Healthy kidneys are needed to excrete potassium. If you’re not sure if you’re at risk, ask your doctor about testing your kidney function.
Depending on how we evolved, the optimal intake of potassium in the diet is more likely increases current and even recommended consumption. The problem is that we’ve replaced many of the potassium-rich plant foods that used to populate our diets—fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, roots, tubers—with calorie-dense junk loaded with added fats and sugars, stripping us of not only fiber, but potassium as well.
In the traditional diet, mainly from plants, the consumption of potassium is high and low sodium intake. But now, high blood pressure is It is the second leading cause of death worldwide, killing more than 10 million people each year. Among the global risk factors for death, only unhealthy diets are higher, as you can see below and at 0:41 in my video Side effect of potassium chloride salt.
We can improve both by eating healthy whole plant foods, such as greens and beans, which are loaded with potassium and help lower blood pressure. But since most of us to take too much sodium along with too much potassium, what about using a salt substitute? Potassium chloride is the most common substitute is salt, so you substitute sodium for potassium.
And that works. Based on a meta-analysis of more than ten randomized controlled trials, replacing sodium chloride with potassium chloride lowers blood pressure. Most of the trials involved replacing normal salt with a replacement of less than 30% potassium chloride, and they still got results. And at less than 30% potassium chloride, most people can’t even tell the difference between regular salt and potassium salt. So it might taste the same but lower blood pressure? What catch?
Potassium chloride is common is considered as safe” (GRAS) by the US Food and Drug Administration. The only major concern for healthy people is that if you use 100% sodium and only use potassium chloride salt substitute, you may find it tastes funny and add a bitter or metallic taste. I found that it depends on what I eat. Potassium chloride works perfectly well in some foods and snacks, but I find it makes other foods impossible. Once I learned about the science of sodium and ditched my salt shaker permanently, within a few weeks, my attitude was completely different. Everything tasted without salt – except for the pesto. For some reason, the unsalted pesto didn’t taste the same to me. So I tried the potassium chloride salt substitute and it worked perfectly. I couldn’t tell the difference at all! So I had the best of both worlds. Then I remembered how, as a child, I used to sprinkle a little salt on watermelons, like they do in the South, to make them sweeter. I tried it with potassium salt and almost choked. Salt substitutes are definitely not for everyone.
That’s because healthy people don’t have to worry The thing about getting too much potassium is that they only excrete the excess due to the kidneys. But it’s with potassium in food – what about supplements? There were no adverse effects is shown with long-term potassium supplementation in doses up to 3000 mg per day. In fact, the level of potassium in the blood is kept within the normal range by healthy kidneys even when potassium intake is increased to about 15,000 mg per day. This is not surprising, since we have evolved to eat a lot of potassium-rich plant foods, where the natural potassium intake for the human species can be 15,000 mg per day.
Basically, the normal range of potassium levels in the blood is from 3.5 to 5.0 mmol/l; when it starts at 6 mmol/l. But to give people take potassium supplements—like the salt-replacement trials, where participants take an average of about 2,000 milligrams a day—and blood levels rise by just 0.14 mmol/L. So they can be anywhere from 4 to 4.14 mmol/L, not something that pushes the levels into the danger range.
Now, there is limit Someone with a “massive banana habit” can have their potassium up to 6 mmol/L above normal, but this particular condition was the result of eating little else other than up to 20 bananas a day for years. to eat 10 pounds of carrots every day is probably not a good idea either. It’s like 75 carrots a day – only possible with its juice, which a person tried as part of the treatment of colon cancer. What about too much salt substitute?
Report of 1940 is aimed at on lithium toxicity from the use of salt substitutes. Why? Because lithium Chloride was replaced as salt. Yes! But what about the potassium chloride used today? There is a case where someone committed suicide by consuming little more than a teaspoon of potassium chloride salt substitute. It doesn’t seem like much – a spoonful? I mean, how can we keep it on the shelves if just one spoonful will kill you? Well, even a smaller amount of regular salt, if taken all at once, can kill you, too. In fact, drinking salt water was apparently a traditional method of suicide in ancient China.
Having said all this, a small number of people can to run to problems, first of all people with severe kidney function. Therefore, at the level of the population, they were not so eager to replace the potassium-based salt. If your kidneys fail adjust potassium, then it can definitely become a serious issue. We refer to people with known kidney disease, diabetes (because diabetes can lead to kidney failure), severe heart failure, those taking medications that interfere with potassium excretion, older adults, and people with adrenal insufficiency. If you’re not sure if you’re at risk, ask your doctor about testing your kidney function.
Surprisingly, potassium is very good in it cut back deaths from high blood pressure – even among those with kidney disease – that the use of potassium chloride salt substitutes, despite the risk, will probably save more lives, as you can see below and at 5:45 in my video.
Traditional food recommendations for kidney patients limited consumption of fruits and vegetables because they are high in potassium. However, this paradigm is rapidly changing given the many benefits of a plant-based diet. A whole food, plant-based diet can even improve chronic kidney disease. For example, there is growing evidence that a whole foods, plant-based diet can slow the progression of chronic kidney disease and delay kidney failure. Thus, the practice of limiting dietary potassium in renal patients should be realistic saved for patients with documented hyperkalemia, a potassium level of 6 or higher, because the key to stop The progression of chronic kidney disease may actually be in the product line.
Dr.’s comment
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This is the final blog in a three-part series. If you missed the first two, check it out Mineral intake recommendations are met by only 1 in 6,000 US adults and Is the potassium chloride salt substitute worth it?.
