My doctor recently put me on some pills (diuretics) that have a side effect of lowering my potassium level. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but figured I’d just eat some bananas to make up the difference. Then, after eating a couple, I realized just how much I hate those yellow bastards (apologies to Mr. Miller). So my questions are:
[ul]
[li]What foods, besides bananas, are a good source of K (all I can think of is orange juice; I was wondering if there were more) ?[/li][li]Are foods cooked with bananas (breads, muffins, etc.) a good source for K (probably wishful thinking on my part)?[/li][li]Would I be further ahead to just get some potassium pills?[/li][/ul]
Looks like blackstrap molasses has the best bang for the buck in terms of low volume, low calorie, high potassium. 1 tablespoon gives 498 mg K and only 47 calories. Beet greens give more for fewer calories, but ya gotta eat a half-cup! Yech!
Regarding your second point, you can’t destroy the potassium by cooking, so as long as it wasn’t washed away (unlikely for breads and the like) the foods would retain the potassium that their ingredients had.
I don’t love 'em either, but have found them tolerable in a fruit smoothie. I bought a magic bullet or silver bullet or whatever that is that they hawk on TV, I add some protein, some water, a banana and blend (and some ice.) It isn’t bad.
salt substitute is potassium chloride, but probably overkill. I assume your doc is planning a follow up to check your serum K leveks. IIRC, you need to leave the skin on potatoes for to get the K.
The list stops short of kiwi fruit, which the USDA lists as 284 mg. I’ve always heard that they were at least as high as bananas (a google search shows varying opinions, from just shy of bananas to way more than bananas.
A big issue with that is if you replace your sodium chloride intake with potassium chloride when you’re on diuretics, you can end up with hyponatraemia, which isn’t good. My aunt had exactly this problem and ended up having a seizure, lapsing into a 7-day coma and almost dying.
Her GP should have been checking her Na and K levels whilst she was on frusamide… but didn’t.
I was in a similar position about four years ago. I was taking diuretics which were lowering my potassium levels. When I got out of the hospital I started having really bad leg cramps; I never was sure if the cramps were due to my lying on a hospital bed for five days straight, or if it was due to low potassium levels. At any rate, I started trying to eat foods rich in potassium.
Two things I tried to eat a lot of were peanuts and sunflower seeds. I know they both have significant amounts of potassium, but I have no idea offhand how they compare with bananas or potatoes or any other foods already mentioned. At one point I also started taking (over the counter) potassium supplements in pill form, which I guess is also something to consider.
