# Potassium intake



## wmac (Sep 29, 2010)

Anyone have recommendations for properly increasing potassium intake? How do you get your potassium intake up to the recommended daily levels?

I decided to drop some weight and have been using the my fitness pal app to track my food and cardio. One of the features is to to scan all the items and my potassium is consistently about 500mg a day and the recommended is 3500!

Eating bananas and drinking OJ and eating foods with tomato paste sends my sugars through the roof.

I've been doing research and potassium supplements aren't recommended and would get horribly expensive as one pill is only 50mg.


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## Haint (Jan 25, 2012)

wmac said:


> Anyone have recommendations for properly increasing potassium intake? How do you get your potassium intake up to the recommended daily levels?
> 
> I decided to drop some weight and have been using the my fitness pal app to track my food and cardio. One of the features is to to scan all the items and my potassium is consistently about 500mg a day and the recommended is 3500!
> 
> ...


Re-read RDA values as what the human Body can absorb, and not what it is demanding.


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## wmac (Sep 29, 2010)

Haint said:


> Re-read RDA values as what the human Body can absorb, and not what it is demanding.


So, there's RDA and RDI. This app tracks your total intake and has three columns for RDI: total, goal and left.

I checked against the RDIs in other nutritional calculators and they are pretty close.


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## OSM (Jan 22, 2009)

Try drinking coconut water or milk. Depending on the brand and flavor one serving typically has 500-900mg. I prefer the canned Mexican brands with pulp inside. It's cheaper, but often will not have the potassium rated. Chocolate flavor seems to have a higher content as well as banana. Stock up and drink very cold.


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## Orthoguy (Dec 4, 2011)

X2 on the coconut milk plus it's got a lot of other great stuff in it, ie manganese which is often reduced in folks with glucose intolerance. Other considerations are dark fish, sweet potatoes, spinach, and kale.


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## Haint (Jan 25, 2012)

Weight loss is never bad, just do not adjust personal diets only to meet Nutritional Label requirements. With those recommendations, it is still a guide so it does not by itself contribute to total-body health. You have to use what is being put in to have the benefits.

Big Ones - Calcium (fat-burner, metabolism aid, strong Bone), Protein (after ride/workout is a gold-standard, meal or supplement) Vitamin C (metabolism) Vitamin A/D
Fat intake is fine so long as through good Oils in foods - Olive, Peanut, Flak-seed. Totally avoid Partial Hydrogenation and Hydrogenized Oils. It's what keeps the Creme in the Twinkie and those are no longer being made for this very reason. Well maybe not, but have you ever seen a Twinkie w/o creme in the middle? I rest my case. 

Get a water bottle and begin to keep it full. Even if each 100-percentile was met within the RD allowances, you have to be hydrated, and even if you choose otherwise Water is a great additive to the Body.

Don't skip meals, instead snack very light until a seated meal.


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## TitanofChaos (Jun 13, 2011)

also don't forget that potassium is not a required item on nutrition labels, there are a lot of items that have potassium but if they aren't on the label they don't hit your totals on MFP

I had the same issue last year, 100% agreed on the coconut water, I make sure to have something of that nature on ride days


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## wmac (Sep 29, 2010)

TitanofChaos said:


> also don't forget that potassium is not a required item on nutrition labels, there are a lot of items that have potassium but if they aren't on the label they don't hit your totals on MFP
> 
> I had the same issue last year, 100% agreed on the coconut water, I make sure to have something of that nature on ride days


I was thinking that same thing about it just not being labeled. I'm consciously eating kale, spinach, bananas and drinking orange juice, which all have high potassium.

But even with those I'm low. Just seems impossible to hit that 3,500 mg mark each day.


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