I think that I have had around 4000 mg of potassium today. The RDA is 3500. Do you guys try to keep your RDA balanced.

Hellokitty,

No worries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Adequate Intake (AI) for potassium is set at 4.7g/day for adults" (page 187). That's 4700mg/day. [www.nap.edu]

And that's Adequate Intake. It's not the maximum safe level.

Different charts give different readings. There are no agreed-upon precisely set recommendations for potassium.

And check out p. 187 of the WHO article. "The demonstrated effects of potassium often depend on the accompanying anion". According to the article, the accompanying anion to potassium in processed food and supplements is often chloride. Fruit contains a nonchloride form of potassium.

Dr. Kevorkian used lethal doses of potassium chloride in "assisted suicides" to stop the heart.

There does appear to be a risk in overdosing on potassium chloride supplements, especially for people with kidney issues and diabetes, and that may very well have to do with the chloride as the potassium anion in supplements.

I've never heard of banana poisoning - or any kind of fruit poisoning for that matter! Unless the fruit actually is poison, like maybe poison sumac berries or something. Have you?

Some people say too much fruit is bad for us. But there doesn't seem to be any verifiable science on that. Fruit, especially bananas, have evolved right alongside of humans as a reliable foodsource, especially in the tropics where homosapiens evolved. Everyone would know for certain by now if too many bananas could poison us.

Yes, too much refined sugar is bad for us. But the body metabolizes refined sugar differently than sugars from whole raw fruits. Same with the nutrients available from so many of the whole raw foods. The body is able to store and/or easily extract and excrete what it doesn't need, as opposed to nutrients from say, supplements that might go directly into the bloodstream along with undesirable additives.

As for the RDA, I think it would be just about impossible to hit it on the nose everyday. And remember, those numbers were intended only as a guide to give us an approximate idea of how much we need of each nutrient.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2009 10:11PM by suncloud.

The RDA for vitamins and minerals is outdated. So I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks you guys and thanks for the since info. I will also post this info on other websits for people who are afraid to try this raw food diet. I was thinking wheather you believe in creationism or eveloution we all ate fruits and thats all we ate in the begining.

This article I wrote on 'too much fruit?' discusses the issue (or non-issue...) of 'too much potassium'.

[debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com]

Wow! Another great article Debbie!