Debunking the Potassium Myth: Why Bananas Aren't the Best Source #

Metabolism:

At this Dr. Berg, I want to talk about a question that keeps coming up. I always ask people what is the best source of potassium, and everyone says bananas. Bananas are the worst source of potassium. I mean, you have to consume 12 bananas to get your daily amount of potassium because typically a banana has maybe three to four hundred milligrams, and the normal amount that you need is close to forty-seven hundred. So let’s kind of go through, first of all, what potassium deficiencies will create, and then I’ll show you some other things on that.

Electrolytes:

Let me just give you access to this right here, okay? Potassium is a physiological relaxer. It helps with a lot of things, but let me just kind of give you the key areas that potassium will help. Number one, blood pressure. Why? Because potassium gets rid of excess sodium to help balance the potassium-sodium ratio. Sodium tends to retain fluid, increasing flow retention and blood pressure, so potassium will lower the blood pressure. The metabolism of protein: if you’re a meat-eater and you don’t eat a lot of vegetables, you won’t be able to metabolize that protein. So I’m talking about the hair, nails, skin, tissues, structures, tendons, and ligaments. You need potassium to be able to create proteins in your body. It controls blood sugar. You know that in order to store blood sugar in your liver and muscles, you need potassium. Without potassium, you’re going to crave sweets and sugar like crazy, and your blood sugars will be more erratic. So by taking more potassium, you can help stabilize blood sugars. Potassium is a main electrolyte that helps heart function. You need it for the heart to function to avoid getting palpitations, arrhythmias, things like that. Potassium is a relaxer, so it helps you sleep at night and recover. It helps prevent kidney stones. But see, most people don’t even consume close to the normal amount that you need per day. You need 4700 milligrams. That would be about seven to ten cups of salad per day. So if you buy one of those big plastic containers of salad, they usually come in like ounces. So you have, like, I don’t know, I think it’s like 18 ounces for a real big one; that’s 18 cups. You would need to consume half of that every single day to get your potassium. That’s how I get mine, through a lot of salads. But there are other vegetables that you can consume for potassium. I’m going to show you those right now.

Sodium:

Okay, so number one, beet greens have 1300 milligrams. That’s crazy high. When you go to the grocery store, you see you could buy beets, right? You know what those are. But they have these big stems with the leaves; those would be beet greens. Very few people consume those, but if you put those in your salad, you will get a lot of potassium, and it’s also good for the gallbladder. Swiss chard, a very, very bitter vegetable, I suggest sautéing it. You may put it in your salad, you can juice it, or you can blend it. That has 960 milligrams per cup. Avocados have almost 900 milligrams per avocado, a medium amount. I consume an avocado a day in the morning when I have my eggs; for eggs, I throw avocados on there because I like that. I love avocados. I don’t like them ripe, though. I don’t like them too raw or unripe. That’s wrong, okay? Because if they’re always wrong, you’re not going to cook them. Winter squash has a ton, it’s like almost 900. Spinach has 838 milligrams. Sweet potatoes have a lot, but I wouldn’t recommend consuming those unless you’re not trying to worry about weight because those can be kind of starchy. And look at bananas: 300-400. That’s for a big banana; a medium-sized, small one would be 300. So you can see right there that bananas are not the best source of potassium, and I think that’s one of the myths out there.

Potassium:

Now, here’s the thing. I like to get my potassium from vegetables, not fruit, because fruit has a little bit too much sugar. The other thing is that when you eat protein like meats and things, it doesn’t really have a lot of potassium, so you must eat more salad and vegetables. We need a balance of potassium and sodium. Sodium, we need about a thousand milligrams. Potassium, we need about 4.7 times more. The ratio is about one to four, actually one to 4.7. I don’t want to get too technical, but the point is that for every thousand milligrams of sodium, you need that much potassium. So what a lot of people will do is to lower their sodium intake. That’s not very smart because you need sodium for energy, for your adrenals, for a lot of things, but you want it in sea salt. But the thing to do is not to lower sodium but to increase potassium so you have the ratios. Because if you ever notice that when you go home at night, you might crave things like sweets, right? And then you crave salt, and then sweet, and then salt. You’re trying to get electrolytes from this food because your body, your adrenal glands are drained, and you’re tired. So a much better way would be to consume a large, huge green salad and then have something salty. That would really solve the problem. So I just wanted to create a little video on this myth, and I hope you got a couple of tips. Start increasing your intake of potassium, and I will see you in the next article.

Blood Sugar:

Palpitations:

Arrhythmias:

function. You need it for the heart to function to avoid getting palpitations, arrhythmias, things like that. Potassium is a relaxer, so it helps you sleep at night and recover. It helps prevent kidney stones. But see, most people don’t even consume close to the normal amount that you need per day. You need 4700 milligrams. That would be about seven to ten cups of salad per day. So if you buy one of those big plastic containers of salad, they usually come in like ounces. So you have, like, I don’t know, I think it’s like 18 ounces for a real big one; that’s 18 cups. You would need to consume half of that every single day to get your potassium. That’s how I get mine, through a lot of salads. But there are other vegetables that you can consume for potassium. I’m going to show you those right now.

Physiological Relaxer:

Kidney Stones:

Adrenal Glands:

So what a lot of people will do is to lower their sodium intake. That’s not very smart because you need sodium for energy, for your adrenals, for a lot of things, but you want it in sea salt. But the thing to do is not to lower sodium but to increase potassium so you have the ratios. Because if you ever notice that when you go home at night, you might crave things like sweets, right? And then you crave salt, and then sweet, and then salt. You’re trying to get electrolytes from this food because your body, your adrenal glands are drained, and you’re tired. So a much better way would be to consume a large, huge green salad and then have something salty. That would really solve the problem. So I just wanted to create a little video on this myth, and I hope you got a couple of tips. Start increasing your intake of potassium, and I will see you in the next article.

Debunking the Potassium Myth: Why Bananas Aren’t the Best Source