Well, I suppose you can take this up with the regulatory agencies and dissect the nuances.
I’m just trying to inform the OP why potassium is not sold over the counter in high concentrations. The reason is that it is a direct irritant to the GI lining and is dangerous in high doses. (Dangerous relative to vitamin C, say)
As a clinician I’ve seen patients get into near-lethal (and maybe even a death or two, as I think about it) trouble with hyperkalemia, usually in a setting of impaired renal function, other medications or occasionally deliberate self harm.
But I’m not in the business of personally deciding what the parameters should be for what is sold to whom. As a matter of fact, I’m on record here as supporting the public sale of any drugs, recreational or pharmaceutical. (Well, sort of. Cocaine, yes. Antibiotics no. Another debate, perhaps.)
Not if your renal function (more precisely, your physiology in general) is normal and you are adequately hydrated, unless there are some sort of insanely high-concentration foods I don’t know about.
But overdosing on a bottle of potassium pills is another story…
No, you’re not the only person, but I was rendered speechless (yes, it can happen even to me). I’m not sure what to say - the OP was asking about dietary potassium then all that other stuff came out and I, too, am going WTF? But, really, that’s a hell of a tangent to his actual question and would probably be better talked about in another thread.
My admittedly limited understanding is that if you have kidney problems you certainly can, and those with kidney failure have to be careful about consuming potassium-rich foods. Among about a bajillion other worries.
It might be possible for a healthy person to get too much potassium from diet alone but you’d really have to work at it. Lots of juicing made from high-potassium foods, maybe. Maybe.
Seriously, you’re probably fine on the niacin, unless your doctor says otherwise. Like potassium, it’s in a lot of foods, and very few people who eat “normally” are deficient in it. Most of the time when niacin supplements are prescribed, they’re not for deficiencies, but as medicine. My doctor just put me on some seriously therapeutic doses as an alternative for cholesterol stuff because I can’t take statins. Got my first flush two days ago, four days into the starting dose. Not fun. Not fun at all. I’m glad I was prepared for it, because otherwise I would have been very confused and scared, because it’s a “Seriously, something is WRONG” feeling. Yesterday’s was less severe but still pretty unpleasant. I’m switching to taking it at bedtime tonight to see if I can sleep through it, and hopefully it will go away in a week or so.
I don’t think a person with normal kidney function could get too much potassium from food though (or, indeed, too little, except with an extremely odd diet).
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.
I wanted to address your confusion here, and it’s one many people have. Most people assume they get very little potassium because of the listed values on food nutrition labels. Potassium is a wholly optional listing, companies can decide whether to list it on their product or not, and the overwhelming majority of products it is not listed as an ingredient.
Now, as DSeid has mentioned, most Americans don’t get the RDA of potassium, but most people get a decent amount more than they’d assume if they just look at nutrition facts. Sources of potassium that frequently don’t occur to people are meat, all meat contains potassium in varying amounts and it’s almost never listed on the nutrition facts. Most processed foods have some amount of potassium as well due to being made from things that contain potassium, but again, it isn’t listed. I believe the newly proposed changes to the nutrition facts labeling requirements will mandate potassium in the next few years, though, if it gets approved.
And there’s obviously certain fruits/vegetables that are high in potassium and advertised as such. Lots of sports drinks and similar will make sure to list potassium as they probably believe it contributes to its image as a healthy thing.
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. It should instead probably be concerning that unless you’re an obese person on a VLCD overseen by a physician you’re actually starving yourself and will eventually die from it based on various factors I can’t know based on information given.
Brewed coffee is generally listed at 116 in an 8 oz cup. Of some interest is that excess caffeine (in the report cited over 10 cups a day, but hey some days that’s me) might even cause low potassium possibly by way of increased urine losses.
(Well, sort of. Cocaine, yes. Antibiotics no. Another debate, perhaps.)
