I recall in science class learning about valuable biological processes, within the nerves, that are regulated by a balance of sodium and potassium flowing in and out of cells.
A vice of mine is eating probably more sodium than I should, definitely multiples higher than the potassium I consume. How is this not messing up those processes?
In: Biology
both sodium and potassium are (generally) very water soluble and your body actively manages them with your kidneys. if you have more than you need of either you will pee it out.
yes, you are correct. It is actually even more than that, the recommended daily value of potassium from the FDA is 4,700 mg, while sodium is just 2,300 mg.
though really, if you are eating a somewhat balanced diet, chances are you are getting your potassium needs without even recognizing it. For example, a 150 gram serving of broccoli has about 50 mg of sodium in it, but also 500 mg of potassium. 100 grams of banana has about 400 mg of potassium. An apple has only 2 mg of sodium in it, but over 150 mg of potassium.
Hell, even ground beef. 1 pound of ground beef has about 300 mg of sodium, and about 900 mg of potassium.
TL:DR, potassium is very prevalent in our food, more so than people realize. it is not just bananas.
Yes, you do. The beauty of it is that potassium is required macronutrient (along with nitrogen and phosphorus) for all plants to grow (on top of water and CO2). So plants (and therefore plant consuming animals that provide meat) will typically have enough potassium for regular diet.
Plants generally don’t uptake sodium much. For herbivores (eg cows and goats), some additional sodium supplementation is likely required especially if animals are fed mostly grain. Carnivores get most of their sodium from eating other animals.
It sort of works out the same for humans.
Evidence is that your sodium/potassium intake ratio is very important. It’s difficult to study, but if you’re overindulging sodium you probably want more potassium.
Don’t overdose potassium, though, and you probably get more than you think.
Sweat loses around 8x more sodium than potassium. So if you are looking for a sports drink, stick to the old school ones like Gatorade.
No. Your body ideally needs about 135-145 mm/do of sodium and 3.5-5.2 mm/dl if potassium. The balance is important but you need far more sodium than potassium for the correct balance to work.
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