Potassium Supplements
 

The Government recently revised the daily recommendation for potassium up to 4,700 mg. I was eating a banana every day, which has 420 mg, but I quickly got tired of eating them. Most of the supplement pills in the drug stores have only 99 mg, which is only 2 percent of the Government recommendation. Why? I did find some pills on Amazon that have more than 99 mg, but I don't know if they are safe.
Taking more potassium and magnesium seems to help to prevent leg cramps. But, can someone please explain how a person is supposed to get 4,700 mg of potassium?

Probably by prescription. My blood tests indicated that I am potassium deficient. My doctor prescribed Potassium Chloride 20 meg. That is only equal to 1500 mg.

Well, I like bananas but 11 a day might be a bit much.

Not if your curious george

https://i.ibb.co/h8jHhyX/12bd9d3d6603.jpg

contains 690mg potassium per 1/4 teaspoon
available on Amazon and at Publix

What drink has most potassium?
The following juices are high in potassium, containing the following amounts per cup:
carrot juice (canned): 689 mg.
passion fruit juice: 687 mg.
pomegranate juice: 533 mg.
orange juice (fresh): 496 mg.
vegetable juice (canned): 468 mg.
tangerine juice (fresh): 440 mg.

Problem is a lot of these are high in sugar.

I would question anything this govt advised or suggests its citizens do. Find a Naprapath or an old school Chiropractor to give health and nutritional advice. Leave the govt out of it.

Evidence
 

Sounds like the evidence for that high a recommendation might be on the weak side. What Is the Evidence Base for a Potassium Requirement? : Nutrition Today

The magnesium and muscle cramps hits close to home. Anecdotally, have found that Tums-like products that include even a tiny bit of magnesium immediately take care of my muscle cramps. Hyperhydrosis boy here. Interestingly, pickle juice does nothing for my cramping - and tastes nasty.

Here's the government's USDA suggestion of where to find potassium.

I don't take many supplement pills. But you can usually get 100 percent of the daily recommendation for any vitamin or mineral by taking a few over the counter pills from a drug store. For potassium, you would need to take 50 of the standard supplement pills sold in stores. Seems very strange.

The government recommended this? I think I would use common sense, the government doesn’t know what it is doing half the time and I would not follow their recommendations.

Here's what I found:
- 1 cup of white beans 840 MG of potassium
-1 large baked potato with skin 1600 MG
-1/2 cup beets 260
- 1 cup cooked spinach 840
-1 cup of tomato sauce 730
- 1 cup orange juice 500
1 banana 450
- 1 cup mashed avocado 1120
-1 cup yogurt 380
That all added up to 6720 MG, so it's possible to come close to 4000 if you do your homework and enjoy the high potassium food sources.
Good health to us all!

Thanks. It sounds like a lot of calories and not much protein.

The 20 meg ones are the size of "horse pills."

Morton Lite Salt or similar. 1/4 teaspoon is 290mg sodium and 350mg potassium. You don't need to use a lot of it.

Nice try. Here is Trump's quote suggesting use of UV light which is being looked into.

"A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right?"

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful."

NIH recommended amount of potassium
Life Stage Recommended Amount
Birth to 6 months 400 mg
Infants 7–12 months 860 mg
Children 1–3 years 2,000 mg
Children 4–8 years 2,300 mg
Children 9–13 years (boys) 2,500 mg
Children 9–13 years (girls) 2,300 mg
Teens 14–18 years (boys) 3,000 mg
Teens 14–18 years (girls) 2,300 mg
Adults 19+ years (men) 3,400 mg
Adults 19+ years (women) 2,600 mg
Pregnant teens 2,600 mg
Pregnant women 2,900 mg
Breastfeeding teens 2,500 mg
Breastfeeding women 2,800 mg

Interesting.

The article linked above questioning the evidence behind Potassium recommendations was written in 2018 and questions whether 4,700mg is truly required.

NIH has a page from 2021 which recommends 3,400mg. This page also acknowledges that normal diets for most Americans don't include the recommended level.

Then there is a 2022 FDA page on Daily Values that increases the recommendation from 3,400 to 4,700.

2018 paper: 4,700: Little evidence and most people not getting that much
2021 NIH: 3,400: Most people not getting that much
2022 FDA: 4,700:

Various lists of items containing potassium: I don't eat a cup of beans, I don't often eat a large baked potato with skin, a cup of mashed avocado would require a lot of chips and tequila, a cup of yogurt is a lot, and I don't remember the last time I had beets. If I ate ALL OF THAT EVERY DAY it still wouldn't meet the 4,700 recommendation unless I washed it down with a cup of orange juice.

I am going to have to accept that I'm not getting the recommended level of potassium.

I'm confused because the NIH website also says this:

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) developed DVs to help consumers compare the nutrient contents of foods and dietary supplements within the context of a total diet. The DV for potassium is 4,700 mg for adults and children age 4 years and older [17]. FDA requires the new food labels to list potassium content. Foods providing 20% or more of the DV are considered to be high sources of a nutrient, but foods providing lower percentages of the DV also contribute to a healthful diet."

And/or salt

My Mother had leg cramps for years and always drank a small glass of tonic water every evening. That alleviated the cramps. When she went into assisted living I bought this for her regularly. She never missed.

I’m with you. A balanced healthy diet is the best approach. If we try to eat enough foods to get the right amount of potassium then we’d surely be leaving out other essential nutrients.

And where do you think they get their information from in order to give you their recommendations ??

Yep ! You guessed it …the government and the studies sponsored by then !!!

Dr Berg's Electrolyte Powder is the Bomb!
 

Try this: Amazon.com

I LIVE on this stuff! :)

Which NIH page has that paragraph? With so many pages it wouldn't be too surprising if they get out of sync.


EDIT:
Found it - the version of the same page for health professionals.

I'm still looking for why the DV (from the FDA) is significantly different than the RDA or AI (from the Institutes of Medicine). Probably, as someone mentioned below, one hand just doesn't know what the other hand is doing.

The whole lot come to under 1200 calories.
None are without protein, and easy to add extra.
You would only need about 2/3rds of that list to cover the suggested potassium intake.

Oh please.

Very often the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing.

So you get enough of one chemical and than develop high blood pressure and diabetes.

I get 1,500 calories for the list without toppings for the potato or chips for the mashed avocado.

So over 50% of my daily calories would come from eating 2/3 of that list each and every day! Yes, there are other sources, many of which I have never heard of and most of which I have never eaten.

And we're to believe a government recommendation????
About 30 years ago, they inverted the food pyramid, putting carbs as a basic element and a huge part of the population got fat.
During the early COVID days they made all sorts of (poorly founded) recommendations that did not prevent the spread of the disease, seriously damaged the economy, deprived many people of their jobs, and set our school children back years.
We're supposed to trust them???
Wanna bet that Chiquita is behind the potassium recommendation?

Weird musings once again.

Better then drinking bleach?

We do a morning blended drink of banana, coconut water (600mg/c) spinach (170mg/c) and avocado (974mg med) and just mix in oranges or other fruits.That gets you about 2/3 of the way there. It tastes fine, is natural, isn't that filling and there are plenty of benefits outside of potassium.

I surely would NOT listen to anything our government has to say which is very badly broken and corrupt about anything and thats also including those deadly covid jabs......they are planning a new wave of covid and lockdowns again...........they dont know right from wrong............you do whats right for YOU

When I flew on large aircraft in the Air Force, I was routinely susceptible to air sickness. I was asked once, "Why do you always bring a banana when you fly? Is it because of the potassium?" My response was, "Because it always tastes the same going out as it did coming in." Lol!

SMSgt (RET)

Breakfast: a cup of yogurt with half a banana sliced into it, and half a cup of orange juice, and a 1/3 cup (dry) of oatmeal with a pat of butter instead of milk, unsweetened dried cranberries, and a teaspoon of molasses instead of sugar to sweeten it.

Morning snack - the other half of the banana.

Lunch: a field greens (spring mix) salad - 2 cups, with a handful of grape tomatoes or a small off-the-vine tomato, cut into chunks, a tablespoon of roasted unsalted sunflower seeds, a couple tablespoons of crumbled feta cheese, with fresh-made garlic tahini dressing made with tomato juice as the primary liquid instead of water. That'll be good for around 700 mg potassium, tons of vitamins, a little fat, protein, and other essential nutrients, low (but not zero) carb.

So - for dinner, have a 1/4 pound sirloin steak with just black pepper for the seasoning with a baked potato topped with shredded cheddar cheese, no sour cream, no butter, and spinach cooked with minced garlic and a touch of olive oil.

That is a LOT of food. It's also around 1200 calories, which is what the average healthy average sized average-everything person would have to maintain their average weight. It's also plenty of ALL nutrients.

For dessert, you could have around 40 pistachios (unsalted) to boost that potassium level even higher. That's just under an ounce.

Thanks. It looks like I was editing my post above at the same time you posted this.