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Comment by NickM | Hacker News Reader

Something that has puzzled me recently: how is anyone supposed to get the daily recommended amount of potassium? If you look at foods like bananas that are supposed to be good sources of it, you still need to eat something like eleven bananas a day to get enough (according to US recommended daily intakes, anyway). At least with the minerals mentioned in this posting, you can fall back on supplements if you need to...but if you try to buy potassium supplements, the max dosage you can get over the counter is 99mg, which is only about 3% of the daily recommended intake. WTF?

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the max dosage you can get over the counter is 99mg

This is an FDA limit on potassium chloride supplements. Too much potassium can cause heart rhythm problems and cardiac arrest.

Some organizations propose 3500 to 4500mg as a daily potassium intake, and 98% of people do not eat this much potassium, and unless you are living on beans and beats you probably aren’t. Yet there isn’t a huge “get more potassium” movement. I wonder if those targets need reassessment.

Lots of foods contain potassium, it just isn't included in the nutrition label.

I was once on a low potassium diet and had to avoid half the of foods I normally ate. You are likely getting enough potassium in your diet without needing any effort.

>if you try to buy potassium supplements, the max dosage you can get over the counter is 99mg

I had no problem buying potassium (gluconate) powder by the pound off of Amazon for cheap. (I am in the US.) Be careful with it because if the ratio of potassium to sodium in your blood gets too high, it interferes with the mechanism that sequences the contractions of the chambers of the heart or such.

I eat potassium chloride (usually sold as salt substitute for people on low sodium diets) on occasion, like when fasting or working out. It has this awful, stingy metallic taste, but I’ve noticed I tend to have less fatigue and soreness from strength training afterwards. Might be placebo but YMMV.

I have leftover potassium bicarbonate from when I was making wine. I use it as an antacid, mixing it with water. It tastes like absolute shit, a little less so if mixed with some baking soda, and does a pretty good job of helping my heartburn.

There's a nice table here: https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendi...

Quite a lot of common staples (eg: potatoes, greens, vegetables, pulses) have a fair amount of potassium, if you look at the "potassium in a standard portion" column (and remember these are fairly small portions, the assumption being that a meal has a portion of several different things).

Through something like Soylent maybe? That is supposed to contain the recommended daily intake of everything.

I'm not seriously suggesting we all move to 100% cardboard-tasting goo, but if you are worried about one or more of your daily intakes, this could be an easy way for some people to get a good dose every now and then (for example for lunch on weekends, I notice that I'm often in the middle of something fun and will neglect to have lunch).

> the max dosage you can get over the counter is 99mg

Most people get enough potassium from their diet. It's easily available in larger quantities but safety is the main concern:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1364/can-salt-subst...

Nu-Salt salt substitute is 100% potassium chloride in a 3-oz container. Morton Lite Salt is a 50-50% mix of potassium and sodium salt. Both are available in grocery stores. But use with caution and usually with the advice of a physician.

Second the Lite Salt approach. After you adapt it seems just like regular salt--but with half the sodium and it provides the potassium.

Tubers and root vegetables and are about equivalent to bananas in potassium content. Some fruits have a bit less, and some a bit more. Leafy greens have about the same level of potassium per unit of weight, much more per calorie.

11 bananas worth is about 1000 calories. So if you get about 1/2 of your calories from varied non-grain plant foods, you should be good.

You'll find higher doses of potassium in "electrolyte replacement" drink powders.

It's a misconception that bananas are high in potassium. E.g potatoes have higher potassium content on avg

The limited amount in multivitamin/mineral supplements is actually a legal restriction, to boot.

You can buy potassium citrate in bulk and measure out your own dose.

You gotta be careful with it, though. Excessively high concentrations of potassium can cause hyperkalemia, which can be lethal. That's why potassium supplements aren't sold in large doses; potassium bound up with fiber and whatnot slows digestion and absorption rates, minimizing the chances of an adverse buildup.

Eat durian.

I've wondered about this too. I have no idea why people never discusses it.

I suspect it's an Illuminati secret.

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