Having a pork chop for dinner provides potassium without adding carbohydrates to your diet. Following certain low-carbohydrate diets minimizes the amount of potassium you consume. Fruits and vegetables provide some of the highest amounts of potassium, but they also have carbohydrates. Several types of meat and seafood are carb-free and offer potassium, but the varieties are limited. If you are concerned about your potassium intake, talk with your health care provider. You may need to take a potassium supplement or daily multivitamin that contains potassium. Fish Adding fish to your diet helps boost your potassium intake, without adding carbohydrates. A 3-ounce serving of halibut or yellowfin tuna offers nearly 500 milligrams of potassium. Pacific cod, as well as Pacific rockfish, also called rock cod, both have about 450 milligrams of potassium in a 3-ounce portion. The same serving size of rainbow trout provides approximately 375 milligrams of the mineral. Meat and Poultry Meat and poultry do not contain carbohydrates, but they do provide potassium.
A 3-ounce portion of center-cut pork loin offers about 370 milligrams. For the same serving size of beef sirloin, you get more than 310 milligrams of potassium. Chicken is another option to up your potassium intake. Skinless, roasted cuts of chicken offer more than 350 milligrams of potassium per 3-ounce serving. Recommended Amount Teenagers and adults require 4,700 milligrams of daily potassium, reports the Linus Pauling Institute. This recommendation does not change if you are pregnant, but if you are breastfeeding, you need 5,100 milligrams. Most vitamins and minerals have an established tolerable upper intake level, or UL, to inform you of the maximum amount you can safely consume. Potassium does not have a UL, since high intakes through diet are unlikely to cause adverse effects. You may, however, experience problems with potassium supplementation. Supplements Potassium plays a role in maintaining fluid balance, which is essential for normal heart rhythm and muscle function. If you consume too much through supplementation, you may experience problems with your central nervous system and vital organs.
Supplements increase your potassium intake without adding carbs to your diet. Having a daily multivitamin in your diet may provide some potassium, but the amount is minimal. In the United States, single servings of multivitamins do not have more than 99 milligrams of potassium, explains the Linus Pauling Institute. This regulation ensures that you do not consume too much potassium through daily multivitamins. If you are potassium deficient, your doctor may prescribe larger doses of potassium. Since large doses of potassium can lead to serious problems, potassium supplementation needs to be closely monitored and regulated by your health care provider. References Linus Pauling Institute: PotassiumUSDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Chicken, Broilers or Fryers, Meat Only, RoastedUSDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Beef, Top Sirloin, Steak, Separable Lean and FatChoose Your Foods: Exchange Lists for Diabetes; Danger of Low-Carb Diet: Not Enough Vitamin C
I eat a low-carb diet for reasons that have nothing to do with weight loss: To keep my blood sugar down. I am sure high blood sugar is bad. A few months ago, I noticed that my lips were chapped, which was unusual. I suspected it was due to lack of Vitamin C. About two months before that, I had stopped doing two things that I usually did: taking a multi-vitamin pill (which had Vitamin C) and eating fruit. I don’t know if the Vitamin C in the pill is absorbed but I’m sure the Vitamin C in fruit is. I started eating kumquats — the skins of four kumquats/day. (One kumquat contains about 15% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C). My lips returned to normal. Paul Jaminet, author of Perfect Health Diet, had a similar experience, which I knew nothing about when I noticed my chapped lips. While eating “a lot of vegetables but no starches and hardly any fruit,” he developed outright scurvy, including wounds that wouldn’t heal. This happened while he was taking a multi-vitamin pill with 90 mg Vitamin C (my four kumquats contain only 35 mg Vitamin C).
“Four grams a day of vitamin C for two months cured all the scurvy symptoms,” he found. Why do we like sweet foods? The usual answer (so that we will eat more calories) is nonsense (except for children). The striking thing about our liking for sweetness is that it disappears when we are really hungry, which is the opposite of what the calorie-seeking explanation predicts. Desserts are served at the end of a meal because they taste much better then. But our liking for sweetness (when we’re not hungry) is so strong and obvious it must mean something important. I think it is pushing us to eat more fruit so that we will get enough Vitamin C. Fruits are much sweeter than other food groups and they are much higher in Vitamin C. We don’t like sweet things when we are hungry because a high-fruit diet is terrible (it is low in omega-3, other necessary fats, several minerals, and microbes, for example). But a small amount of fruit may be a big help. Paul and my experiences suggest it may be hard to get enough Vitamin C in other ways.
More Paul has a different idea about why we like sweetness. This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 at 12:28 am and is filed under human evolution, nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. Atkins, Day Break, Morning Snack / Light BreakfastChocolate Hazelnut Bar, 5 Bars, 1.4 oz (40 g) Each Atkins, Endulge, Chocolate Caramel Mousse Bar, 5 Bars, 1.2 oz (34 g) Per Bar Atkins, Endulge, Chocolate Coconut Bar, 5 Bars, 1.4 oz (40 g) Each Atkins, Endulge, Caramel Nut Chew, 5 Bars, 1.2 oz (34 g) Each Atkins, Endulge, Peanut Butter Cups, 5 Packs, 1.2 oz (34 g) Each Atkins, Advantage, Cookies n' Creme Bar, 5 Bars, 1.7 oz (48 g) Each Atkins, Advantage, Caramel Chocolate Nut Roll, 5 Bars, 1.6 oz (44 g) Each Atkins, Dark Chocolate Decadence Bar, 5 Bars, 1.6 oz (44 g) Per Bar Atkins, Endulge, Nutty Fudge Brownie, 5 Bars, 1.4 oz (40 g) Each
Atkins, Advantage, Caramel Double Chocolate Crunch Bar, 5 Bars, 1.6 oz (44 g) Each Atkins, Treat Endulge, Chocolate Peanut Candies, 5 Packs, 1.2 oz (34 g) Each Atkins, Endulge, Chocolate Covered Almonds, 5 Packs, 1 oz (28 g) Each Atkins, Treat Endulge, Chocolate Candies, 5 Packs, 1 oz (28 g) Each Atkins, Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bar, 5 Bars, 1.7 oz (48 g) Each Atkins, Advantage, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bar, 5 Bars, 2.1 oz (60 g) Each Atkins, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar, 5 Bars, 2.1 oz (60 g) Each Atkins, Snack, Dark Chocolate Almond Coconut Crunch Bar, 5 Bars, 1.4 oz (40 g) Each Atkins, Caramel Chocolate Peanut Nougat Bar, 5 Bars, 1.6 oz (44 g) Each Atkins, Day Break, Peanut Butter Crisp Fudge Crisp Bar, 5 Bars, 1.2 oz (35 g) Each Atkins, Meal, Chocolate Chip Granola Bar, 5 Bars, 1.7 oz (48 g) Each Atkins, Greek Yogurt Bar, Blueberry, 5 Bars, 1.7 oz (48 g) Each Atkins, Harvest Trail, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Bar, 5 Bars, 1.3 oz (38 g) Each