Yes, Jean, we're on the same page.

Teaser, that's an interesting story. I also wonder if that event is why the 99 mg/tablet OTC potassium came into being. It seems like such a small amount for a nutrient that has an RDA of 4700 mg.

I wonder if it's to prevent suicidal overdose. Potassium chloride injections are (or were) used in lethal injection executions as well as pet euthanasia. Maybe it would be almost impossible to swallow enough 99 mg pills to cause cardiac arrest before you'd vomit first.

For a while after I first commenced low-carb I also ‘sweated’ over the possibility that I was not getting enough potassium and some other micronutrients but I have since dismissed that notion for the following reasons:

1) I question the reliability of recommended dietary intake values. Why for instance does Europe recommend 3,100 to 3,500 mg/d for daily potassium intake but the USA Food and Nutrition Board recommend 4,700 mg (Ref: European Food Safety Authority, “Tolerable Upper Limits for Vitamins and Minerals”, Feb 2006, page 413). Apparently, the value of 4700mg/d is based on it having a beneficial impact on blood pressure but this prompts the question, “What if you have normal blood pressure? Do you still need 4700 mg potassium per day?.

2) It could be that the dietary intake recommendations for micronutrients are about as reliable as the standard advice for macronutrients . The same people who tell you that you need 4700mg potassium per day also say, “Adults should get 45% to 65% of their calories from carbohydrates”, which equates to between 225 and 325 g carbohydrate per day for someone consuming 2000kcals per day. I think most seasoned low carbers stopped sweating over that particular dietary recommendation a long time ago.

3) Without supplements, it is almost impossible to consume the recommended 4700 mg/day allowance of potassium unless one is eating at least 200 g of carbohydrate per day. But if low carb is a natural way of eating why should supplements be necessary. I doubt that the meat loving Inuit populations in the Arctic and the Masai nomads in Africa consumed 4700mg per day of potassium and yet I haven’t read anything about them using supplements .

One of the interesting conclusions of the Inuit study done 100 years ago was that, in the absence of carbohydrate other than the incidental ones found in animal products, it seems likely that dietary requirements for what are seen as essential nutrients are lessened or extinguished.

The researchers who lived among the Inuit, eating exclusively animal products for several years, suffered no nutritional issues, and, in fact, became healthier.

Vitamin C had just been isolated back then, and it was believed by many "experts" that their results were faked, because it was deemed impossible to live for years with no Vitamin C intake.

But what if, in the absence of, or minimal presence of carbs and, especially, grains, we are able to utilize significantly smaller amounts of essential nutrients more efficiently? Carbs, especially grains, have been shown in multiple studies (see: "Grains, Humanity's Double Edged Sword", a meta analysis of many of them) to hinder the absorption of important nutrients.

If, for example, only 10% of nutrient X gets through when eating large amounts of grains, isn't it reasonable to assume that we need only that 10%, if grains are excluded from the diet?

It's kind of fascinating to think about.

Big yes from me. (To the post, not to the question at the end). If you look at something like calcium, requirements are set based on equilibrium--how much calcium it takes to be in positive balance. Or it supposedly is, with some safety buffer. Mostly safety buffer, and ignoring the possibility that once you've thrown so much calcium at a problem, lack of calcium might not be the problem

Same with protein--how much do we have to eat to retain lean mass? With potassium--it's based on stuff like the DASH diet, and also I suspect in hopes that people will eat more fruits and veggies--it's based on a dietary pattern, rather than need for the micronutrient itself.

It's entirely possible that people should be eating more potassium--but not because of a high potassium requirement, but because high quality foods, meat, fish and veggies, happen to be high not only in potassium, but in other nutrients.

Those Avocados really give a good punch of potassium, I guess that's why Atkins recommended eating a 1/2 daily.