The Purpose of Potassium – Dr.Berg

Okay .

We're gonna talk about a very important mineral , potassium .

Okay .

Why is it so important ?

Well , number 1 because we need so much of it .

Out of all the nutrients , vitamin a , vitamin b , calcium , magnesium , potassium being a mineral is needed in large amounts .

I'm talking 40 700 milligrams .

Okay .

Because it's used in all the cellular reactions .

It's also used to store your sugar in your liver and your muscle .

Now let's explain what I mean by that .

Stored sugar is a good thing .

We need to store some sugar , to be able to handle a quick release of energy and glucose being the molecule of sugar , if you stick them together in a group they're called glycogen .

So glycogen is the storage of glucose .

Mainly in the liver , mainly in the muscles and it's used like , you know , it's very instant so you can regulate that .

So we need that .

It just so happens potassium is the mineral that allows glucose to be stored as glycogen .

So for every glucose molecule you need 1 potassium molecule or element .

So that's 1 thing .

Okay .

So let's say you're deficient in potassium .

That means you're not gonna store the glucose as well .

So if you don't store glucose , your body then stores more fat .

Yeah .

So that's interesting .

So a couple other points .

Where do you get your potassium ?

Mainly from vegetables but you can even get it from animal proteins as well .

But , you know , like the greens , leafy greens , beet tops are really high , avocados are very , very large amounts in avocados .

So how do we know we're getting enough potassium ?

Well , 1 cup of greens , vegetable , or , salads on average equal , 1 ounce .

Okay .

1 cup equals 1 ounce and you need 47100 so you're gonna you're gonna need about between 8 10 ounces or 8 , 7 well actually 7 to 10 cups okay or 7 to 10 ounces .

That would be like 1 of those salad containers or bags of salad that you see at the grocery store .

Just need 1 of those per day .

It's not too much .

Right ?

When you take a cup of salad , I'm not talking about , like , pack it down extremely tight .

Just kind of , like , put it in there like a good handful .

That's like 1 cup or 1 ounce .

You need at least 7 up to 10 .

I consume more than that .

I consume probably 20 .

So it doesn't hurt if you have more because the kidneys will also get rid of anything that's too much , especially when it comes down to potassium .

A lot of people supplement Potassium because it's hard to get the Potassium and they get it straight into the body and also in certain conditions , you need more potassium to improve these conditions .

1 is rheumatoid arthritis .

Big time .

You go up into the 6000 , 7000 milligrams you can really put those symptoms in remission .

Another 1 is diabetes or insulin resistance .

Why ?

Because insulin does control .

It's like the door that allows insulin , potassium to go in the cell .

So insulin controls level of potassium and , when you have insulin resistance , you can't pull that potassium in the cell .

So if you don't pull potassium in the cell , you have a lot of problems .

To make a long story short , and make it really simple , if you increase more potassium in the diet , you decrease the stress on the insulin dysfunction .

You decrease the need for insulin .

So having a little more will actually help insulin resistance and diabetes .

Okay .

So they both work kind of like a teeter totter .

If you have enough potassium you won't have sugar cravings .

Why ?

Because you're gonna store the sugar and you're gonna your body gonna you're gonna have better blood sugar levels because potassium stabilizes blood sugars so you don't have this dip down .

So potassium helps blood sugars , insulin dysfunction and cravings for sweets .

If you crave for sweet , we know you're potassium deficient .

So we need more potassium .

When I consume a meal I always have the vegetable first , not at the end of the meal .

Why ?

Because I've experimented .

If I do the protein first I tend to will keep eating more and more protein .

There's like no turn off switch versus the vegetable first which gives me the potassium and it kinda turns off that hunger and I don't eat as much protein .

My son , for example , he'll sit down and eat chicken wings .

He can eat , I'm talking like massive quantities .

So I get him to have the vegetable first and then he doesn't need as much protein cause we just need like 3 to 6 ounces .

So I always have the vegetable first for that reason .

When you consume potassium , you help get , you balance the sodium .

Okay .

So we need this potassium sodium ratio .

So we need 4 times as much potassium as sodium and that's why we need this .

Most people have way too much sodium and not enough potassium .

So they're gonna retain fluid .

When you have low potassium , you retain fluid and you're salt sensitive , high blood pressure .

If you take potassium your blood pressure comes right down .

Probably is in in many cases the cause of high blood pressure , low potassium .

Now as you do a ketogenic diet that's real low carbs .

It's low carbs and you're gonna dump a lot of fluid .

Because 1 of the things 1 1 thing is that with carbs especially refined carbohydrates , sugars cause retention of fluid .

Okay ?

Because when you consume carbohydrate you also deplete your potassium .

So when you have like cakes and cookies and sugar and donuts and breads and pasta , you're automatically depleting the potassium .

Now why is that ?

Well because in nature , sugarcane is probably 1 of the 1 of the highest things with potassium that you could consume .

Not 1 of the highest , but it's very very high .

Okay .

So there's a lot of potassium in sugarcane , but what they do is they refine it and they get rid of the potassium and other minerals like iron into molasses and they put as white refined sugar and brown sugar as a really depleted potassium deficient sweetener .

When you consume this refined sweetener over here without the mineral , you tend to your body almost like starts to plea it's a potassium depleter .

It's almost like your body will start , trying to recombine that glucose with sugar and starts pulling from reserves .

So in other words , to make a long story short , when you consume sugar , I'm trying to make this really simple , when you can term refined sugar , junk food , you're depleting your potassium and you're you're increasing your sodium and you're increasing your fluid retention .

So when we cut that out , you dump a lot of fluid .

Okay .

So you can you can drop a lot of weight in 1 week .

That's good , but you better put your potassium back in there because , if you're dumping a lot of fluid , you need to put the , the hydration back in there so you have the volume of fluid , not just water .

You need the electrolytes , okay , that help the connectivity .

So when people do the ketogenic diet and they feel really tired , boy you just need to add a little potassium and boom the energy comes up , sometimes a little sodium .

Even with low blood pressure , you know , you need potassium and sodium to help get more fluid in there , not just water .

So our bodies need fluid .

Okay .

So I wanted to just give you an overview of potassium and what it can do and how important it is .

So make sure you eat your vegetables on this program .

Thanks for watching .