19 replies to this topic

[McMc86]

Hi.

I am 23 year old male that lack potassium in my diet, therefore I've decided to use a supplement.
However, which one in the link below would you recommend?

http://www.supplemen...tassium&x=0&y=0

Thanks

[MrHappy]

Kazakhstan has the number one potassium.


However, all jokes aside, I'd try this:
http://www.iherb.com/m/r?pid=701

[MrHappy]

Which in your last list was this:
http://www.supplemen...ine-120-capsule

Good price, also!

[Lufega]

99 mg per 2 capsules ? Bananas have 400+mg and plantains have almost 1 gram of potassium each. Squash is also very high in potassium. If you're not getting enough K in your current diet you're probably also not getting a lot of other things. So I would try to eat more fruits and veggies before taking the supplement route.

I currently made the same assessment. I'm eating a high protein diet but I wasn't eating enough (I was getting some) fruits and veggies. I read an article about how increasing potassium intake can increase nitrogen retention for any given amount of protein intake. In other words, you can achieve a positive nitrogen balance by eating less than 1 gram of protein per day. In theory anyways. So this issue is definitely worth a closer look.

[pamojja]

99 mg per 2 capsules ?

It really is more difficult with potassium deficiency than taking 2-3 99 mg potassium capsules per day. Some estimate the potassium intake of paleo people at about 10500 mg, but even preferring potassium rich foods I still don't get much more than about 4500 mg per day with todays food. Therefore bulk powder potassium citrate might provide an alternative.

Here a site with quite strong views about potassium deficiency.

[MrHappy]

Different absorption rates, also.

[Lufega]

Even if Paleo guy was consuming 10 grams of K everyday, he was probably spreading it out. You can simply figure this out by the amount of food you would have to consume (even if nutrient content was higher in the past) and how much anyone can eat per meal. He wasn't doing it the supplemental way. All the toxicity reports I read came from using too much K supplements, too fast. The reason I say this is because potassium can be dangerous, even within the therapeutic range. By washing down a couple of grams of potassium powder, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, you're not replicating real life scenarios. So, do it slowly and let your body adjust. This ergo-log articles explains it better. Covers the case of a guy who ingested 8 g/day and was admitted for hyperkalemia.

http://www.ergo-log.com/potassiumsupplement.html

Eight grams a day of potassium is an extremely high, but not fatal, dose – if your kidneys are healthy and you are not on medication. Potassium only becomes fatal at 18 g a day – if you build up the dose gradually so your body can get used to it. If you don't give your body time to adjust…[FAIL, lol]

[Lufega]

Here's an intake formula according to this site: http://www.krispin.com/potassm.html

Formula for daily potassium goal:

Your Ideal Body Weight in pounds times 40 mg. =_________ mg. per day.

Your Ideal Body Weight in kilos times 88 mg. =__________ mg. per day.


I weigh 208 lbs. According to this, I should consume 8320 mg everyday!

[Lufega]

I added 1 gram of potassium bicarbonate and I noticed a huge increase in energy, strength, muscle tone and bowel movements . I wasn't expecting this effect since I've been focusing on consuming potassium rich foods for some weeks now. In fact, I had to cut back from 1 gr to 500 mg. The effect was too intense. When I took the capsule intact, I got terrible stomach pains but dissolving the contents in water eliminated this effect.

[Lufega]

I also noticed that it had a positive effect on Orthostatic intolerance. I wrote a thread about it on another forum

[protoject]

What's your opinion on supplementing with Potassium Chloride (a salt substitute called NoSalt)?

I started taking this recently, but I started at a very low dose because I don't want any problems.
The supplements sold here are extremely low in potassium, which is why I'm using the NoSalt instead..
The reason I started taking it is because over the past year my heart's been a lot faster than normal. I was also hoping it'd calm me down. I'm not sure if I get enough from my diet. Supposedly we need like 4100 mg a day... I probably barely even get 0.5 gram.

Last year I tried magnesium for the same problem, it didn't help at all, but it did lower my blood pressure to a healthy level. (it used to always be that good until about a year and some ago, then it went wonky)

Anyone notice any benefits from supplementing? Why are you taking it?
Also doesn't the citrate form give you the shits and make you pee???

[Gerrans]

I occasionally take potassium bicarbonate for my gout. It works, I assume by reducing uric acid or balancing sodium. I started off taking a level spoonful whenever my urine was acidic. But then one evening my left hand went numb, which is a sign of too much potassium--so now I never go above half a teaspoon. It seems such innocent stuff, and so beneficial, but you really do have to be careful with it. Sprinkling a little on your dinner should be pretty harmless, though.

Edited by Gerrans, 18 December 2013 - 06:55 PM.

[Darryl]

On a per calorie basis, you won't beat leafy vegetables, mushrooms, or tomatoes, which all have 13-27 mg K / kcal.

On a per gram basis, there's:

Dried fruit: dry packed sun-dried tomatoes (34 mg K / g !), apricots, prunes, raisins (8-12 mg K / g), tomato paste (10 mg K / g)
Bran: Rice bran, wheat bran, All-Bran cereal (10-14 mg K / g)
Seeds / nuts: pistachio, sunflower seed, flaxseed pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds (7-10 mg / g)
Other: Palm hearts (18 mg K / g), dry roasted soybeans (14 mg K / g)

I eat big salads with bulk vacumn bagged Turkish sun-dried tomatoes ($4.90/lb from here, or 3.1 ¢ / 99 mg K), which is only about twice the price of the cheapest potassium citrate pill (1.4 ¢ / 99 mg K), and well worth it.

Edited by Darryl, 19 December 2013 - 06:24 AM.

[eon]

From what I've read is that any supplement with "ate" at the end of the name is the best form, like potassium citrate.

[timar]

If you diet doesn't provide enough potassium you eat a crappy diet. Period. Seriously, first priority should be to improve your diet, by including all those potassium-rich fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. Besides potassium they contain a myriad of other health-enhancing compounds you currently miss out on.

If a eating a varied potassium-rich diet still doesn't suffice, because of some special health condition or gene variant, I would simply use table salt containing 25% potassium chloride. You don't need some fancy form of potassium. There are hardly any differences in absorption between different forms of macrominerals.

I eat big salads with bulk vacumn bagged Turkish sun-dried tomatoes ($4.90/lb from here, or 3.1 ¢ / 99 mg K), which is only about twice the price of the cheapest potassium citrate pill (1.4 ¢ / 99 mg K), and well worth it.

Sun-dried tomatos are one of the most remarkable health foods. Not surprisingly, they have the highest concentration of lycopene found in any food (~0.5 mg/g!). You can further increase its bioavailabily by first soaking them in a 1:10 vinegar solution and then blending them with garlic, parsley, roasted cashews, some chilli and lots of olive oil into a pesto. I always keep a jar full of that stuff and could eat it by the spoon. It's just amazing, both in taste and nutrition.

Edited by timar, 06 January 2014 - 01:32 PM.

[david ellis]

If you diet doesn't provide enough potassium you eat a crappy diet. Period.

There are exceptions, not all of us have balanced endocrine systems. Despite the potassium sparing effect of eplerenone I come up short on potassium about 2 x a month.. I catch up with potassium bicarbonate. Use potassium supplements with care-too much too quick is life ending. There is a good reason potassium supplements only come in 99 mg pills

[timar]

If you diet doesn't provide enough potassium you eat a crappy diet. Period.

There are exceptions, not all of us have balanced endocrine systems.

With "enough" I was refering to the RDA. This is why I wrote the second paragraph actually...

Use potassium supplements with care-too much too quick is life ending. There is a good reason potassium supplements only come in 99 mg pills

Nonsense. There is no risk from oral potassium at all. You can buy potassium supplements in much higher doses in Europe, and you can buy "diet salt" containing up to 50% of potassium chloride here in every health food store. Or even pure KCl in bulk. That 99mg limit is just an example of a completely absurd regulation.

[david ellis]

Nonsense. There is no risk from oral potassium at all. You can buy potassium supplements in much higher doses in Europe, and you can buy "diet salt" containing up to 50% of potassium chloride here in every health food store. Or even pure KCl in bulk. That 99mg limit is just an example of a completely absurd regulation.

"no risk from potassium at all" is wrong, there is a risk. Lufega made a recommendation about pushing the limits.

Even if Paleo guy was consuming 10 grams of K everyday, he was probably spreading it out. You can simply figure this out by the amount of food you would have to consume (even if nutrient content was higher in the past) and how much anyone can eat per meal. He wasn't doing it the supplemental way. All the toxicity reports I read came from using too much K supplements, too fast. The reason I say this is because potassium can be dangerous, even within the therapeutic range. By washing down a couple of grams of potassium powder, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, you're not replicating real life scenarios. So, do it slowly and let your body adjust. This ergo-log articles explains it better. Covers the case of a guy who ingested 8 g/day and was admitted for hyperkalemia.

http://www.ergo-log....supplement.html

Eight grams a day of potassium is an extremely high, but not fatal, dose – if your kidneys are healthy and you are not on medication. Potassium only becomes fatal at 18 g a day – if you build up the dose gradually so your body can get used to it. If you don't give your body time to adjustL, lol…[FAI]

[Chadwick]

Nonsense. There is no risk from oral potassium at all. You can buy potassium supplements in much higher doses in Europe, and you can buy "diet salt" containing up to 50% of potassium chloride here in every health food store. Or even pure KCl in bulk. That 99mg limit is just an example of a completely absurd regulation.

The 99 mg limit is set to prevent too much potassium to be concentrated in a single place in the intestines. Potassium can damage to intestinal lining if it's very concentrated, and by taking let's say 5 pills containing 99 mg you spread it out and avoid the potential damage a single pill with 500 mg would have.

[timar]

Yes, there are intestinal side effects from high doses of supplemental potassium, but that's it. You can't kill yourself by taking too much potassium, as some poeple suggest.