In an effort to keep my glycemic index low, following my readings of Dr. Barry Sears' Zone Diet, I had all but eliminated bananas from my diet. I knew they provided a percentage of daily requirements of potassium but I didn't know how much, nor did I know how many bananas I needed to eat to get the daily amounts of potassium. And to get the right answers on anything related to nutrition, we don't even know the relation of one nutrient to another or in conjunction with another or as a cofactor to another. Biology is a bear. So I rely on a lot of sources. But one source, in particular, that I've found beneficial is Bill Sardi's Knowledge of Health. And if you're not familiar with the nutritional products that he's designed, you should be.
First, the banana. One medium banana packs about 422 milligrams of potassium, about 11% of the 4,700 milligrams adults should aim to get daily. So to get the daily requirement of 4.7 grams, what do we do, eat 10 bananas a day? Who could sustain such a diet? Imagine what so many bananas, nay, half of that, say 5, would do to our glycemic load! Bill Sardi puts this dilemma into a clear context. "The lesson is that sodium must be balanced with potassium." Sodium? Well, how much do we need of each? Read on.
So the latest news headline now says it is okay to salt your foods. Well, that needs a little explaining. What the latest study says is health risks increase at 5,000 milligrams of sodium per day and above. At 7,000 milligrams a day health risks really rise.
But get this: if salt intake drops below 3,000 milligrams a day, there is an increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality in people with or without hypertension!
So, now the public learns something new. Salt is not as bad as previously thought and too low sodium intake is a problem just as much as too much salt is a problem.
In fact, excessively low salt diet damages the heart by increasing heart rate and elevating adrenal and kidney hormones (renin, angiotensin, aldosterone, adrenaline).
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There is yet another important lesson to learn about salt. The lesson is that sodium must be balanced with potassium. Americans consume about 4,000 mg of sodium per day and just ~2,000 mg of potassium. A higher sodium-over-potassium ratio is associated with a higher risk of stroke (brain damage from hemorrhage due to excess blood pressure). In fact, the sodium-to-potassium ratio appears to be more strongly associated with blood pressure outcomes than either sodium or potassium alone in hypertensive adult populations.
According to a 2004 Institute of Medicine report, adults are advised to consume at least 4,700 milligrams (4.7 grams) of potassium each day in order to lower blood pressure. This level of consumption, they say, will diminish the effects of salt and reduce kidney stone risk as well.This was stunning.
It is impossible to augment the American diet with potassium supplements because some time ago the Food & Drug Administration, covering for problematic potassium-sparing diuretics that killed people, blamed potassium supplements on the problem. So it is now forbidden for manufacturers to make anything more than a 99mg potassium pill. So you have to eat a log of apricots, avocados, spinach, pomegranate seeds, squash, sweet potatoes, bananas, and yogurt to make up for the shortage. Some of these foods are big-time carbohydrates that pose other health problems. So be aware.
UPDATE: One caveat on taking 4.7 grams of potassium: some have found that it increases the urgency to urinate. Our daily diet already provides about 2 grams of potassium, so it seems unlikely that people can get too much potassium from diet. Simply monitor it. If you don't like the effects from 4.7 grams of potassium, back off of it or stop it altogether.
