In this video, presenter Nick Howarth argues that the primary nutritional problem in Western diets is potassium deficiency, not just excess sodium. He explains that processed foods are high in sodium and often contain monosodium glutamate (MSG), which adds hidden sodium. The body’s sodium‑potassium pump moves potassium into cells to expel fluid, while sodium pushes fluid into cells; an imbalance leads to cellular swelling, inflammation, and a host of chronic diseases. Howarth recommends a dietary potassium‑to‑sodium ratio of at least 2:1 (up to 4:1 for aggressive repletion) and cites the official daily targets of 4,700 mg potassium and 2,300 mg sodium. He notes that typical Western intake is ~400 mg potassium and ~5,000 mg sodium, far from optimal. To reach adequate potassium, he suggests obtaining 2,000‑3,000 mg from cruciferous vegetables (acknowledging variability due to soil, climate, and pesticides) and supplementing the remaining 2,500‑3,000 mg with potassium citrate powder rather than low‑dose capsules. He claims that correcting the ratio can lower blood pressure, improve kidney, liver, and heart health, and reduce stroke risk, though repletion may take 3 months to a year. The video ends with a call to subscribe and follow the program’s social media.
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Alright, in this video I want to talk about potassium, or more specifically, the potassium and sodium ratio. So most people are potassium deficient. Now, a lot of the medicos will tell you that sodium or salt is very bad for your health. It's bad for your heart, bad for your arteries, bad for blood pressure. But is that really the case, or is it the case that it is actually a potassium deficiency? In the Western diet, specifically with all the processed foods, it's full of sodium, and there's also a lot of MSG, or monosodium glutamate, which is not factored into the sodium intake that a person has in a day. Monosodium glutamate hides the taste of salt, so they can load salt in, plus it contains 3 to 4 times the amount of sodium that normal salt does. So that's the deal with salt. So yes, it can be dangerous, but it can't be dangerous if it is taken in the correct ratio to potassium, because in the body, or more specifically in the cells, there's something called the potassium-sodium pump. So potassium works on an intercellular level, which means it gets inside the cell and that's where it does its job. So it expels liquids or fluids from the cell. The sodium puts them into the cell. So you can see why someone would get inflammatory type diseases when there's too much sodium because it packs that cell full of fluid and there's nothing pushing that fluid back out. And the problem as well is, is that when you have a high sodium diet, it actually depletes the remaining potassium that's already in the body, so it makes the problem all that much more worse. Now if you start taking potassium in the correct ratio, which is 2 Potassiums for every 1 Salt. So 2 Potassiums for every 1 Salt. The body starts to recover and all sorts of weird body conditions start to dissipate when you start putting the correct amounts of Potassium into the body. This is very interesting when it comes to blood pressure. All of our clients who listen to us and take the correct amount of potassium, blood pressure comes down into the correct range at some point on our program. So it's extremely important that you do that, and it can take 3 months to a year to actually replete the cells with potassium. So you have to take at least 2 potassiums To 1 salt, but if you're trying to replete the cells, you can even do 3 Potassiums to 1 salt, or even 4 Potassiums to 1 salt. So here's something else that you may have not known, is that you're supposed to get in 4,700 milligrams of Potassium per day in your diet. And I can tell you right now, the average Westerner doesn't get more than 400 milligrams of potassium per day in their diet, but they get something like 5,000 milligrams of sodium in their diet every day when they're only supposed to be getting 2,300 milligrams. So let's look at that again. 4,700 milligrams of potassium per day, 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. That's what you're supposed to be getting. You can be getting 6,500 milligrams of potassium per day if you're trying to replete your cells with potassium. This will handle all sorts of things: kidney disease, liver disease, Heart disease, prevents strokes. It's just— there's so many benefits to having enough potassium. Now here's the thing with potassium when you're taking it on our program, is that you're going to be getting a whole lot of it from your cruciferous vegetables, which you're supposed to be eating as per the recommendations on the program. These cruciferous vegetables are very high in potassium. But the amount of potassium that's contained in those vegetables also depends on the soil that they were grown in, which part of the world they were grown, how much water they had, if there were insecticides sprayed on those vegetables. So it becomes a bit of a nebulous figure as to how much potassium are you getting from your vegetables. So what I always say is it's going to be between 2,000 and 3,000 milligrams of potassium per day if you're having your 4 or 5 cups of vegetables. Now I would suggest you have another 2,500 to 3,000 milligrams of potassium in a supplement form. Don't go for those little 99 milligram potassium capsules that are sold out there on the market. You'd have to take 30 of them a day to be able to get the correct amount of potassium. Get yourself some good potassium citrate powder so that you can put it in your water. It doesn't taste that bad, tastes a little bit salty, but it's really not that bad. Put that in your water rather than taking the Little capsules that you buy online somewhere. So get the potassium powder and that will make your life a whole lot easier if you put it in your water. Me, I just put it in my mouth and I swallow it down with water when I need potassium. So I think you get the idea of how important potassium is to your health and definitely to this program. So I hope you enjoyed this video. Please subscribe on YouTube and all of our other social media outlets and enjoy the program.
