Protein, Potassium, and Sodium

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chrisb75
chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
in Food and Nutrition
These three things seem to be the axis of evil for me. I am always WAY over on Sodium and Protein, and WAY under on potassium. What are some tips and hints to get these numbers in line. I do well with my calories, but not with these stats.

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  • Lauraph
    Lauraph Posts: 79 Member
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    Elimating packaged foods/convience foods of all kinds will have an immediate affect on your sodium levels.
    This is including but not limited to chips, cookies, canned soups, lunch meat, frozen meals, canned veggies, fast food, cottage cheese, etc.
    Not saying you eat all those things but when you chose fresh, whole foods, minumally processed, it is much harder to go over your sodium.

    For potatssium, increase fresh or freshly cooked leafy greens, avocados, dates, bananas...you can Google lists of high potassium food.

    I eat a high protein diet so I am not sure what you think too much protein is. For me, as long it is lean sources of meat like red beef, chicken, fish, pork, etc. then I do not worry about it.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,950 Member
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    Potassium isn't a required nutrition label entry. Most of the foods in the database have potassium omitted.

    If you are eating 4-6 servings of veggies and fruit you are probably getting plenty. I tracked potassium for a year, it is important.

    You can google high potassium foods. Krispin has a site that's good.....(the name of the site, not a person here.)

    In general, the protein here is set pretty low. The numbers are a minimum recommendation. Don't worry about going over.
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    I have eliminated most processed foods and it has helped. I switched from turkey breast lunch meat to off the bone turkey and that has cut it in half. I have went down from 6-8k mg of Sodium to under 3.5k. I want to get it lower than that. Unfortunately some convenience foods are a necessity. I don't have enough time to make my own spaghetti sauce or flatbread etc.

    I am not worried about the protein, but I am more than double what MFP says I should be eating. I guess I didn't know if that was bad.
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
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    These three things seem to be the axis of evil for me. I am always WAY over on Sodium and Protein, and WAY under on potassium. What are some tips and hints to get these numbers in line. I do well with my calories, but not with these stats.

    Unless you have kidney problems, going over on protein is not a problem, the levels are low here on MFP anyway.

    Potassium is not labelled on many foods, but if you are concerned, bananas and potatoes are very good sources of potassium.

    Sodium, you need a minimum of 500mg per day, do not attempt to go under this on a regular basis it is very dangerous to do so. UK max is registered at 1600mg, US at 2400mg. Do not add salt to any foods, they usually contain enough as it is. Processed foods generally contain more than their fair share of sodium, so if you can, try to steer towards fresh grub.
  • ljburrow
    ljburrow Posts: 1
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    I'm very glad that you asked this. I've been concerned about my own Potassium intake since starting on Myfitnesspal. I've gotta call Godwin's law on the 'axis of evil' thing though! :-)
  • sheschemes
    sheschemes Posts: 67
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    I was concerned about the potassium too, and looked it up on the Mayo Clinic website. Turns out there's no specific RDA for it. They recommended 1600mg to 2000mg per day. The amount from myfitnesspal is quite high with that in mind.

    You can check out the source here. It also has a quick list of potassium rich foods. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/drug-information/DR602373

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