Do I really need 4,700 mg of Potassium?
 

It's been the hardest nutritional factor to fulfill. I even take Potassium Gluconate to try to get to the darn 4,700 mg per day, but I can never make it. I did some research elsewhere to see what other sources were saying for RDA for Potassium.

This site recommends 2,000 mg per day

This says 2,000 mg as well for adults

This site says 3,500 mg, and if you get over 5,000 (which is close to the 4,700 posted here) then you can develop problems, and breast feeding women don't take more than 3,500 either

This site gives the number of 4,700, and says that breast feeding women should take 5,100 mg


So which should I believe? Which is the best type of source for this information? Where did the number for this site come about... did it come from Livestrong? I love that site, by the way. I just want to know what the most scientific and accurate amount should be, because 4,700 a day through just diet is really tough, and I want to be sure I truly am getting enough.

Thanks.

The number is from the Food and Nutrition Center of the Institute of Medicine:

Infants

0 - 6 months: 0.4 grams a day (g/day)
7 - 12 months: 0.7 g/day

Children and Adolescents

1 - 3 years: 3 g/day
4 - 8 years: 3.8 g/day
9 - 13 years: 4.5 g/day
14 - 18 years: 4.7 g/day

Adults

Age 19 and older: 4.7 g/day

Women who are producing breast milk need slightly higher amounts (5.1 g/day). Ask your doctor what amount is best for you.

Persons who are being treated for hypokalemia need potassium supplements. Your health care provider will develop a supplementation plan based on your specific needs.

Potassium in diet: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

Sorry OP. I just don't have it in me to answer yet another potassium question. There's plenty of threads with great information. All you have to do is a keyword (tag) search. :p

4700 mg a day is the Adequate Intake amount for an adult female.
Source: Understanding Nutrition, Ellie Whitney and Sharon Rady Rolfes
10 ed. c2005.

Great sources of potassium are Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Soybeans, Tomato Juice, Artichokes and Milk.

Also beet greens, lima beans, spinach, papaya, salmon, yogurt. A medium baked potato has 900 mg. of potassium. Yogurt has a little over 500 mg. One cup of spinach has a bit over 800 mg.

The first links you cite says it's 2,000/day and at the bottom of it it links to health.gov, which says 4700 (Appendix B. Food Sources Of Selected Nutrients), so you can ignore that link wholesale. Wikipedia says the institute of medicine recommends 4,000.

Your second link could have been made up by a bot frankly. I see no source of its info.

Your third llink, mcvitamins, has no evidence it uses in what it says.

Your fourth link livestrong is more trustworthy than the others--I find it a decent site, and in any case it almost always mentions journal articles at the end--it did this time, too, though you'd need to read them to be sure it interpreted properly.

My conclusion is that any decent source is saying at least 4,000/day.

FWIW I've read that supplementing potassium is not easy. Apparently too much in a concentration can cause gastrointestinal issues (the kind that involve blood!) and this is why [at least the site said] it's limited in the US to only 99mg capsules. Therefore, you'd need at least 40 of them. I think this really appears to be a nutrient you want to get from food...