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Is eating Potassium really important?

By Rob Manning


Our system demands a wide variety of vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) & phytonutrients. Potassium is among those essential minerals seeing that our body needs it to enable our muscles, cells, and organs to function properly. Potassium is also one of three minerals that make up the electrolyte group of minerals (the other two are sodium and chloride). Potassium is considered an electrolyte as it helps conduct electricity when dissolved in water.

Obtaining an adequate amount of potassium in our diet regimen permits us to exploit its many benefits including assisting in the proper function of the heart, aiding with intestinal function and digestion, playing a vital role around healthy muscle tissue and nerve activity, decreasing the potential for high blood pressure levels, mitigating the adverse effects of sodium, and controlling the circulation of nutrients in our body, i.e., assimilation of nutrients into our cells, and transporting waste matter out of our cells.

There have also been claims that a diet regimen abundant in potassium and low in sodium can help revive the natural activity of human cells and may even result in the arrest or reversal of cancerous tumors.

Reduced concentrations of potassium in our blood causes hypokalemia and can result in several health concerns like muscular fatigue which can lead to muscle cramping, irregular bowel motions and/or constipation, unnatural heart rhythm, elevated blood pressure levels, and abdominal cramps.

Severe hypokalemia can result in major disturbances in the operation of skeletal muscle tissue and nerves eventually inducing respiratory depression.

The advocated dose of potassium is anywhere between 4g and 5g per day. That being said, it is very difficult to overdose on potassium. A 150 lbs. (68 Kg) person would have to consume 170g of potassium from a single sitting to reach this lethal quantity. That's the equivalent of consuming 170 avocados (or 400 bananas, or 180 baked potatoes) in just one meal!

Potassium can be found in a large number of foods which includes everything from vegetables and fruits, to legumes, dairy, and even meat. Some common sources of potassium are salmon, bananas, tomatoes, dates, and beets. This makes it uncomplicated to acquire the recommended 5g of potassium each day if you keep a healthy and balanced diet.

Potassium fun facts: Humans are not the only ones that need potassium to thrive. Plants need potassium as well. Lack of potassium in plants can leave them gray and with turned out edges. The use of potassium has diversified over time. Besides being an important nutrient, potassium is used in explosives and fireworks, various medicines, to make soap, in glass, and to develop photographs (potassium bromide). Potassium chloride can be used as a substitute for sodium chloride by those who need to reduce their intake of sodium.




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