absorption of potassium from raw carrot

[miles]

Is the typical advice to avoid raw carrots because of excess potassium in the case of kidney disease correct? Would the potassium be easily absorbed from shredded carrot? If so would bamboo shoots be better?

 

[pboy]

depends how much you chew it and it gets ground and juice pressed out, its probably at least 75% bioavailable. I wouldn't worry about it, unless you were taking medication that messed with your electryolyt levels. The advice is given to kidney patients and diabetic because they are usually taking other meds and insulin and other stuff that messes with their bodies electyolyte balance and ability to adjust. Its completely fine to eat a carrot. You can safely eat many 100's of % the daily value in potassium from food and be fine...there isn't even an upper limit established

 

[miles]

Thanks pboy. My friend, who is 76, has been advised by his doctors to avoid potassium as much as possible because his kidneys are failing, stage 3 kidney disease. Any thoughts? I have looked through all Dr Peat's writings and cannot find much on kidney disease and his opinions on the general medical advise to avoid various minerals....

 

[pboy]

I think Peat would say 1 or 2 carrots is fine. That would still only be 10% potassium or so, which the body still needs. If he doesn't like them or desire to eat then I
wouldn't force it, carrots can be tough for other reasons besides just the potassium. In various eastern medicine traditions, carrots are known as being a good kidney tonic...so it is counter intuitive (well normal actually, the doctors advise is counter intuitive), which would actually make sense. People with kidney problems almost always have excess acids built up, so if anything more potassium could help buffer it. Doctors give recommendations based on liability as their main motive, so even if there is any potential risk 1/1000 someone who ate 10 carrots might have a problem, they will tell everyone not to eat any carrots. I just wouldn't make a big deal out of it, if he wants eat 1 or 2 carrots, no need to do more... they aren't really essential so he doesn't need to eat any if there is no craving to

 

[Mittir]

RP mentioned that only a small part of sugar and carotene is absorbed from
raw carrot salad. He recommends longitudinally shredded raw carrot over
cooked or blended carrot, so that carrot can travel far down the intestine
without getting digested. I believe a very small amount of potassium and
other nutrients will be digested if it it eaten separate from meal.
Absorption is higher when eaten with meal. Adding coconut or olive oil and
vinegar will make it more potent as anti-bacterial. Cooked bamboo shoots
should not have that problem as boiling bamboo shoots for
an hour loses most of the potassium in the water. But, nutritiondata shows
about 500 mg of potassium per 100 grams of boiled and drained bamboo shoots.
I am not so sure about this data. The loss of potassium is higher when vegetables are cut into small pieces. My experience is that even 50 grams of carrot salad is quite helpful.

Edit: RP has written an article on health benefits of Cascara.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/ca ... buse.shtml