badflash
09-04-2009, 01:39 PM
Most of us know that Potassium is an essential nutrient. We have been taught over and over that Bananas contain the highest concentration of Potassium known to man. We are also told that unless you are on some sort of weird diet, have some rare disease or are taking certain medications, your diet will provide you with all the potassium you need. I started to question most of this in the last few weeks when two of my family members came down with acute symptoms of potassium deficiency in the form of losing muscle control.
I dosed them up with bananas and cal-mag (a calcium magnesium drink) to try and quite down the muscles and went looking for a potassium supplement. That is when things started getting weird. I discovered that the strongest legal supplement was 99 milligrams. The FDA recommends that people get at least 4700 milligrams a day! What good would a supplement that gives you a mere 2% be?
After buying a large bunch of bananas and heading home to search the internet, I found some interesting things. The first of many revelations was that bananas are nowhere near the best sources potassium. The USDA has a great database, so I used it to look up potassium rich foods. The link is here:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/D ... 21w306.pdf (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/SR21/nutrlist/sr21w306.pdf)
Of the non-prepared foods on the list, beet greens were on the top of the list, followed by beans, dates tomatoes, raisins, potatoes with skin, soybeans and lima beans. You need to go to page 3 to find bananas. You would also have to eat 11 bananas a day to get your required potassium. Even if you ate nothing but beet greens and white beans, you would need to eat nearly a quart a day to get enough potassium. The normal American diet contains less than half of the recommended amount. Good news is that with some effort, you can get close to what you need with foods like winter squash, fish, especially the ones high in omega 3’s, and lots of veggies like lima beans, broccoli, spinach, baked potato skins, sweet potatoes. Yogurt and whole milk (not the lower fat ones, sorry) are also high in Potassium.
Let’s talk about what potassium does. Potassium is a mineral that harbors electrical properties when it is dissolved in the fluid part of the blood and, as such, it is classified as an electrolyte. It is a nutrient that is critical to life as it is required for the proper functioning of cells, including the cells of the heart muscle. It works closely with its cousin sodium - another electrolyte – in maintaining the body's proper balance of fluids and acid-base. More specifically, potassium controls the amount of fluid inside cells while its cousin sodium maintains the balance of fluid outside cells.
Potassium aids in proper muscle contraction and helps to keep the heart thumping regularly. It is also essential for conducting nerve impulses, aids in energy metabolism, and it even helps to maintain normal blood pressure. In fact, evidence suggests that diets high in potassium may help to protect against hypertension, strokes, and cardiovascular disease. Lastly, potassium regulates the transfer of nutrients through cell membranes, but this function has been shown to decrease with age.
What are the effects of not getting enough potassium? Physical symptoms include: A lack of energy and weakness , Irregular heartbeat , Stomach upsets causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea , Chills , Nervousness , Unquenchable thirst , Cramps , Low blood pressure , Lack of sleep , High cholesterol , Glucose intolerance , Headaches , Dry skin , Constipation , Salt retention , Cardiac arrest.
The mental symptoms include: Irritability , Confusion , Depression.
Who would benefit from keeping information like this away from the general public? Take a look at what most people complain about and go to the doctor for. They spend billions on finding cures for these symptoms. You may read scare stories about over dosing on potassium. While possible, it is highly unlikely. Toxicity appears to occur at levels about 18,000 milligrams. Seeing how difficult getting enough is, this is highly unlikely unless you are dosing up on a salt substitute like potassium chloride. Keep in mind that 18000 milligrams 2/3’s of an ounce, so you’d have to use an awful lot to get close.
Check out http://www.naturalnews.com/022589_potas ... odium.html (http://www.naturalnews.com/022589_potassium_health_sodium.html)
I dosed them up with bananas and cal-mag (a calcium magnesium drink) to try and quite down the muscles and went looking for a potassium supplement. That is when things started getting weird. I discovered that the strongest legal supplement was 99 milligrams. The FDA recommends that people get at least 4700 milligrams a day! What good would a supplement that gives you a mere 2% be?
After buying a large bunch of bananas and heading home to search the internet, I found some interesting things. The first of many revelations was that bananas are nowhere near the best sources potassium. The USDA has a great database, so I used it to look up potassium rich foods. The link is here:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/D ... 21w306.pdf (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/SR21/nutrlist/sr21w306.pdf)
Of the non-prepared foods on the list, beet greens were on the top of the list, followed by beans, dates tomatoes, raisins, potatoes with skin, soybeans and lima beans. You need to go to page 3 to find bananas. You would also have to eat 11 bananas a day to get your required potassium. Even if you ate nothing but beet greens and white beans, you would need to eat nearly a quart a day to get enough potassium. The normal American diet contains less than half of the recommended amount. Good news is that with some effort, you can get close to what you need with foods like winter squash, fish, especially the ones high in omega 3’s, and lots of veggies like lima beans, broccoli, spinach, baked potato skins, sweet potatoes. Yogurt and whole milk (not the lower fat ones, sorry) are also high in Potassium.
Let’s talk about what potassium does. Potassium is a mineral that harbors electrical properties when it is dissolved in the fluid part of the blood and, as such, it is classified as an electrolyte. It is a nutrient that is critical to life as it is required for the proper functioning of cells, including the cells of the heart muscle. It works closely with its cousin sodium - another electrolyte – in maintaining the body's proper balance of fluids and acid-base. More specifically, potassium controls the amount of fluid inside cells while its cousin sodium maintains the balance of fluid outside cells.
Potassium aids in proper muscle contraction and helps to keep the heart thumping regularly. It is also essential for conducting nerve impulses, aids in energy metabolism, and it even helps to maintain normal blood pressure. In fact, evidence suggests that diets high in potassium may help to protect against hypertension, strokes, and cardiovascular disease. Lastly, potassium regulates the transfer of nutrients through cell membranes, but this function has been shown to decrease with age.
What are the effects of not getting enough potassium? Physical symptoms include: A lack of energy and weakness , Irregular heartbeat , Stomach upsets causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea , Chills , Nervousness , Unquenchable thirst , Cramps , Low blood pressure , Lack of sleep , High cholesterol , Glucose intolerance , Headaches , Dry skin , Constipation , Salt retention , Cardiac arrest.
The mental symptoms include: Irritability , Confusion , Depression.
Who would benefit from keeping information like this away from the general public? Take a look at what most people complain about and go to the doctor for. They spend billions on finding cures for these symptoms. You may read scare stories about over dosing on potassium. While possible, it is highly unlikely. Toxicity appears to occur at levels about 18,000 milligrams. Seeing how difficult getting enough is, this is highly unlikely unless you are dosing up on a salt substitute like potassium chloride. Keep in mind that 18000 milligrams 2/3’s of an ounce, so you’d have to use an awful lot to get close.
Check out http://www.naturalnews.com/022589_potas ... odium.html (http://www.naturalnews.com/022589_potassium_health_sodium.html)