Comment on Is this common deficiency sabotaging YOUR health? by Katie Egervari.
To be honest, I don’t think 4700mg is a reasonable goal to achieve daily if you care about other health metrics – do you know how many carbs and calories you have to consume to meet this amount if you forego spinach?
100g of Sun-dried tomatoes is more carbs than I eat in an entire day (I eat 20g, and this is 23g). Not a very efficient fat-burning food at all, and it’s terrible if you’re trying to lose weight. There’s not enough fiber in these to counter-act this, and most people don’t exercise for 1-2 hours per day to burn it off before it goes into fat storage, which is what happens to half of America. Google also says it’s 1,565 mg instead of 3500, so I dunno who’s right here.
Baked potatoes are also high in carbs (a whopping 64g), and terrible for spiking insulin. The maximum daily carb intake for women 100g and 150g in men – and it’s 20-50g for people who can’t exercise 1-2 hours per day due to modern life. No thanks.
Beets are high in sugar and fructose – also not good for losing weight, preventing diabetes. Not enough fiber to counter-act these either.
Almonds are ridiculous in calories, so I dunno why you’d consume these just for potassium – that’s 576 calories for only 705g potassium, not to mention there’s 3.9g sugar and a butt-load of carbs in these. There are other nuts and foods that are honestly a lot better than Almonds. Again, not worth consuming and cross off your list.
Spinach – the 1ST GREAT source on your list – almost no carbs or calories, and a fair amount of potassium. But how much can you seriously eat per day? By my estimations using FitDay, you’d need 28 cups of spinach per day to meet your potassium requirements. Is anyone seriously eating more than 3-4 cups per salad?! I like Spinach a lot, but not that much.
Tomato Juice is not bad with respect to calories, but 1 cup has 9g of sugar, and that’s just too much for me. People shouldn’t even be having 16g of total sugar in their diet – the body doesn’t need it and you get fat when you consume too much of it (not to mention addiction, insulin spikes, and the creation of hormonal problems with leptin and ghrelin). Seriously, all of the high-sugar options on this list aren’t practical. You solve your potassium problem and you create insulin problems – i.e. NOT WORTH IT for more than 50% of the people on the planet (and probably a higher if you exclude most of Asia).
Halibut/Salmon – This is a pretty good one, but you can’t really consume a lot of this – perhaps 150g-200g worth, which is 379 calories and counts towards 1/3 of your total protein intake per day. You probably can’t have this every day or multiple meals per day… so we’re still left with Spinach as a much better consistent source for potassium, with Salmon/Halibut being thrown in for an extra boost 2-3 times per week.
Avocado – Your 3rd best item on the list. It’s very high in fiber, which counteracts the carbs. High in calories, but this is one of the healthiest fats on the planet. You can probably add in 1/2 – 1 avocado into your diet every day without adding pounds on the scale or negatively affecting health goals. But again, you’re not going to have it every day 365 days per year.
Kale, raw – Kale is okay, but you can’t really have more than 50g per day due to the higher carb in take, and you don’t want to overdo Vitamin A. Vitamin C is stupidly easy to consume too, so there is little reason to consume Kale over Spinach. Also, many people don’t digest it well unless you cook it, which kills the potassium. At least Spinach is editable in a salad for most people.
Pecans, Macadamia nuts – Your 5th best option, but you are pretty much left to consume 5-10 per day max, and even then I can barely fit that into my daily calories.
Lentils – You’d be crazy to consume these.
Carrots – too much sugar, you can’t have very often.
Chick peas – You’d be crazy to consume these
Tomatoes – Unless cherry tomatoes, too much sugar/carbs you can’t have often.
1 medium orange – only occasionally and none for me. They have 14g of sugar and only 4g of fiber.
Brown rice – you’d be crazy to consume a bunch of empty calories for just potassium.
1 medium apple – again, too much sugar and not enough fiber. Already beat the whole sugar/fructose thing to death by this point :/
So basically, the only sane options most people on the planet can have while being healthy in other areas of their diet are spinach, avocados, kale, halibut/salmon and the occasional pecans and macadamia nuts. Doesn’t sound like a lot of options to me.
