Fiber, Iron, Potassium

anne_4889
anne_4889 Posts: 8 Member
edited December 20 in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone! I‘m new to my journey and it’s an adjustment staying at my goal calories, but I’m eating very healthy bc I live in Germany and there’s no „fat free cheese/ fat free milk/ artificial sugar“, so that’s great.

But I notice my fiber, iron and potassium amounts for the week are super low!; I start my week on Monday, today is sunday and I’m not even half way on each nutrient.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you, Anne

Replies

  • amorfati601070
    amorfati601070 Posts: 2,890 Member
    fiber, iron and potassium? Eh?

    Eat some beans.
  • anne_4889
    anne_4889 Posts: 8 Member
    Thank you, I use a lot of kidney beans but I’m going to compare them in the grocery store, maybe I need to use other beans too ☺️
  • firlena227
    firlena227 Posts: 86 Member
    Potassium is often not listed on food packaging, so therefore hasn't been entered onto the database... you're probably eating a lot more of it than mfp tells you :)
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    I'll follow this thread, because my doctor says I need more Iron.
  • wrziesmer
    wrziesmer Posts: 60 Member
    Spinach is great for iron.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    edited March 2019
    Yeah, unless you have vetted every food item you enter then you're getting misleading numbers. Iron you would know - you'd likely have symptoms.

    If you're eating 3-5 servings of fruit, vegetables and legumes daily you're getting plenty of potassium. Potassium deficiencies are pretty rare in First World countries.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10621050/how-to-use-the-usda-food-database-mfp-food-database-for-accurate-logging/p1
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Make sure the entries you are choosing have those categories filled out.

    If you eat whole foods and choose the entries from the USDA, then they will. US packaged food, if the item in the database was filled out correctly by whoever entered it, will have iron and fiber also, but not potassium in many cases. I don't know what's on German labels.
  • neugebauer52
    neugebauer52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    Hello Germany, here's Austria (living in Cape Town.) Fiber: I mix a spoon full of bran into my breakfast cereal, works like a dream. "Bran" is on MFP, I thing about 20 calories per table spoon. Iron: I donate blood, my iron level needs to be right and I take an iron tablet once or twice a week. In olden days people cooked in cast iron pots, that gave them enough iron to stay healthy. Potassium - a tablet every couple of days for me, helps with leg cramps.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    Winter squash is a great source of potassium.
  • anthocyanina
    anthocyanina Posts: 86 Member
    edited March 2019
    Fruits, vegetables, and legumes are full of fiber and potassium. Leafy greens and other vegetables, as well as legumes for iron. With plant-based iron you'll need to eat something with vitamin C so your body can utilize the iron.
  • anne_4889
    anne_4889 Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks so much everybody!-
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    wrziesmer wrote: »
    Spinach is great for iron.

    Actually, it isn't. The myth supposedly started because a scientist studying the nutrients in spinach put the decimal in the wrong place (the study with the original error was never found though)

    Dark green veggies do have iron (many like Brussels Sprouts have more than spinach) and it is good to get both heme iron (from red meat) and non-heme iron (from fruits and veggies) to keep your hemoglobin at a good level.
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