If you consume the average American diet, along with average American beverages, the chances of you being potassium deficient are high. You may be one of the millions of Americans who have a potassium deficiency and don’t know it. Being in this group, it’s likely you also don’t know the importance of potassium or the fact that you’re deficiency is self-inflicted. What you need to know, is what follows.
For starters, read the following vital information:
On a hunt for information about potassium, I examined the pages of a college nutrition book — “Understanding Nutrition” by Ellie Whitney and Sharon Rady Rolfes.
Here are some valuable excerpts from that book:
*Because cells remain intact unless foods are processed, the richest sources of potassium are fresh foods of all kinds. In contrast, most processed foods such as canned vegetables, ready-to-eat cereals, and luncheon meats contain less potassium – and more sodium. To meet the Al for potassium, most people need to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables to five to nine servings daily.
*Potassium and Hypertension: Diets low in potassium seem to play an important role in the development of high blood pressure. Low potassium intakes raise blood pressure, whereas high potassium intakes appear to both prevent and correct hypertension. Potassium-rich fruits and vegetables also appear to reduce the risk of stroke – more so than can be explained by the reduction in blood pressure alone.
*Potassium Deficiency: Potassium deficiency is the most common electrolyte imbalance. It is more often caused by excessive losses than by deficient intakes. Conditions such as diabetic acidosis, dehydration, or prolonged vomiting or diarrhea can create a potassium deficiency, as can the regular use of certain drugs, including diuretics, steroids, and strong laxatives.” For this reason, many physicians prescribe potassium supplements along with these potassium-wasting drugs. One of the earliest symptoms of deficiency is muscle weakness.
*A potassium intake sufficient to support life can generally be guaranteed by eating a variety of foods, especially plant foods.
Do most Americans do that? No.
*Potassium plays a major role in maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance and cell integrity. During nerve impulse transmission and muscle contraction, potassium and sodium briefly trade places across the cell membrane. The cell then quickly pumps them back into place. Controlling potassium distribution is a high priority for the body because it affects many aspects of homeostasis, including a steady heartbeat.
*Some proteins move about in the body fluids, carrying nutrients and other molecules.
*Special transport proteins carry vitamins and minerals.
*Some transport proteins reside in cell membranes and act as “pumps,” picking up compounds on one side of the membrane and releasing them on the other as needed. Each transport protein is specific for a certain compound or group of related compounds. … a membrane-bound transport protein helps to maintain the sodium and potassium concentrations in the fluids inside and outside cells. The balance of these two minerals is critical to nerve transmissions and muscle contractions; imbalances can cause irregular heartbeats, muscular weakness, kidney failure, and even death.
Additional information on Potassium from Wikipedia:
*Clear cases of potassium deficiency (as defined by symptoms, signs and a below-normal blood level of the element) are rare in healthy individuals eating a balanced diet.
Most Americans are not healthy individuals, and they surely don’t eat a balanced diet, so potassium deficiency must not be rare amongst Americans.
*Epidemiological studies in animals subject to hypertension indicate that diets high in potassium can reduce the risk of hypertension and possibly stroke (by a mechanism independent of blood pressure), and a potassium deficiency combined with an inadequate thiamine intake has produced heart disease in rats. With these findings, the question of what is the intake of potassium consistent with optimal health, is debated. For example, the 2004 guidelines of the Institute of Medicine specify a DRI of 4,000 mg of potassium (100 mEq), though most Americans consume only half that amount per day, which would make them formally deficient as regards this particular recommendation. Similarly, in the European Union, particularly in Germany and Italy, insufficient potassium intake is somewhat common.
Wow. Something doesn’t smell right. When have you heard the cry from the healthcare industry for you to use potassium for hypertension, stroke and heart disease?
With it being a proven fact that people in power, even most in the medical industry, want you sick, it makes sense.
If you go by that study’s stated guidelines of 4,000 mg a day, and that Americans get half of that, what happens when you subtract that which is leeched out by caffeine consumption? What if the study of how much potassium Americans get each day was done by looking at the names of food sources previously tested in an organic state, giving a reading of how much potassium was in an organic food, not food that is actually eaten … what does that equal, no potassium in the body?
*Supplements of potassium in medicine are most widely used in conjunction with loop diuretics and thiazides, classes of diuretics which rid the body of sodium and water, but have the side effect of also causing potassium loss in urine. A variety of medical and non-medical supplements are available. Potassium salts such as potassium chloride may be dissolved in water, but the salty/bitter taste of high concentrations of potassium ion make palatable high concentration liquid supplements difficult to formulate. Typical medical supplemental doses range from 10 milliequivalents (400 mg, about equal to a cup of milk or 6 oz. of orange juice) to 20 milliequivalents (800 mg) per dose. Potassium salts are also available in tablets or capsules, which for therapeutic purposes are formulated to allow potassium to leach slowly out of a matrix, as very high concentrations of potassium ion (which might occur next to a solid tablet of potassium chloride) can kill tissue, and cause injury to the gastric or intestinal mucosa. For this reason, non-prescription supplement potassium pills are limited by law in the U.S. to only 99 mg of potassium.
Looking for a suitable potassium supplement, I noticed that with each brand, whether potassium was alone or combined with another nutrient, it was never in amounts more than 3% of the daily recommend value.
Later, I searched for more information on why potassium was only available in amounts of 3% or less and found that every reason given was for the benefit of the consumer (to prevent harm or death).
Think about this: Instead of depriving Americans of potassium, couldn’t they have made it so that the only potassium sold OTC was similar to that given for therapeutic purposes — time-released? Couldn’t they have came up with some other way people could purchase it in larger amounts and consume it safely? They could have, but didn’t. What they did do was allow a nation-wide explosion of soda promotion, production and use; then a nation-wide explosion of coffee promotion, production and use; followed by a nation-wide explosion of energy drink promotion, production and use. And all these drinks have something in common, they’re diuretics due to caffeine.
There’s no way the people in charge of regulating beverages in America wouldn’t know the effects of all of this, it’s their job, and they possess all the scientific data available. So, from the looks of it, caffeine may be one secret to weakening the population, just as fluoride in water has been used for that purpose in this country and others.
Graphic provided by http://www.onlinedegrees.org
Since potassium isn’t prevalent in the average American diet in amounts adequate enough to correct a deficiency, schedule an appointment with your doctor to have your potassium level checked. Asking your doctor about potassium pills may be more beneficial to you than asking about any pill advertised on TV.
More Information on Potassium:
Foods High in Potassium: