Hello everyone. Still loving this forum. I read through it everyday on my shifts at work. Thanks for all the information. There is something I cannot find and need an answer to. BTW I am on my 7th day of atkins and lost 11 pounds. Loving it now. I was incredibly sick due to my addiction to carbs, nausia, extremely lathargic, migraines. Seems lots better now except lack of energy now and then and some muscle quivers. I have read potassium help both of these. But how much mg should I take daily for Atkins? I went to the pharmacist inside Safeway the other day and they said "Potassium doesn't come by itself". I was like what?!?!?! I should probably visit a health food store. But anyways.. how much potassium could do the trick for these symptoms and to take on a daily basis to prevent them. Thanks in advance ! =)

Kirsten

Kirsten at the top of this forum there is a thread by Karen called 'Hot Links!' in it you'll find all kinds of questioned answered, including this one This is the link from that thread that helps with supplements, specifically potassium, calcium and magensium It will tell you how much and when to take them. The potassium will help with the fatigue, but it is the mag and the calcium that will help with the cramping - you need them both.

Have you read the book yet?

Nat

Hehe.. nevermind. Doh! I found it in a post doreen T left recently. 400-500mg in the beginning and 100mg afterwards. =) Danka

Check out the link, K. Potassium will only solve part of your problem.

N

Hi Kirsten,

Potassium is regulated by law to 100 mg per tablet at one tablet per day dosage. This was done because a high potassium intake from supplements can cause a weakness in the heart beat and even death.

However, potassium is very easy to obtain in the supermarket by purchasing Morton's Salt Substitute which is potassium chloride. Regular salt is sodium chloride. Nice the warning on the box and do not overuse.

A high-potassium, low-sodium diet can protect against cancer and cardiovascular disease. Getting too much sodium chloride (table salt) in the diet coupled with diminished dietary potassium is a common cause of high blood pressure. Salt restriction is not enough. One must increase their consumption of potassium chloride which is readily available as Morton's Salt Substitute for low-salt diets. Supplementing with amino acids L-taurine and L-arginine are also very helpful. In the author's case my blood pressure was high-normal at 155/95 for 15 years. A slight reduction of sodium from table salt combined with an increase of potassium from Morton's Salt Substitute resulted in my blood pressure dropping to 140/80 in only one month. The sodium chloride salt added to food in the manufacturing and preparation causes an imbalance in the sodium/potassium ratio. Foods high in potassium and low in sodium are vegetables, fruits, unprocessed meats and fish, although a restriction in fruit is strongly suggested. Processes foods have a 10 to 1 sodium to potassium ratio while natural foods have a ratio of only 1 to 10. Use the potassium salt substitute instead of table salt. The body process is called the sodium-potassium pump .

WARNING! Reduce the intake of potassium if any signs of irregular heart beat occurs. Potassium can slow the heart rate and block cardiac impulses from the atria to the ventricles. The reason for this is that high extracellular concentrations of potassium reduce the resting membrane potential of cardiac muscle fibers. This causes a reduction in the intensity of the action potential and weaker heart contractions. If the the extracellular concentration of potassium is great enough, the resting membrane potential will be eliminated and cardiac muscle cells will not generate impulses. Therefore, the heart will stop.

Potassium is an extremely important electrolyte that functions in the maintenance of:

Water balance and distribution

Acid-base balance

Muscle and nerve cell function

Heart function

Kidney and adrenal function

Kent

*Excellent* information, Kent. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Potassium is restricted to less than 100 mg per tablet for over-the-counter use because it has the potential to irritate the stomach, not because of cardiac risk. Supplements will often have an "enteric" coating to slow absorption for this reason. Don't crush or chew the pill and make sure you take it with a full glass of water to ensure that it doesn't get lodged in your throat.

Potassium is found in amounts much larger than 100mg per portion of many foods, and no cardiac event imminent from consuming them.

• 1 can (7 oz/ 200g) sockeye salmon - 1,391mg
• 1 medium california avocado - 1,097mg
• 1/2 pkg (5 oz/ 140g) spinach - 824mg
• 1 medium stalk broccoli - 526mg
• 1/3 cup natural sunflower seed kernels - 331mg
• 1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes - 290mg
• 1 Tbsp dutch process unsw. cocoa powder - 254mg
• 2 Tbsp peanut butter - 214mg
• 1/8 tsp potassium-salt substitute - 325 to 500mg
  
  (all values from our carb counter tool, which is based on the current USDA)

Adults require 2,500 to 5,000 mg of potassium daily - depending on physical size, activity level and climate. Need will be greater when there is increased water losses from the body, such as sweating due to high temperature or vigorous exercise, increased urination, vomiting and/or diarrhea. High blood sugars with high insulin levels will force potassium into the cells, thus causing levels in the blood to drop.

In general, potassium is acquired from the food we eat, as well, not all gets excreted from the body .. some is retained and recirculated. Healthy kidneys in concert with healthy adrenal glands will prevent blood levels from getting too high, but are less efficient at preventing levels from getting too low, unfortunately.

Conditions which can lead to too high potassium levels: kidney failure, adrenal failure, and large injuries such as severe burns or where there is crushing or internal bleeding (potassium is released from the injured cells and dumped in a sudden large amount into the bloodstream). Also, certain medications can cause the kidneys to retain potassium ... some diuretics such as Spironolactone or Aldactone, used to treat high blood pressure, and some heart and blood pressure medications called ACE-inhibitors, such as captopril, enalapril, Altace, Capoten, Lotensin .. CHECK WITH YOUR DR. OR PHARMACIST BEFORE USING SALT SUBSTITUTE OR SUPPLEMENTS WITH POTASSIUM.

Doreen

So.....will a mutli vitiman that already contains potassium and an additional supplement of potassium taken once a day be ok?

Hi
I am a newbie
Four weeks on low carb twenty pounds lost
Starting to gear up in the treadmill
I am concerned about potassium & magnesium
My prescription of Potassium is one tablet 20MEQ three times a day Anyone know how this measure equates to mg ?
Tbanks!! Mike

G'day Ataraxia52 (Mike) (and all)

I think that in an indirect fashion I may be able to help answer your question.

Despite my formal training in physics, many decades of studying nutrition, diet and exercise, and putting my reading and thinking into practise, some months back I was disconcerted to discover, yet again, how little I knew.

Background to this revelation

My wife had been on a 1200 Cal (kilocalorie) a day low carb diet for about three months, monitoring her intake using a set of kitchen scales, measuring cups and Fitness Pal. Much to her bemusement and frustration, her body mass (weight) was unchanged.

About five years ago, my mother was diagnosed with pre-diabetes and then, a year later, with full-blown T2DM (type 2 diabetes mellitus). She doesn't have a computer or access to the internet so I had been trying to help her from the other side of the world.

I'd bought my mother a number of books on diabetes including a copy of Richard Bernstein's classic about managing diabetes, and I'd bought her a number of different glucose monitors plus their proprietary strips. My father had died from pancreatic cancer and, during his last months, I had done much research using PubMed into pancreatic cancer and the role of the pancreas. I thought I knew a fair bit about how the pancreas does (or doesn't) work.

I'd been following the results of the Newcastle Study, plus those diabetics who had reduced their calorific intake to 600 Cals (or 800 Cals) a day. Most were also on low carb, some on very low carb, some on ketogenic diets. The aim was to strip fat from the liver followed by stripping fat from the pancreas. All self-monitored their blood sugar. Some had noticed significant improvements in their blood sugar after just one week.

I suggested to my wife that, as an experiment, she and I followed a Very Low Calory (and Very Low Carb) VLC/VLC diet of 800 Cals/day for one week. We kept it up for nine days. Then we increased our intake to 1000 Cals/day for a fortnight. Then we increased back to 1200 Cals/day. At the same time, my wife rode her bike two or three times a week after dark for about half an hour. The result was that about a month after we had begun the 800 Cal/day diet my wife had lost about 3 kg (6.5 lb) which made her quite happy.

A month later, while at work, my wife had what appeared to be a stroke or TIA (transient ischaemic attack). The paramedics duly arrived, checked her out and said they were confident she had not had a stroke or TIA but they could take her to the local hospital to be sure if she wanted to. She saw her GP the next day, who, after listening to my wife, put the episode down to an anxiety attack brought on by her being observed that afternoon in her job as a classroom teacher by her line manager, one of the school’s two deputy principals.

Back to the present

This is going on too long. Hence, I'd better cut to the chase. I had already been concerned about the potential side effects of a VLC diet, especially the effects of low potassium in the diet. I discovered that, in 2004, the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) had concluded that an Adequate Intake of potassium for North American adults is 4.7 g of elemental potassium a day [1]. Further research indicated that less than 10% of North Americans met this figure. The IOM also recommended that the potassium be taken in the form of the organic salts of potassium found in fruits and vegetables, because of the organic salts' buffering effects on the blood, rather than in the form of potassium chloride found in red meat, white meat, fowls and fish. The main organic salt of potassium found in fruit is potassium citrate. Potassium bitartrate is another. Potassium bitartrate is readily found in most households under the name of Cream of Tartar.

Cream of Tartar (Potassium bitartrate)

One level 5 ml teaspoon of Cream of Tartar powder contains about 5 g of potassium bitartrate which contains about 1 g of potassium. To get all your 4.7 g/day of potassium recommended by the IOM, you would need to consume roughly five standard 5 ml teaspoons of Cream of Tartar per day. This is a fair bit, and in my view, unrealistic day in day out. I've experimented and found that one 5ml teaspoon of Cream of Tartar dissolves quite well in a small amount (about 20 ml) of orange and mango juice, which of course contains a decent amount of citrate.

From time to time, my wife and I take a spoon of Cream of Tartar in a small amount of orange/mango juice, but not every day, only when we remember, which isn't all that often. Moreover, one teaspoon contains only about 1 g of potassium, which is well short of the 4.7 g AI.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you follow the recommendations of the IOM, you should be trying to increase your total potassium intake to 4.7 g per day, and it's better to get your potassium as an organic salt such as potassium citrate rather than as an inorganic salt such as potassium chloride.

Richard M

1) ‘Dietary reference intakes for water, potassium, sodium, chloride, and sulfate’; IOM; first published 11 Feb 2004; http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2004/Die...nd-Sulfate.aspx

FYI: This thread was started in 2002, so kind of old. However, part of the issue with low carb is that it is a sodium depleting diet. Without enough sodium, you lose the other important minerals (electrolytes).

The cream of tartar info is interesting. I've gotten various supplements in powder form, like potassium gluconate.

Just tend to the sodium though and the other electrolytes should stay good, but once you've lost them, they need replacing somehow.