Potassium too low?

Hi Ladies, ummm question from me. I have been doing the girl diet since 1 Jan and am planning our attempt soon as today is Day 1 or 2 of my cycle :) Prior to this diet starting on the 1 Jan, I was on the IG diet for 8-9 weeks but struggled big time with it mentally so took a 3 week break over Christmas. I did still avoide things like bananas etc as IG put the fear of God into me about those...

Anyway, the last few days I have been experiencing heart palpatations... even if I am lying in bed, II suddenly get this feeling where my heart is about to pound out of my chest. It then goes back to normal again, but comes back through the day :( I am not montoring the ranges of sodium, potassium etc per day but just making a conscious effort to keep everything low.

Based n advice I have seen Atomic give to others I ate half a banana yesterday in an effort to get my potassium up a bit, I am thinking of having some coconut water this afternoon too. Is this the right thing to do? Obviously I don't want to do any damage to my body in my swaying attempt!

I usually O on day 11-13, our plan is to start BDing this cycle on day 8-9 and go through to day 14? I will use OPK's to help me monitor O.

So, increase potassium a bit starting now? Any input appreciated :)

Low potassium can be very dangerous on your heart! I really do not like it how IG recommend women (especially TTC!) put their health and safety as such risk with minimizing and altering our minerals :(

Definately increase your potassium, I say!!

Yes. I agree. I was at a conference recently where research was presented linking general vitamin deficiencies in women pre-conception with autism. Women should really stay within safe levels of all vitamins and minerals for themselves and their children while planning to TTC.

Schmidt et al. published a study in Epidemiology on May 23, 2011, entitled “Prenatal Vitamins, One-carbon Metabolism Gene Variants, and Risk for Autism.” It was a population-based case control study of 566 subjects comparing a group of autistic children to a matched control group of children with normal development. They looked at maternal intake of prenatal vitamins in the 3 months before conception and the first month of pregnancy, and they looked for genotypes associated with autism. They found that mothers who didn’t take prenatal vitamins were at greater risk of having an autistic child, and certain genetic markers markedly increased the risk. There was a dose/response relationship: the more prenatal vitamins a woman took, the less likely she would have an autistic child. There was no association with other types of multivitamins, and no association with prenatal vitamin intake during months 2-9 of pregnancy.

Oh great, hearing this makes me want to cry! :(

I am so confused.... so basically isn't the aim of the LE diet and others almost aimed at being slightly on the malnourished (for want of a better word) side. Isn't the aim to have low potassium and low nutrient in general, to have some foods more than others and to reduce or even avoid some foods?

I completely agree that I need to increase my potassium, because I really don't want it to be that low! I am going home to drink some coconut water and see how that goes, that is high in potassium!

Also, as I said I did have a break from swaying for 3 weeks over Christmas where I ate anything and everything, so have only been back on a swaying diet for 1 month. The diet I am doing this time is nowhere near as extreme as what I felt the IG diet was doing to me.... that diet was ridiculous, I mean living off chicken, green beans and leeks? Now that is malnourished!

Is there anything else you would suggest I add/ change etc before our attempt in the next week and a half?

Oh no I didn't mean to upset you, I am sorry xx

Oh no, not you ttc5! Not anyone for that matter! What I meant was that I feel sad that my diet leading up to trying to conceive has somehow put my unborn and yet to be conceived child. I knew that the potassium in my diet was low, but I didn't realise it was that low... Scary! Anyway, I have added some coconut water to my diet today and will keep an eye on it. I really appreciate everyones input... And you are so right, I DO need more potassium! Sorry if my previous comment came across as negative, I am obviously hormonal and fragile today lol. xx

Oh glad I had not upset you xx I am sure all is fine and will be once you up your potassium a little bit :)

AGH yes that is a sign of low potassium. You HAVE to monitor potassium because you need 2500-3500 mg a day for SURVIVAL. You can seriously DIE from too little potassium!

There is only 400-500 mg potassium in a banana, 600 mg in a coconut water, so even with these additions, you need to take care that you are getting enough every day. Eating one banana today isn't going to get you anything, you need to get the 2500 mg minimum every day.

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Originally Posted by starflower

Oh great, hearing this makes me want to cry! :(

I am so confused.... so basically isn't the aim of the LE diet and others almost aimed at being slightly on the malnourished (for want of a better word) side. Isn't the aim to have low potassium and low nutrient in general, to have some foods more than others and to reduce or even avoid some foods?

I completely agree that I need to increase my potassium, because I really don't want it to be that low! I am going home to drink some coconut water and see how that goes, that is high in potassium!

Also, as I said I did have a break from swaying for 3 weeks over Christmas where I ate anything and everything, so have only been back on a swaying diet for 1 month. The diet I am doing this time is nowhere near as extreme as what I felt the IG diet was doing to me.... that diet was ridiculous, I mean living off chicken, green beans and leeks? Now that is malnourished!

Is there anything else you would suggest I add/ change etc before our attempt in the next week and a half?

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Low nutrient does NOT mean NO nutrient. I don't even think potassium sways and it is unlimited on the LE diet. It is simply in too many foods to be swaying (and anyone who goes on IGD and FGD and drinks all that milk, is getting more than 3500 mg potassium anyway.)

The mineral stuff comes from IGD and FGD, not LE Diet. LE diet reduces calories, protein, fat, blood sugar, nutrients (by eating less calories and cutting out vitamins, not starving yourself!) and sodium. I agree about IG Diet - it's not safe. Your overall diet is better now, you just need to make sure you are getting enough potassium. There are no forbidden foods on the LE Diet except meat, really. All else is fine as long as you are coming in at 1500-1800 cals, 40-50 g protein, 20-30% cals from fat (25-60 g fat depending on how many cals you eat.)

ALL three diets have potassium at 2500-3500 and not to drop below that number. Do not fear that you are harming your sway by eating 2500-3500 mg potassium...even if the FGD is right, that's the right amount of potassium anyway.

Thanks Atomic, I really appreciate your input!! I have had a banana and the coconut water and am feeling better... no more palpatations here :) I was not deliberately trying to have low potassium as such, but I guess by avoiding certain foods and kind of filling up on others I guess my potassium was lower than I realised and I had not been monitoring my daily intake. I must admit when I was on the IG diet I was drinking more milk on that diet- 3 glasses a day so I was most likely getting my potassium from that? At the moment I am having 1-2 glasses of milk a day (about 500-750 mL a day) , including a strawberry smoothie on skim milk most days :) I guess my potassium has slowly been decreasing as a result.

Thanks for the input and the concern everyone, it is greatly appreciated... as I said this website is so supportive!

Also, thanks Atomic for the clear explanation on the diets..... it makes sense that low nutrient is in itself achieved simply by eating less or cutting daily calorie intake. It makes sense now :)

You were prob. low on potassium even on the IGD because while milk does have some potassium, it's nowhere near the amount in a potato, banana, avocado, coco water. Everyone is a little different with potassium, some people can seemingly stand not getting much while others can't tolerate even the slightest reduction.

Strawberries are good sources of potassium too so keep it up with the smoothies - toss a nana in there too! :)