3 ms·

thats interesting, online there are lots of articles (including webmd etc) about eating foods with potassium such as black beans, bananas, sweet potatoes etc +

thats interesting, online there are lots of articles (including webmd etc) about eating foods with potassium such as black beans, bananas, sweet potatoes etc + lowering sodium intake for hypertension... are you saying thats actually dangerous? (sorry if the question seems weird, but im genuinely curious)

tsoukase 5y ago
K/Na metabolism is tricky. Both are fundamental but in a very different way (Na levels are higher and with more tolerance in fluctuations, hypo/hyper-K can easily stop the heart). The pressumed effect of K in BP is mainly that K pushes Na outside of renal tubules in an 1:1 analogy, which could be better achieved by not consuming Na in the first place. In practice for a healthy adult below a certain age K intake is healthy (as it is contained in healthy foods) but otherwise risks arise. Certainly blind suggestion to the public is not warranted and K substitutes are used ONLY on demand (hypo-K, diarrhea etc)
- andrekandre 5y ago
  > K pushes Na outside of renal tubules in an 1:1 analogy, which could be better achieved by not consuming Na in the first place. interesting, makes sense!
adrian_b 5y ago
Eating enough vegetables has many good effects, including providing an adequate quantity of potassium. Eating too little salt is as dangerous as eating too much salt. The usual recommendation is to eat about 4 to 5 grams of salt per day. The salt consumption can be a problem when instead of cooking your food with known quantities of salt you buy already processed food, which almost always contains excessive quantities of salt and sugar, because these are very cheap ingredients, which not only reduce the production cost, but they also improve the taste. So for those buying already prepared food, the normal risk is to eat too much salt. Those who make their own food, must also take care to not eat too little salt.
- cwzwarich 5y ago
  > Eating too little salt is as dangerous as eating too much salt. The usual recommendation is to eat about 4 to 5 grams of salt per day. Who recommends 4g of salt as a minimum?
  - adrian_b 5y ago
    E.g. the USA Recommended Dietary Allowances. Due to the much more frequent cases of excessive salt consumption, the minimum recommended daily quantities are not emphasized, but I have direct experience with the effects of too low salt consumption. After having a stroke many years earlier, my mother was very concerned about HBP and she consumed low quantities of salt. That eventually caused serious neurological problems and many months were wasted because she was not diagnosed correctly in the beginning, the various symptoms being attributed to completely different causes. When the real cause was identified in the end, she very narrowly escaped death. 4 to 5 g/day is expected to be centered in the optimal range of daily salt consumption. The minimum daily salt consumption under which health problems may appear is obviously much lower, probably under 1 g/day. However, nobody has done any tests to determine the minimum requirements for humans, so the minimum threshold is not known, like also for all the other required nutrients for humans, because such tests would be dangerous for the test subjects.

tsoukase 5y ago

K/Na metabolism is tricky. Both are fundamental but in a very different way (Na levels are higher and with more tolerance in fluctuations, hypo/hyper-K can easily stop the heart). The pressumed effect of K in BP is mainly that K pushes Na outside of renal tubules in an 1:1 analogy, which could be better achieved by not consuming Na in the first place. In practice for a healthy adult below a certain age K intake is healthy (as it is contained in healthy foods) but otherwise risks arise. Certainly blind suggestion to the public is not warranted and K substitutes are used ONLY on demand (hypo-K, diarrhea etc)

andrekandre 5y ago
> K pushes Na outside of renal tubules in an 1:1 analogy, which could be better achieved by not consuming Na in the first place. interesting, makes sense!

adrian_b 5y ago

Eating enough vegetables has many good effects, including providing an adequate quantity of potassium. Eating too little salt is as dangerous as eating too much salt. The usual recommendation is to eat about 4 to 5 grams of salt per day. The salt consumption can be a problem when instead of cooking your food with known quantities of salt you buy already processed food, which almost always contains excessive quantities of salt and sugar, because these are very cheap ingredients, which not only reduce the production cost, but they also improve the taste. So for those buying already prepared food, the normal risk is to eat too much salt. Those who make their own food, must also take care to not eat too little salt.

cwzwarich 5y ago
> Eating too little salt is as dangerous as eating too much salt. The usual recommendation is to eat about 4 to 5 grams of salt per day. Who recommends 4g of salt as a minimum?
- adrian_b 5y ago
  E.g. the USA Recommended Dietary Allowances. Due to the much more frequent cases of excessive salt consumption, the minimum recommended daily quantities are not emphasized, but I have direct experience with the effects of too low salt consumption. After having a stroke many years earlier, my mother was very concerned about HBP and she consumed low quantities of salt. That eventually caused serious neurological problems and many months were wasted because she was not diagnosed correctly in the beginning, the various symptoms being attributed to completely different causes. When the real cause was identified in the end, she very narrowly escaped death. 4 to 5 g/day is expected to be centered in the optimal range of daily salt consumption. The minimum daily salt consumption under which health problems may appear is obviously much lower, probably under 1 g/day. However, nobody has done any tests to determine the minimum requirements for humans, so the minimum threshold is not known, like also for all the other required nutrients for humans, because such tests would be dangerous for the test subjects.