I eat 4 bananas a day, and other foods with potassium. I looked on fitday.com to see where my potassium amount was yesterday, it was 7, 300. Is that wayyy too much? Then I had this wierd episode last night two hours after I ate my large salad. I was so dizzy and I felt like I was hypervenilating. I ate a little somthing then I went to the bathroom, then felt a little better. I don't know if I am getting too much potassium and if so how can I counter that when almost everything has potassium. Help please, thank you.

Yes, it's possible to get too much ptassium - or anything else. Some people need more potassium. Some, more calcium.It's a continuum. People who are too alkaline tend to need more calcium (I am). People who are too acid - more potassium foods. . Potassium makes me weak.Bananas are wipe-out city for me. Calcium makes me stronger. Do your own experimentation. No one else has your body. Take notes on how you feel after you eat. You'll figure it out!

I read somewhere that earlier people had ratios of 12 or more potassium to sodium, and that is healthy. This of course was before processed foods with unrealistically long shelf lives.

Eating raw, no processed foods, gives you higher potassium than sodium naturally and it's not a bad thing.

The bad part is when you eat processed foods with mega sodium doses - which is easy to do since sodium is in everything processed. Plus it's the "bad" sodium, not the good natural kind like in celery.

The two balances are sodium/potassium and calcium/phosphorus.

These 4 items make up the majority of the content of the foods we eat, and proper balancing (or deliberate imbalancing) are what affects us.

Great site for more information: www.eco-eating.com

If you read the information, you'll see that you can fix a potassium overdose from bananas with a dose of celery. Plus there are situations where you may want to be more of one than another. Makes sense to me!

Wow! Thanks! That helps a lot!

Shouldn't that be Calcium/Magnesium?

Phosphorus is important for balance, but present in nearly everything to a high degree – a raw diet should never be short of phosphorus.

Magnesium, on the other hand, is essential for calcium utilisation, if you don't want excess calcium lying around and building up in joints. That's why nuts and seeds are so much better than milk for calcium – you get the magnesium along with it.

Magnesium also helps potassium to work.

Bananas are a bit sugary, you might cut down for that reason. That is quite high for potassium, but my source (Patrick Holford) says that "Cardiac arrest MAY occur" at doses of 18,000mg. You aren't even half way there. And it depends on the size of the banana too.

Gram

Hi Gramlin,

Actually, the four most abundant items are the sodium vs potassium and calcium vs potassium arenas.

Yes, you are correct, magnesium is very important in our diets; in fact, many recent studies show magnesium deficiencies are linked to all kinds of ill health.

Being on a mostly raw diet seems to have increased my magnesium levels to an average of 600 mg daily.

If you review the www.eco-eating.com site, you'll see the workings of the balances between the 4 items - it's really very well done!

Hi,

To quote Patrick Holford:

"[Calcium] works well in ratios of 3:2 calcium/magnesium and 2:1 calcium/phosphorus."

For phosphorus he states: "Dietry deficiencies are unlikely since it is present in almost all foods."

He also says "Magnesium helps to hold potassium in cells."

Basically, both calcium and magnesium are required for muscles to work, calcium contracts muscles and magnesium lets them relax.

I'll check out that site, as I don't know anything about the link between calcium and potassium, except via magnesium.

600mg sounds like plenty.

Gram

Wow, you guys are very helpful! This makes so much sense to me. I know nuts have good magnesium. Now the problem with me is to get the proper abmounts of each. I know that four or more celery sticks help with balancing sodium and potassium when eating high amounts of potassium. I know broccoli has good calcium. I think spinach does too. I ordered that chart from eco-eating to help try to figure out how to balance my foods. Thanks, Gram, now I don't have to worry whether or not I really ODed on potassium. And thanks jackie for the information on how to balance!

Thanks for the quote, Gram.

It all seems to work together, every little thing becomes vitally important to our health. Just cut out one nutrient, and ....BLAMMO.... we're out of whack.

Shep, glad to be of service! Isn't it fun learning all this stuff? Who'd a thunk it? Hahaha!

And as a "seed vegetable" brocoli gives you magnesium too!

My absolute favorite vegetable.

Yeah jackie,who would have thought! I am so excited. I am learning things every week. Once I thought I had everything under control, then it seems every Sunday it is back to the 'ol drawing board again. Now I have more of an understanding! Wow, this really is a journey. I wonder what I'll learn next. Hahaha.