patassium info

[Guest guest]

POTASSIUM IN FOODS, to treat rheumatoid arthritis and heart disease.

by Weber.

Someone who has rheumatoid arthritis and therefore has a bad deficiency

in potassium should be able to acquire the as much as the missing fifty

or sixty thousand or so milligrams missing from the one hundred thirty

to two hundred thousand normally present (depending on the weight of non

fat tissue, which is usually almost 2000 milligrams per kilogram of

weight [Flink ] to 2,650 or so again in only a few months or less and

largely heal any reversible damage (such as possibly the fundamental

changes in ion channels of arthritics [Trujillo] ) in only a few more

weeks using food alone. This should be possible even though arthritics

tend to have a higher amount of the potassium excreting hormone,

aldosterone, than normal people [Khetagurova] do. It is only necessary

to select the right food and prepare it correctly. Large amounts of

potassium are possible from food alone as some South American Indians

receive over 8 thousand milligrams per day from their food [Oliver].

Potassium can be increased more quickly with potassium chloride

supplements also, but unprocessed food is the safest way, and can rarely

cause imbalances or dangerous surges where the kidneys are in reasonable

health. When they are not, you should be under the care of a doctor. An

additional reason is that potassium can not be absorbed efficiently in

the presence of a magnesium deficiency and magnesium tends to be

correlated with potassium intake. Inositol may be similar to magnesium

in its affect [bian]. Furthermore there is evidence from rats that

excess chloride can increase high blood pressure (hypertension).

Arthritis = rheumatoid arthritis = RA in this article

We subscribe to the HONcode principles of the Health On the Net

Foundation We subscribe to the HONcode principles

of the Health On the Net Foundation

A summation of potassium and copper, click here. Do not rely solely on

this discussion of nutrients, but seek other medical consultation if you

are sick.

CONTENTS

of other chapters Back to INTRODUCTION chapter - - II. Arthritis

Research -- III Arthritis and Potassium -- IV Roles of Potassium in the

Body - - V. Electrolyte regulation (sodium and potassium) -- VI. Purpose

of cortisol -- VII. Copper nutrition and physiology -- VIII.. Potassium

Nutritional Requirements -- IX. Potassium in Foods X. Processing

Losses -- X,cont. . Losses in the kitchen -- XI. Potassium

Supplementation -- XII Side Effects and Heart Disease -- Strategies for

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia

XIII. High blood potassium

INTRODUCTION

When attempting to increase our potassium intake to treat or cure

rheumatoid arthritis, it is desirable to know which foods are high in

potassium. It is not sufficient to know the amount of potassium in a

given weight of food. What determines how much food we eat is largely

determined by the number of calories contained in it. We eat until our

appetite is sated by a sufficient intake of food energy, and then we

lose our appetite. Therefore information on potassium in foods is much

more useful if it is expressed as weight of potassium per calorie [Weber].

The justification for using Calories contributed by fat or oil in the

potassium in foods table depends on the assumption that fat and oil

contribute as much to appetite suppression as do carbohydrates. This is

not the case short term [blundell]. However this approach is still

justified because trained muscles burn fat as well as carbohydrates

[saltin] and everyone except chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) victims

should get as much exercise as possible. While moderate to heavy

exercise has been shown to be beneficial to fibromyalgia (probably a CFS

variant) [Hadhazy], exercise in a pool has been shown to give

improvement in pain, anxiety, depression, and number of good feeling

days were more evident than land exercise [Jentoft]. I suspect that many

short sessions of mild exercise across the day would be the best way,

probably for arthritis also. Furthermore the foods which I recommend are

low in fat and under such circumstances a high proportion of the fat is

either burned or stored in the body's fat cells [Westertape] anyway.

Therefore ultimately most of the fat and oil in a healthy diet

contributes to appetite suppression long term and therefore no useful

purpose would be obtained by attempting to compute a weighted factor

against the fat contribution. A diet high in fat is disadvantageous for

other reasons, so no net problem should arise including fat calories.

It is customary to designate potassium in milligrams. If potassium

content is expressed as milligrams per Calorie (mg/Cal), most foods lie

between 0 and 10, and none are higher than 20. These are convenient

numbers, easy to read, and make a good comparison for foods when

assessing their relative potassium contents. Such a designation is much

more useful in attempting to decide which foods to eat than a " per

serving " designation which gives very little hint as to relative value

and is actually misleading for dry foods.

For a food content table for potassium in such a format, see

http://members.tripod.com/~charles_W/table.html A table like that is

unobtainable elsewhere in that format. The Table from which these values

were computed may be seen here. To access the information you must press

" enter " to search, and then divide Kcal into milligrams of potassium.

This last table is very comprehensive, is used in search mode, and even

lists all the amino acids. It is available in a PDF printable form for

potassium only also. with links to PDF caloric contents and other

nutrients. You may also see a site which shows nutrients in food as is

the case in this site.However, you must do the math here also to get

weight per Calorie. A site is available which shows. foods which are

high in one nutrient and low in another (including calories). This last

site should be especially useful for a quick list of foods to consider

first, or for those who must restrict another nutrient.

Our food can be divided into three main categories:

1. Meat, fish, and dairy products, which we depend on for high quality

protein (especially methionine and lysine), sodium, chloride, iodide and

vitamin B-12. Vitamin B12 is said to be also present in spirulina, or

blue green algae, but is thought to be an analogue of B-12 which may

make a deficiency worse.

2. Vegetables, which we depend on for vitamin A, vitamin C, and

potassium. They are also good sources of all the other vitamins and

minerals except those listed under meat above, and vitamin D, which is

not really a vitamin, but a hormone. To the extent that it is de facto a

vitamin for those working and studying inside, it is present in liver,

sardines, irradiated milk, cod liver oil, and tablets. For recommended

amounts see the last of this site. It is necessary in the body to guard

against tuberculosis [Wilkinson], to gain calcium for avoiding bone

loss, and to retain magnesium. Fermenting vegetables will not provide

adequate vitamin B-12 [Rauma 1995 with comments in 1997].

3. Grains and fruit, which are primarily cheap or tasty sources of

calories. Grain price is made even lower since 90% of subsidy payments

are made to farmers of corn, wheat, oil seeds, rice, and cotton [Doyle].

Grains also provide a fair amount of Vitamin E and B vitamins (other

than B-12). Fruits are usually fair sources of potassium and vitamin C

Foods that contain 1 milligram per Calorie or better of potassium, as do

whole grains, would probably meet the minimum daily requirement for most

young people. This assumes a man in good health who burns 2,500 Calories

per day, which would yield the 2,500 milligrams per day or so mentioned

in Chapter VIII. It also assumes no drains on potassium from stress,

disease (such as diarrhea), perspiration or other losses.

MEAT

Lean meat low in fat has fairly consistent amounts of potassium, usually

about 2 mg/Cal. It can range from 1 to 3 mg/Cal. Since fats or oils have

no or little water to dissolve potassium, and since they are high in

calories, they are very low in potassium, approaching zero. Therefore

meat with much fat in it will be lower in potassium per calorie than

lean meat. Milk compares to meat as a source of potassium, and has the

same dependence on fat content. The lactose in milk is difficult to

digest for adults outside of the Caucasian and Semitic races and causes

digestive upsets. That problem can probably be solved by adding the

proper enzyme to the milk. Also, milk is very low in copper.

Eggs, like meat, are an excellent source of protein, and for normal

people should make a good adjunct to the diet. You should bear in mind,

however, if you are in the throes of recovering from a deficiency, that

they are low in potassium. This would be expected, since the developing

chick is trapped inside the egg. It has no way of excreting potassium

and must end up with the correct amount, after burning some energy and

making some feathers. Eggs have been given some bad press because of the

cholesterol hypothesis. However there are tribes, which eat large

amounts of eggs in Africa, that have a much lower heart disease rate

than we do. The Masai tribe members have low cholesterol [brown p8-9]

even though heart disease is a problem. Low cholesterol diet has little

affect on cholesterol (or this site), since the high blood cholesterol

is probably due to impaired conversion of cholesterol to bile acid [Mann

p647] and an egg a day has no affect on cholesterol .[slater] and

Cholesterol lowering drugs give a higher death rate [Mann p646], and the

cholesterol level is normal in the average heart attack victim. In fact,

too little cholesterol in the body can cause health problems. For some

possible causes and cures, see this pdf site. High sodium chloride

(table salt) intake for 1-4 years has been found to frequently cause

high blood cholesterol [Dahl].

There have been effective treatments rejected in the past solely because

they did not conform to mistaken accepted hypotheses [Goodwin]. So eggs

should make a reasonable source of protein for everyone. It is probable

that most of the problem with cholesterol these days is from a pervasive

copper deficiency. It is said that prolonged salt intake can also raise

cholesterol.

Most of the potassium is concentrated in the white of the egg. Egg

whites are comparable to meat in content, and are in fact higher than

most meat. One way to make a slight gain in potassium intake, if you are

the only one deficient in your family, is to have your portion of the

egg high in the whites.

Glucosamine has become popular as helpful in osteoarthritis. If it

proves to have an equivalent affect on rheumatoid arthritis, I suspect

the interference with potassium excretion by the ammonia generated will

prove to be a considerable part of its efficacy.

VEGETABLES

Vegetables low in starch are the best sources of potassium. They rarely

go below 5 mg/Cal., and range up to 20 mg/Cal. or more. The seaweeds are

poor sources of potassium. The situation may be more favorable than

this, since some of the Calories measured by the USDA may be

indigestible to us. They are excellent sources of iodide which may be of

interest to those who live in the interior of continents and do not use

iodized salt. Perhaps they would be good as occasional salad dressing in

summer. I can not recommend them as a substantial replacement for

vegetables, however, because of their high salt content and because I am

unfamiliar with the status of their other nutrition or the possibility

of iodide toxicity (However, excess iodide has been recommended against

breast cancer [from a dead link] ).

If you wish to increase the variety or taste of the vegetables which you

eat by growing your own perennials there is a site which lists growth

parameters of trees and shrubs. --or-- This site discusses wild

vegetables which are edible, and some evolutionary aspects of vegetable

eating. You may see a list of vegetables which will grow in partial

shade at this site.

GRAIN

Grain (see evolution of seeds as food) is the lowest of the major

categories, and will usually run about 1 mg/Cal. Nuts are similar to

grain. The bean, peanut and legume seeds are a fairly good source,

usually running about 3-4 mg/Cal. They along with chocolate and other

nuts are high in arginine amino acid which apparently should not be

eaten when suffering from a herpes viral infection such as chicken pox,

shingles, genital herpes [McCune] (see further discussion below). When

first recovering from arthritis and attempting to build up your body's

potassium, it would be well to use whole wheat bread and cake sparingly

(and no refined flour products at all). Substitute wheat germ and yeast

for some of it and vegetables for the rest. Perhaps it would be best not

to go overboard on the wheat germ since I suspect it enhances diarrhea

bacteria because it is rich in B vitamins [but I have heard of no

proof]. A fair amount at each meal would probably be a cautionary

compromise. People who are intolerant of gluten protein should eat no

wheat at all. A very important consideration is to eat extremely

sparingly of foods containing sugar, starch, or fat, regardless whether

the sugar, starch, or fat was placed there naturally or by the hand of

man. Refined flour is extremely low in potassium but is not part of this

discussion since no one should ever be using that useless rubbish under

any circumstances because of a number of other deficiencies. A diet high

in protein has been touted as superior to carbohydrates and for people

who have not lost kidney function it is probably acceptable. However,

the main reason why carbohydrates have received a bad perception is

probably because the criminally incompetent jerks in the processed food

industry have evolved clever ways to remove or destroy essential

nutrients in carbohydrates, sometimes 100% of them.

When people speak of a balanced diet, they usually mean that you should

get a fair share of each category of food each day. By so doing you make

it unlikely that there will be too little or too much of any essential

nutrients. If you get about equal calories from each of the three

categories, you should have a reasonably balanced diet as defined by the

crude definition at the beginning of this paragraph and most people will

be reasonably healthy. However grain and fruit are not essential. You

can see a table which shows all nutrients for many fruits at this site.

You can probably get all your nourishment from meat and vegetables, and

it is undoubtedly a superior way to eat [LaVecchia et al]. [Van Duyn].

This is a case history in which using vegetable juice and vegetables

healed a woman of arthritis There was also a study which used a so

called vegan diet with vegetables and legumes to cure diabetes, but no

refined food, meat, or milk which showed substantial improvement

including much less loss of protein from the kidneys. There also has

been a study which showed a strong negative correlation versus with

cooked vegetables in Greece [Linos]. It is desirable to have variety in

the vegetables since almost every plant has a different mild poison or

another and variety prevents difficulty from any one of them. For

instance parsnip root and diseased celery have a phototoxic poison

[ivie]. Each plant family is usually different from the others.

Therefore, it is important to vary your menu. If you concentrate on one

particular plant, you may find yourself in the embarrassing position of

the man who turned orange from eating too many tomatoes and carrots, or

have a vital food element tied up in the digestive tract as the oxalic

acid in spinach and rhubarb is alleged to do to calcium, or much worse

to be badly sickened by alkaloids as the poor people in India are

sometimes when they eat only a local wild pea during a famine. Most of

these toxic substances are only mildly toxic and present in small

amounts in cultivated plants so variety should solve the problem

satisfactorily for edible plants for most people. You can see which

foods belong to which families in order to rotate and maximize the

advantage at; http://www.mall-net.com/mcs/rotate.html . One way to

achieve variety is to find recipes for good tasting mixtures of food.

You may see a link to a trail mix recipe in this site.

MEAT

There are no toxic meats in commerce, so that variety in meat is

probably not essential to take care of the above circumstance. It has

been proposed that red meat is unhealthy, but this is an invalid myth,

and people with adequate kidneys can eat large amounts of meat safely.

Liver is an exception. Eating only liver can produce vitamin A and

vitamin D toxicity. Another exception is fish. Fish contain unacceptable

amounts of mercury (see this site for mercury analyses) and tropical

fish contain ciguatera toxin. Ciguatera is a poison of many carbon rings

generated by tropical algae which can not be degraded by heat and which

is thought to bind to sodium cell wall pumps. It remains in the body for

a long time. You may see an extensive discussion of this toxin along

with a proposal of a vitamin B-12 antidote here and here. Since fish

migrate and in addition are transported all over the world, eating

oceanic fish or chickens or pigs fed such fish may not be worth the risk

even for healthy people.

It is also said to be important to receive at least a small amount of

meat or dairy products at every meal since these are quality proteins.

Many nutritionists believe that you should eat more than the 50 grams of

protein in a 2000 Calorie diet which the US government recommends, as

much as double that amount or more. I can not help with advice on this

for sure, but I suspect the governments recommendation is a minimum.

Much of the usefulness of quality protein (protein high in lysine and

methionine amino acids) is said to be lost if it is eaten even as little

as two hours after the main meal [i have lost the reference]. Lysine can

have some additional importance because arginine amino acid accentuates

the symptoms of an attack of the herpes type of virus [McCune]. Thus an

attack of shingles, which disease is a resurgence of chicken pox virus

from the pain nerves near the spine where they have been dormant, will

be accentuated and perhaps even triggered by foods high in arginine.

These foods are said to include peanuts (peanuts are 50% higher than

cashews, but which last are substantial nevertheless), other nuts and

non grass seeds, and chocolate (see here for a table which gives lysine

and arginine values by weight of food and lysine\arginine ratios).

Lysine helps to mute the effects of the virus, significantly reducing

the occurrence (when taken routinely during the disease), severity, and

healing time of herpes simplex virus [Griffith]. You can recognize

shingles by large patches of a painful rash which appears on one side of

the body in people under emotional stress [irwin], older people, or

people whose immune system has been compromised.

Since whatever long lasting infection (70 to 80 % retrovirus signs

[DeFreitas] ) or/and poison [bell 1998][Racciati] or/and small adrenal

glands [ & Dinan] or/and disruption of the brain-pituitary axis

[ & Svec & Dinan] (but beyond any reasonable doubt not hypochondria

or mass hysteria from reading newspapers) is causing chronic fatigue

syndrome (CFS, postinfectious neuromyasthenia, chronic virus infection,

myalgic encephalomyelitis, chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome,

CFIDS, fibromyalgia, FM, ME, PVFS) seems to make people more susceptible

to herpes virus with 77% of CFS patients containing antibodies to HHV-6

EA as IgM and IgG [Patnaik] it may be prudent for these CFS people also

to eat sparingly of high arginine foods continuously after CFS or maybe

until tests determine that the immune peptide hormones [Patarca] are all

normal again. The symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome are impaired

sleep, loss of memory, sore throat, muscle and joint aches, headache,

cough, photophobia, extreme long lasting fatigue after physical

exertion, night sweats, [Evengard] depression that has much lower ACTH

and cortisol secretion than other types of depression [Demitrack], lymph

node pain, eye pain and fibromyalgia (muscle pain) [bell 1994] as well

as white spots on MRI brain scans and sometimes loss of fingerprints, a

chronic low level activation of the immune system [Cannon] which last

may be accounting for many of the symptoms, but all symptoms highly

variable, possibly because the part of the brain attacked varies or

because there are different varieties of virus or both. Whole body

potassium in CFS averages a little lower than other healthy people which

themselves are low in potassium in our society. The CFS average was two

thirds of the highest values of " normal " people [burnett]. The affect of

potassium would bear investigation. When it is, magnesium should be part

of the experiment since there was significant improvement of a patient

from magnesium injections [Takahasha]. Potassium should be used with

caution and under a doctors care since when a patient thought to be

exhibiting symptoms of fibromyalgia was brought to 5.0 mEq/l of

potassium in her blood (which is about normal), she contracted paralysis

[Gotze]. This may be because experiments have shown that people who have

CFS with muscle pain have normal extra cellular potassium and so

fibromyalgia must be a different subset of CFS or caused by a different

virus species. In monkeys the electrocardiogram in magnesium deficiency

resembles that of high serum potassium (hyperkalemia) in spite of low

serum potassium (hypokalemia) [Manitius p39]. So it is possible that

lower cell potassium requires lower serum potassium for normal nerve

transmission, but the serum potassium does not drop [Manitius p38].

During a magnesium deficiency cellular muscle potassium drops but not

liver potassium [sen] and a large potassium intake does not prevent

this [Manitius]. Grace and O'Dell are of the opinion that this

disturbance of potassium metabolism is due to the dependence of the

sodium pump on ATPase which in turn depends on the magnesium [Grace],

possibly by virtue of a calcium inactivation of the enzymes [Heggtveit].

If a magnesium deficiency does develop, half a year of supplements can

be required for complete normalization of magnesium and potassium -

sodium pumps [Anonymous] A high potassium intake in sheep [Newton],

large amounts of vitamin D, and wheat phytic acid increase magnesium

need although calcium has little affect at 10 mg of magnesium per

kilogram of body weight [seelig]. Seelig recommends 7-10 mg of magnesium

per kilogram of body weight. (See this site for FAQ and links about CFS)

and this site far some possible strategies for CFS and fibromyalgia.

Potassium has a wider margin of error in timing when eaten than the

above two amino acids may have, but you should avoid any deficiency or

starvation which lasts more than 2 or 3 days if at all possible when you

are replete in order to remain in top notch shape, and you should make a

considerable effort to avoid any deficiency in food at all when you have

a deficiency in potassium or have arthritis. There is an excellent

article on practical ways to get more potassium from food. It is

possible that eating smaller amounts at five or more meals each day

would enable you to retain a larger fraction of the total potassium

since surges would be avoided. There seem to be advantages with weight

control and other problems from such a procedure.

OTHER NUTRIENTS

Of course, even when you are receiving a " balanced diet " (as defined by

the food pyramid), you should still give some reasonable attention to

each of the other essential nutrients. Magnesium is directly related

since the body can not absorb potassium easily during a magnesium

deficiency. Magnesium supplements can take up to six months to normalize

the magnesium, potassium, and sodium pumps. It may not happen at all if

vitamin D is deficient since the kidneys depend on vitamin D to reabsorb

magnesium [Ritchie]. Krispin Sullivan, clinical dietitian, has written

an excellent article on magnesium deficiency. Agar seaweed is a very

rich source of magnesium since a hundred grams dry weight contains 770

milligrams. It is also very rich in copper. It does not pay to go

overboard on anything and it is possible that huge amounts of it could

cause iodide toxicity, although I have no evidence. Magnesium appears to

be especially important when suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome,

fibromyalgia, or some asthmas. Also see a proposal to increase magnesium

in drinking water for heart disease, asthma, migraine headaches, etc.

Magnesium activates some of the dozen or so electrolyte pumps, is said

to inhibit the potassium chloride cotransport pump, blocks some pumps,

and is said to increase the potassium pore permeability [bara]. To

imagine that the housewife (or house husband if he prepares the food)

can get on top of all that in addition to bizarre large additions of

nutrients such as chloride and phosphate placed there by the criminally

incompetent junk food processors on her way out to the food store and

adjust the food destruction with pills is dream like. The top

researchers and dietitians of the world can not. So her only real chance

is to acquire a wide array of unprocessed food and hope her family has

no serious genetic defects. Medications are not a satisfactory

substitute for food, indeed are usually harmful. The following is a

statement in a long term research into effect of arthritis medicines;

" It was in 1988 that Pincus suggested that short-term studies may give

rise to false expectations, and that radiological and laboratory values

are overemphasized at the expense of long-term outcomes of functional

status and death, " Dr. Gibson and colleagues comment. " Perhaps our study

serves to reinforce this message. " [Gibson]

Extra copper may be necessary when recovering from arthritis. It is

reasonable to suspect that healing would be more effective if all the

other nourishment is adequate. Arthritics are deficient in pyridoxine,

zinc, and magnesium versus the recommended daily allowance and copper

and folate versus the typical American diet [Kremer] (which itself is

not sensational). They also have inadequate calcium, vitamin E and

selenium [stone]. You should pay particular attention to vitamin A on a

series of bright sunny days, vitamin B-1 if you eat foods made with

sulfur dioxide (which destroys B-1 in the intestines [Fitzhugh][Amerine

p487] ) such as wine, vinegar, and some dried fruit and a vitamin B-1

deficiency is especially dangerous to the heart and kidneys when

potassium is becomes replete [Folis], vitamin C if you have been cooking

most of your food or have been eating stale food or have a viral

infection, possibly vitamin E to protect the heart, maybe linoleic

(omega 6) and linolenic (omega-3 fatty) acid if you have been eating

hydrogenated foods, (which is definitely not recommended). The ratio of

omega 6 to omega 3 oils should be one, but modern diets are much higher

[simopoulos]. However it is probably not a good idea to add excessive

amounts of these oils to your diet because they have been associated

with breast cancer and omega 6 could possibly inhibit the immune system

[Grimm 2002], although white cell (T and B cells) functions are

apparently not affected [Kelley]. so perhaps neither one should be

supplemented to excess. You may see a graph showing ratios of these

essential oils in some foods here and abstracts of clinical trials here.

A compound related to omega 3 and omega 6 oils is cetyl meristoleate and

is said to improve arthritis but I know of no supportive theory other

than that prostaglandin hormones may be increased and dampen immunity in

some way. You may see a site which rates its effectiveness here. ). You

should give some thought to calcium if you have been subject to cramps,

spasms (spasms are more likely on a high potassium intake in the absence

of calcium), probably tuberculosis, or tooth decay. Vitamin D is

necessary in conjunction with the calcium and is probably important for

magnesium absorption also. Equally important is to keep the teeth sound

with adequate intakes of calcium, phosphate, and vitamin D. The last is

especially important for people who must be inside away from sunlight.

Vieth argues that the 200 international units (IU) RDR is too low. He

maintains that 200 IU merely prevents osteoporosis after a fashion. He

recommends 800 to 1,000 IU total per day. Apparently he claims that

epidemiological studies and circumstantial evidence show lower rates of

multiple sclerosis, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and colorectal,

prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer from increased vitamin D. Since

naked Africans receive 10,000 IU, he suggests that concerns of toxicity

are inappropriate [Vieth]. For complete safety iodide must be

supplemented in the absence of seafood and table salt. Vitamin B-6

(pyridoxine) deficiency has been found to increase tumor necrosis factor

(TNF) in arthritis [Roubenoff]. TNF stimulates parts of the immune

system which have to do with inflammation, among other things. There is

a suspicion that vitamin B-6 can permit reabsorption of rheumatoid

nodules [McCarty]. Vitamins B-6, B-1, and B-12 were found by Vetter et

al to lower pain somewhat more when combined with a painkiller [Vetter].

FRUIT

Fruits are not a good source of nourishment. They generally contribute

little besides vitamin C and potassium as you can verify by looking at

the USDA Handbook #8 from the US Govt. Printing Office, and are not even

sensational in these as a rule. The plants which have formed the fruits

have endowed them with lovely attractive color pigments, seductive

aromas, and titillating flavors. These attractants are a snare and a

delusion designed to persuade animals to eat them and then scatter the

bitter, hard, even poisonous seeds far and wide. They tend to be high in

sugars such as fructose and sucrose, which are attractive to our sweet

tooth but which interfere with copper absorption. When it comes to

anything with nutritional value, the plant puts as little in as possible

and still form the fruit since vitamins and minerals are tasteless. The

only exceptions are vitamin C and potassium with which they are

moderately endowed (although acerola berries, jujube dates {Chinese

dates}, tropical guava, and kiwi fruit are outstandingly high in C). See

this site for a discussion of fruit. The usefulness that I see for fruit

is as a clever technique for making less palatable food more attractive,

such as raisins for bran or carrots, apples for salad, or juice for

oatmeal for instance.

A wide spread fallacy is that bananas are a rich source of potassium. As

you can clearly see from the table, they are only a moderate source,

about the same as potatoes. I have a feeling this is a classic case of

the success plants have had in fooling the primates or possibly also the

success of advertising campaigns. Today there are monolithic stands of

banana trees as far as the eye can see probably because of banana oils

(but no doubt with considerable assistance from fruit company ads). Even

so, bananas are a 3 or 4 times better source of calories than most whole

grain, for arthritics at least.

Somewhere I have seen a hypothesis that plants containing pectins such

as apples cause a favorable intestinal flora to grow and so may be worth

eating for that reason. Also an experiment has disclosed that copper is

absorbed enough more efficiently if apples are eaten with the meal to

cause a considerable net increase of copper absorbed, much more than

enough to compensate for the apple's lower copper content

[sable-Amplis]. This could be the reason that apples seem to lower

cholesterol. I have heard that cherries have a favorable affect on

arthritis [blau]. It could be that they have a poison which retards

potassium excretion or that they have an acid which is absorbed but

which can not be metabolized. If interference with potassium is the

mechanism, it is likely that increasing potassium would be a superior

strategy than use of cherries. A recent study gives kiwi fruit a high

nutritional rating, including magnesium and potassium. However, in any

case, I will stay with my contention that fruits in general are of

marginal value until someone comes up with crisp evidence to the

contrary. We tend to put considerable weight on instincts and emotional

feelings of pleasure when evaluating food, so that fruit will continue

to be eaten in large amounts regardless of what I say, and people in

good health should be able to do so with little problem. However you

should be aware of fruit's true nutritional content. In fact you should

be aware of the true nutritional value of all the food which you eat,

almost as much aware as you are aware of the quality of oil that you put

in your car.

IDEAL POTASSIUM INTAKE

If every one had an average intake of potassium equal to his fair share

of the as grown potassium, they would receive about 3,500 milligrams per

day [Economic Research Service]. After processing losses and uneaten

food is subtracted from the total [Adelson], my best guess is that the

average daily intake is about 2,000 milligrams per day. Keep in mind

that half the people are eating less than the average. Old people have

an intake less than the average [Dall & Gardner]. [Dall, et al]. Black

people in Georgia average 1,500 milligrams per day, while their white

neighbors average 2,000 milligrams [Grim]. I say the above is an

unacceptably high loss. Anyone taking a pay cut like that would be very,

very unhappy.

Low potassium intake is also somewhat implicated in high blood pressure,

stroke,[Khaw] and kidney stones. Potassium has been endorsed for use

against stroke and high blood pressure by the FDA.

The health of people in the USA is abysmal (numerous statistics), and a

major part of it is poor nutrition. As the 12th century physician,

trying to cure by diet before he administers drugs, said; No illness

that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means " or as

Hippocrates expressed it in 460 - 377BC; " If we could give every

individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little

and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health. " It

would seem that a healthy life style has been known for a long time.

Continue to Chapter X, PROCESSING LOSSES

and LOSSES IN THE KITCHEN

Back to Chapter I, ARTHRITIS INTRODUCTION.

EPILOGUE

You may see the search section of a site which explores nutritional

solutions by using existing research and logical thinking to explore

possible environmental, especially nutritional, links in a variety of

inherited connective tissue disorders (Marfan syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos

syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, etc.) and related features such as

scoliosis, pectus excavatum, mitral valve prolapse and TMJ.

There is an article discussing cashew nuts to cure a tooth abscess Which

might prove useful

There is also an article which proposes some speculation about diabetes.

There is a way to rid the gall bladder duct of stones without surgery

using olive oil and grapefruit juice. I can testify that the procedure

works very well, although I am inclined to doubt the necessity of the

Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) in well nourished people

You may find useful for definitions and easy to use a search for

abstracts of journal references, " Gateway " . For those which have

abstracts available, click on " expand " or for definitions click on " find

terms " . and also some very good nutritional sites organized in

categories as well as A site with several links to potassium nutrition

articles and numerous links to miscellaneous information about all the

arthritic diseases and a site which has numerous links to arthritis.

Google is a large, general search engine which lists the most

informative articles first. Google has a free program which enables you

to put a tool bar on your screen which at the click of a button enables

you to perform a search of the web right from the window you are viewing

or the article itself, determine its rank, find anyone linking to it,

find similar articles, translate it into English, and bring up its lead

articles. It also will mark any word in the article you wish and search

within the article. It is something else.

There is a free program available which tells on your site what web site

accessed you, which search engine, statistics about which country,

statistics of search engine access, keywords used and their frequency.

It can be very useful.

The author has a degree in chemistry and a master of science degree in

soil science. He has researched this subject for 40 years, primarily

library research. He has cured his own early onset of arthritis. He has

published articles on allied subjects in; The Journal of Theoretical

Biology (1970, 1983), The Journal of Applied Nutrition (1974) which

gained the best article of the year award, Clinical and Experimental

Rheumatology (1983), and Medical Hypotheses (1984, 1999) This article is

solely funded by the author.

Confidentiality of data relating to individual patients and visitors to

a medical/health Web site, including their identity, is respected by

this Web site. The Web site owners undertake to honor or exceed the

legal requirements of medical/health information privacy that apply in

the USA. While it is not the policy of this author to use testimonials,

you may, if you wish, tell of the outcome of health strategies to a new

site which archives such experiences. The information contained in any

of my articles may be duplicated in whole or in part without concern

over copyright.

There are also the following medical sites which are pretty good (but

none of which are especially useful for arthritis or potassium):

1. HON

2. National Institute of Health

3. Medscape

4. WebMD

5.DrKoop

6. med411.com

7. British Medical Journal

8. Intelihealth

9. Mayo Health System

10. Center for Disease Control

11. Breaking medical news

If you use medication, you may see technical evaluations and cautions of

drugs at the bottom of this site.

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friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet, when our wings have

forgotten how to fly