MetabolicTrash
Member
So I've been part of the common "Western diet" for many years as you can assume:
1.Lots of sodium;
2.Maybe a 1.5:1 balance of potassium to sodium or such;
3.Tons of processed foods and saturated fats and etc.
Not saying my diet currently is bad -- but I just recently read and found out how different it is from our ancestors.
People many years ago -- for example -- would consume a 16:1 potassium to sodium ratio. Lots of people in the West or U.S. specifically (myself included) tend to get tons of sodium and often less potassium than commonly recommended, which makes for a weak 1:1 ratio, give or take.
Basically a lot of people still are eating easily over 2 grams of sodium daily, while likely not even getting 3 grams of potassium.
Isn't this a bad thing? My initial gut impression was that I should reduce sodium and increase potassium, as keeping sodium low and potassium on the higher-end is more associated with better or optimal cardiovascular health than just raising one or lowering the other separately.
Given this it is still difficult to keep sodium low consistently and potassium high. I also had concerns about this since Googling around just shows those scary "eat more of this and you can die" oversimplication articles that usually don't apply to those without certain conditions that can greatly affect normal upping of minerals and etc.
So what I am wondering is, how can I gradually make this shift without concern for any issues? I've been so long with high salt and so-so potassium. Should I just add more potassium gradually while trying to minimally reduce sodium? Is there a better way to do this and etc.?
Would be great to further discuss this here, along with safe potassium upper limits in general; best sodium:potassium optimization; etc.
1.Lots of sodium;
2.Maybe a 1.5:1 balance of potassium to sodium or such;
3.Tons of processed foods and saturated fats and etc.
Not saying my diet currently is bad -- but I just recently read and found out how different it is from our ancestors.
People many years ago -- for example -- would consume a 16:1 potassium to sodium ratio. Lots of people in the West or U.S. specifically (myself included) tend to get tons of sodium and often less potassium than commonly recommended, which makes for a weak 1:1 ratio, give or take.
Basically a lot of people still are eating easily over 2 grams of sodium daily, while likely not even getting 3 grams of potassium.
Isn't this a bad thing? My initial gut impression was that I should reduce sodium and increase potassium, as keeping sodium low and potassium on the higher-end is more associated with better or optimal cardiovascular health than just raising one or lowering the other separately.
Given this it is still difficult to keep sodium low consistently and potassium high. I also had concerns about this since Googling around just shows those scary "eat more of this and you can die" oversimplication articles that usually don't apply to those without certain conditions that can greatly affect normal upping of minerals and etc.
So what I am wondering is, how can I gradually make this shift without concern for any issues? I've been so long with high salt and so-so potassium. Should I just add more potassium gradually while trying to minimally reduce sodium? Is there a better way to do this and etc.?
Would be great to further discuss this here, along with safe potassium upper limits in general; best sodium:potassium optimization; etc.