have a suggestion? How do you meet that requirement yourself?

Potassium is RARELY added to standard multi vitamins because it's easy to OD on and kids don't know the difference between vitamins and candy. So you probably won't find many with potassium. If you're worried about getting to your goal to stave off those charlie horses, I would suggest you read here.

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/foods-high-in-potassium

Why accept all the sugar and fat in a banana on a day when your sugar and fat intake is already high, when you have alternatives?

Bananas are great for you; don't give up on them! I get a lot of potassium from bananas, spinach, butter beans, sweet potatoes...but sometimes the items in the database don't have any potassium recorded because of the reasons explained by other posters, above. So I "shop around" to find a listing in the database that includes potassium, even if the brand is different. So for example, if I ate Hyvee butter beans, but the database listing doesn't show potassium, I might substitute the Kroger butter beans, same amount, because whoever added that to the database included potassium. I manage to exceed my potassium goal every day with some attention to diet. My favorite potassium boost is the Black Bean Brownie Smoothie (sometimes I make it with black beans, sometimes with butter beans):
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large banana
2 T. cinnaomon
3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
3 c. Silk Original Soymilk (or your favorite milk)
Puree in the blender. Makes 3 servings.