503 Salt and Potassium

Stay Healthy Naturally May 20, 2020

In a recent newsletter Dr. Michael Murray (doctormurray.com) wrote about the importance of the potassium to sodium ratio in our diets. Our daily requirements of these two essential minerals are 2,300mg sodium and 4,700mg of potassium. A typical American diet contains 2,500 to 7,500 mg of sodium (up to 3X too high) and only 2,500 mg potassium (about half of what’s needed). I wrote about sodium back in 2013 #222 Salt - how much is too little?]

One way to counter this imbalance is in the salt we use. Most salts - including many of the fancy health food salts like Celtic gray salt or Himalayan pink salt - are mostly sodium with only a trace of potassium. A few salts are formulated to have equal or even higher potassium, and taste just fine. By the way, the pink color in Himalayan salt (and in potash mined in Saskatchewan) comes from iron oxide (rust) not the potassium.

Here is a table showing the amounts of these key minerals in a variety of salts.

Salt Sodium (mg/g) Potassium (mg/g)
Refined Table Salt 391 0.9
Redmond Real Salt 378 1.0
Celtic Gray Sea Salt 338 1.6
Himalayan Pink Salt 382 3.5
Ideal Protein Salt 192 254

The miniscule amounts of other minerals, including iodine [see #282 Iodized Salt], in the unrefined salts are not significant for your health. Salt mined from ancient deposits are more likely to be free of pollutants. True sea salts, like Celtic Gray salt, are made by evaporating ocean brine and may also contain micro-plastics.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner. Find this article on my website for links to sources and further reading.

211 Potassium [8 April 2013]

Potassium is one of a special group of minerals called electrolytes which includes calcium, magnesium, sodium and phosphorous. Electrolytes occur in the blood in an ionic form, meaning they carry an electric charge and are not attached to anything. Electrolytes affect the acidity of the blood (pH), the amount of water in the blood (and therefore blood pressure), and muscle function (including the heart). Potassium is essential for bone growth, proper nerve transmission, heart and kidney function, and adrenal function.

The role of potassium in regulating blood pressure is often overlooked. Potassium deficiency is at least as important, and possibly more so, than excess sodium (see my column #129 Salt in Balance, 29 August 2011). Other signs of potassium deficiency include:
• water retention
• muscle weakness and cramps
• heart arrhythmia
• constipation

Our diets are often deficient in potassium. The Paleolithic diet was estimated to contain 11,000 mg potassium and 700 mg sodium. Compare that with our modern diet with 2,500 mg potassium and over 4,000 mg sodium. (Not that the Paleolithic diet ratio was necessarily ideal; the point here is that the ratio has flipped). The Health Canada “Adequate Intake” amount for potassium is 4,700 mg for adults.

Good dietary sources of potassium include vegetables like lima beans, squash, spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes, avocados and asparagus, and fruits including papaya, prunes, cantaloupe and bananas. Don’t overdo the bananas, though, as they are high in sugar and have only half the potassium of the green vegetables. Unrefined sea salts with a pink color are another source of potassium. Potassium is also available as a supplement, usually in citrate form.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.

Sources

Mercola: The Guilty Pleasure that Could Save you From Heart Disease, 5 March 2012

"Paleolithic Nutrition – A Consideration of Its Nature and Current Implications", New England Journal of Medicine, January 31, 1985: 312; 283-289, S. Boyd Eaton, M.D. and Melvin Konner, Ph.D.

129 Salt in Balance [29 August 2011]

I wrote about the health benefits of reducing salt in my July 27 2009 column #022. It now appears that reducing sodium is only half the equation – increasing potassium is just as important. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) studied more than 12,000 adults for 15 years and found that those with the highest sodium and lowest potassium intakes had the highest risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Those with the lowest risk had the lowest ratio of sodium to potassium intake, nearly equal amounts of each. Source: Archives of Internal Medicine July 11 discussed in a Los Angeles Times article by Jill Adams.

Sodium, of course, is an essential nutrient – we can’t live without it – and the emphasis on cutting salt is leading to more cases of sodium deficiency. This condition, called hyponatraemia, is more common in the elderly and is often misdiagnosed. A Rosetown octogenarian friend began having strange symptoms a few years ago and was diagnosed with hyponatraemia. His doctor prescribed potato chips (I can think of healthier sources of salt), and he quickly recovered.

Dr. David McCarron, a nutritionist and professor at U of California, recently wrote in the Financial Post that the recommendation to restrict salt for heart health is based solely on opinion – there is no reliable evidence supporting it. First, he writes, “…only a minority of individuals’ blood pressure is sensitive to salt.” Secondly, three different trials testing low-sodium diets on people with kidney and heart disease showed higher risk of hospitalizations, cardiovascular events, and death in the low-sodium group. McCarron called for large-scale controlled trials to test the current policy of sodium restriction for safety and effectiveness.

Meanwhile, what to do? Don’t overdo salt but don’t eliminate it completely either (if you still eat a lot of processed foods, you needn’t worry about a deficiency!). And make sure you are getting enough potassium – balance is the key to health.

This article is intended for educational purposes only; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.