How to Get Enough Potassium on the Carnivore Diet - Dr. Berg

Can you really get enough potassium if you're doing carnivore ?

Well , let's go into it .

1st , I wanna explain a little bit about how potassium works .

Potassium is not the most abundant mineral in the body .

Calcium is because calcium is stored .

But potassium is the mineral that you need the most out of any nutrient as far as a daily amount .

You need , like , 47 100 milligrams a day .

That's a lot .

So why do you need that much ?

Because potassium is involved in something called the sodium potassium pump , and that's in all of your cells .

It's a pump that allows the contraction and relaxation of your nerves , not to mention the fluid inside and outside the cells .

Let's talk about if you have too much potassium or too little potassium .

Okay ?

So too much potassium , the word for that is called hyperkalemia , because it's too much potassium .

Not enough potassium , that's called hypokalemia .

So what you need to know about both is that it's very rare to have any symptoms even if you have low or high , unless it's like extreme .

Most of the potassium , like 98% of it , is inside the cell .

There's a lot of factors that can , make it even lower in the blood even though they're measuring only 2% of it .

What are the symptoms for low potassium versus high ?

If you have high potassium , you can have diarrhea .

Low potassium , constipation .

So with high potassium , you have more muscle pain or muscle numbness .

But with low potassium , you have more muscle cramps and just an overall tiredness .

So you can imagine , like , especially if you exercise , like , you need potassium to allow things to work .

It's gonna help your performance .

And if you don't have enough , you can feel kinda weak and kinda tired .

And just as a side note , 1 of the causes of low potassium is low magnesium because they work so closely together .

Alright .

So what would cause a high level of potassium ?

Well , mainly it's gonna be kidney disease .

It's because the kidney can't get rid of the potassium , and so it just builds up in the body .

It's extremely rare to develop too much potassium in the blood from dietary potassium or even taking supplements of certain blood pressure medications .

And it can also be a side effect of an adrenal condition called Addison's , which is a condition where your adrenals just aren't working .

And you have this hormonal problem where you're retaining more potassium and you're losing a ton of salt .

This is why people with Addison's disease need to take a lot of salt .

So in other words , the more potassium you have , the less ratios of sodium you're going to have .

And so typically we need a 2 to 1 ratio , like 2 times as much potassium as sodium .

We need both , but we need the right ratios .

Now what's interesting is 1 of the side effects from taking too much potassium is diarrhea because it creates like a laxative effect .

Diuretics are a common cause of low potassium .

Steroids are another cause of low potassium .

Another interesting cause is crush injury .

So you have this injury , we have trauma , you you lose a lot of potassium from that .

Hallucinations and depression are a common cause of low potassium .

In fact , when you get a surgery , the requirement for potassium goes up too .

Now that you know a little bit about potassium and the need for potassium , most people think that potassium only comes from plants .

That's not necessarily true , but you do get a lot of potassium from plants .

Like for example , beet leaves , 1 cup has 1300 milligrams .

Beet leaves are loaded with oxalates as well , and people don't normally consume a lot of beet leaves .

You also have Swiss chard , which also has oxalates .

That has like , over 900 milligrams per cup .

Then you have spinach , also high in oxalates , 840 milligrams of potassium .

Avocados have between 507 100 milligrams of potassium .

And actual beets have like 520 milligrams per cup of potassium .

And then you have also just regular salad .

You can get a good amount of potassium .

It's usually between 350 to 500 milligrams per cup .

So if you're doing several cups , you're gonna get a good amount of potassium .

And I don't recommend getting your potassium from bananas because it's high in sugar and you only get , like , 300 milligrams per banana .

So what about this carnivore diet ?

Where are you gonna get your potassium ?

Well , bone broth .

1 cup of bone broth can give you 500 milligrams of potassium .

That's just 1 little cup .

3 and a half ounces of beef can give you 350 milligrams of potassium .

3 and a half ounces of octopus can give you , like , 650 milligrams of potassium .

3 ounces of salmon can give you 300 milligrams of potassium .

Now realize , you're probably consuming more than 3 ounces or 3 and a half ounces of these animal products .

1 large egg is about 63 milligrams of potassium .

3 ounces of beef liver will give you about a 125 milligrams of potassium .

And even 3 ounces of chicken can give you about a little over 300 milligrams of potassium .

And so I hope I sufficiently answered that question .

And since we're on the topic of carnivore , if you have not seen my video on the benefits of consuming beef , you should check it out .

I put it up right here .