# dietary potassium **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2014, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745 "2014-07-10T05:36:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/81 "2014-07-14T01:42:33Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > To be honest if you’re only eating ~600-800 calories of food per day, relative to your caloric intake I’m not sure why potassium deficiency concerns you. Because it does, all out of proportion to his body’s needs. OTOH, medical science has many methods and products to help with his problems that may have nothing to do with potassium. Interpret as you will Exhibit A: > [@needtoknow](#): > > Since you are going to keep pestering me, i’ll tell you the local District Attorney’s office has decided if the neighbor’s dogs bark, i must be guilty of animal abuse (mental cruelty), and that is a 10 year jail term, and they have arrested me for having a window fan 300ft from the property line, arrested me for mowing my yard, for having a garden, for driving my car, for having trash pickup, for spraying the poison ivy, and for having the car headlights on at night. Why?, because the dogs bark at everything. I have tried relocating myself to another county, to another state. I now don’t have the money to move. One DA attorney told me to gravel the lawn and garden area. They also told me to arrange, with the nighbors, special times to go to the road to get my mail, or drive to town. > > The insanity of the situation, the threat of going to jail for 10 years, leads me to not have any evidence of a dog-offensive garden. Plus veggies tend to spoil, making frequent replenishment drives to town necessary. Which irritates the dog, which will get me arrested again. It also puts me in harm’s way, because it was declared in court, in a loud yelling tone of voice, that the dog has a right to bite me, and i have no right to tell it to let go of me. I am talking pit bulls and rottwilers. There is a county animal control law. People have been killed by dogs all around here, every year. You cannot help with this, give it a rest, get off of me about it. > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Probably, especially if you’re on meds like **furosemide** or other potassium-wasting diuretics. Missed my horse pill of “Vitamin K” after pissing off eight liters (I have a graduated bucket) in seven hours (and a clock) and I cramped up so bad! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/82 "2014-07-14T02:12:13Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > I wanted to address your confusion here Yeah, good luck with that. 😉 > [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Sources of potassium that frequently don’t occur to people are … It is simpler and probably less misleading to say **every food contains potassium, in biologically useful quantities** , except for a very short list of things that don’t: [ul] [li]sugar[/li][li]regular salt (if that counts as a food)[/li][li]oil or lard[/li][li]um… that is all I can think of (unless you want to count water as a food).[/li][/ul] > [@dropzone](#): > > Missed my horse pill of “Vitamin K” after pissing off eight liters (I have a graduated bucket) in seven hours (and a clock) and I cramped up so bad! You know there really is a [vitamin K](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K), right? (And I would not be at all surprised in **needtoknow** is much more deficient in that than in potassium.) > [@cochrane](#): > > So, you’re saying the OP should go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? 😉 I think that ship has sailed long ago. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/83 "2014-07-14T04:14:07Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > You know there really is a [vitamin K](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K), right? (And I would not be at all surprised in **needtoknow** is much more deficient in that than in potassium.) It’s a pun, son. That’s why I put it in quotes. 🙂 I am concerned that he spoke seriously of buying a sack of potassium down at the lawn and garden store. That has the potential to take this from mildly crazy to suicidal right quick. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/84 "2014-07-14T04:36:27Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I am concerned that he spoke seriously of buying a sack of potassium down at the lawn and garden store. That has the potential to take this from mildly crazy to suicidal right quick. :eek: It’s OK, he can’t get to the garden store without making the gods bark. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/85 "2014-07-14T16:23:16Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > [Cocoa Puffs cereal has 60 mg potassium per serving.](http://www.sparkpeople.com/calories-in.asp?food=coco+puffs+cereal) But the OP can’t garden anymore so how is he supposed to grow the chocolate and grains needed to make the cereal? ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/86 "2014-07-14T19:15:03Z")
I have never seen sacks of potassium. Potassium must be stored under oil. It causes explosions and fire when mixed with water. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/87 "2014-07-14T19:38:11Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > I have never seen sacks of potassium. Potassium must be stored under oil. It causes explosions and fire when mixed with water. 😉 It also burns purple if you toss salt substitute on a camp fire. Takes a while for it to catch, but I consider that a feature, not a bug. You can surreptitiously toss a paper cup full of salt substitute into the fire, and then wander off back to the bar. By the time everyone’s good and schnookered, the fire suddenly turns purple with no one near it, and everyone is amazed. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/88 "2014-07-15T00:29:48Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I just had fried plantain (499 mg) with my breakfast of a fried egg (70), about a cup of cherry tomatoes (149), and a large shallot (20). With my coffee (474) and half-and-half (40), that’s 1252 mg. That’s without aiming for potassium as a goal of the meal. Damn. I gotta hang with you; that sounds like a terrific breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745/89 "2014-07-15T02:11:44Z")
If you were here, I’d be pleased to have your company. Breakfast cereal is pretty much a thing of the past at our house–why buy an expensive and untasty substitute when a hot meal sticks better? I’ve promised to make mangu (Dominican plantain mash with onions and salami) sometime soon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dietary-potassium/692745.md?page=4)