I did a blood test yesterday for a few specific items; I asked that potassium be included. As I wrote four months ago, it's been four weeks since I started taking the potassium-sparing drug spironolactone. I was very interested in seeing how my diet has been influencing the potassium level in my blood. Some sources say that the maximum recommended level is 5.1 mEq/l, whereas others say 5.0 mEq/l. My level yesterday was 5.2 mEq/l. Too much potassium in the blood causes a condition called hyperkalemia; whilst this is often symptom-free, it can cause problems with the heart's rhythms.
Whilst writing this, I've discovered that I misread another internet page and confused the phosphorus level with the potassium level: I thought that this site was saying that the potassium level in almond 'milk' is only 20 mg (per cup, 240 ml) whereas in fact it has 20 mg/cup phosphorus. Oops. The potassium level is quoted as 160 mg/cup. So the rice milk stays. That's unfortunate as I've just bought 2 litres of almond 'milk', one carton each from two suppliers.
The only other item that I can think of that could be replaced is the yoghurt that I eat in the morning. 100 g yoghurt contains slightly less than 200 mg potassium, about 4% of the recommended daily intake. As I eat 250 g a day, that's 10% of the recommended daily intake. I am going to replace the yoghurt with apple puree which would seem to have about 150 mg potassium per 100 g. Thus apple puree has about 25% less potassium than yoghurt: not a great saving but it's still less.
It appears that the puree costs less than the yoghurt, thus offsetting the additional cost of the rice milk. Alpro rice 'milk' costs 14.30 NIS when I can find it, whereas 2% fat low lactose milk costs 7.50 NIS. I've been buying the rice drink from Italian supplier The Bridge at 9.90 NIS, so this is significantly cheaper than the Alpro product and not much more expensive than ordinary milk.
[Edit from a few hours later] The solution to the 'tea problem' is simply to drink less tea with 'milk' and increase the amount of infusions, that have no calories and no potassium.
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