Potassium is needed for your cells, tissues, and organs to work correctly. It is also critical in maintaining a normal acid-base balance. Potassium helps maintain your body’s fluid balance, transmit nerve impulses, and contract muscles. Learn how much potassium per day you should take unlike 98% of the adults in the United States who fail to meet their recommended daily intakes. (1)
We’ve compiled an article on how much potassium you need per day, learn the signs of too little potassium in the body, and what foods provide it!
Here are the side effects of not getting enough potassium, and the signs of too much potassium that you should look out for.
Potassium Deficiency Side Effects
The body uses potassium in the blood and the cells throughout your body. It helps maintain a normal acid-base balance in your blood by controlling the number of hydrogen ions – H+ – that are moving around as fluid inside your cells and tissues.
We’ve also compiled a list of symptoms you may have if you’re lacking potassium;
- Muscle weakness,
- Stomach cramps,
- Dizziness,
- Heart palpitations
- And loose stools.
Too Much Potassium Symptoms
Even though this is hardly the case; too much potassium in the body can cause abnormal heart rhythms, rapid heartbeat, or arrhythmias.
How Much Potassium Do You Need Per Day?
The amount of potassium you need per day varies, depending on your size, gender and age. If you are a healthy adult, you need about 3,500 to 5,000 milligrams (mg) of potassium per day.
Doctors recommend we aim for about 4,700 mg per day for women and 5,300 mg per day for men. We can get our daily recommended amount of potassium from foods such as bananas, broccoli, lettuce (the dark green ones counts), potatoes, and citrus fruits. The digestive system absorbs the most amount of potassium from food. We typically get about half of our daily needs from our diet.
If you are a vegetarian or eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, this doesn’t ever have to be so much as you would consume if you were eating meat. If you are a vegan, the amount could be lower still. Vegans do tend to eat more fruit and vegetables though, which is good.
You might be confused, if you want to learn whether you get enough potassium each day or not, see the science-backed article below:
Should I Start Taking Potassium Supplements?
It’s important to consume a wide variety of foods that contain potassium daily such as the ones we have mentioned above. If you want to learn in detail which are the best potassium-rich foods, click the article below:
11 Nutrient Foods High in Potassium – Thin Line Between Chaos & Order
Also, if your diet lacks behind you can use a supplement to help your daily potassium intake. However, this doesn’t mean you should only take supplements and keep your diet as it is; you must improve your diet.
There are a few ways you can do so that will also help with your health. One of these changes is to increase your intake of potassium-rich foods by, for example, eating more avocados and bananas. Other ways include increasing the amount of cooked vegetables you eat and lowering the salt content in your diet.
As well as this, you should also drink more water each day and take supplements such as vitamin D and calcium to avoid deficiency. It’s important to know how much potassium should be consumed on a daily basis in order to maintain healthy levels in the bloodstream.
Check this article below to improve your health:
Sleep Better – When is the Best Time to Take Vitamin D?
Best Potassium Supplement for Hitting Your Daily Need
NOW Supplements, Potassium Citrate 99 mg
Potassium is essential to maintain normal body fluid levels and acid-base balance as well as maintain the whole-body fluid level. Additionally, it plays a vital role in muscle contraction, maintaining healthy heart function, and transmitting nerve impulses. Potassium citrate is a highly bioavailable and well-absorbed form of potassium
So, NOW supplements Potassium Citrate is the way to go if you are looking for the right potassium supplement.
It is made without gluten, is soy-free, is vegan/vegetarian, is nut-free, and is grain-free
They recommend that: each capsule should be taken 1 to 5 times a day, preferably with a meal.
If you have doubts, please speak to your doctor before you start supplementing.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve learned how much potassium per day you need and got some important info out of this article. It’s always the best way to take action and face your problems right away, especially when it comes to your health.
For example, don’t ignore the fact that %98 of Americans don’t reach their daily recommended amount of potassium. You are probably in that margin too and it must be terrifying.
Don’t worry, the solution is simple. If you think you need a potassium supplement to help your diet, don’t forget to check the supplement in the previous section. Nevertheless, some people want to change things naturally; we got that covered in our article as well.
Thank you for reading.
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