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Strange Uses of Potassium

Potassium is generally considered as an essential mineral for proper body functioning. But aside from ingesting potassium rich foods to maintain one’s health, potassium is also used in a variety of ways. Stop minding the calories in a banana and other potassium-rich foods. Instead, get a load of all these other cool ways in which potassium is used!

  • Potassium is great for fertilizers! Grow your plants in potassium-rich soil and see the difference! The potassium ions are essential for nutrition of plants. Additionally, potassium chloride, potassium nitrate and potassium sulfate are very useful in the fields of agriculture, hydroponics and horticulture.
  • If you want glass for your windows that is stronger and can withstand more pressure, then look for toughened glass! It’s made with potassium nitrate so it’s extra durable!
  • For heart surgeons, potassium chloride is vital when performing surgeries. It is used to stop the heart when needed during situations that call for it and then subsequent resuscitation. It also a compound used in lethal injections.
  • Superoxide KO2, which is potassium and oxygen combines, is used in submarines and spacecrafts! It is used for life support. It is how oxygen is supplied to the people inside the crafts.
  • Gold and silver miners also have a use for potassium when they venture into their gold mines. Potassium cyanide is used in extracting gold and silver minerals during gold mining operations.

Potassium isn’t all about food or health. It’s also useful in a number of strange and unexpected ways!

How to Prepare for Your 1500 Calorie Diet

If you are thinking about going on a diet, there are several things that you should consider. One of the most important aspects of a healthy weight-loss diet is the number of calories taken in each day. The average human consumes approximately 2000 calories, which is a good estimate of the energy requirement for an active lifestyle. However, if you do not have this lifestyle it will be necessary to reduce your calorie intake to compensate for the energy that your body does not use. A good starting point may be a 1500 calorie diet, which is a number that provides a reasonable step down from the typical value.

To achieve this, you essentially have two options. You may reduce the quantity of food that you eat, which can be difficult for someone that is used to eating a regularly-sized meal. A better alternative is to force yourself to eat foods that are low in energy density. Soup is one example of this type of food, as are vegetables and fruits. The typical number of calories in a banana is about 105. For this volume of food, this is a relatively low density – a burger of similar volume often contains upwards of 300 calories!

Eating foods that are low in energy density is a way of tricking your body into thinking that it has had a full meal. The extra volume from these foods causes your stomach to expand, which gives you the feeling of being full. This makes it easier for you to say no to extra food that you have restricted yourself from eating, and has the added benefit of introducing a healthy balance of vitamins and minerals into your diet.

Make a Lifestyle Change – Even Low Calorie Alcoholic Drinks Can Make a Difference

Many people decide that they want to lose some of the extra weight that they are carrying around.  Learning details like how many calories in a banana is very useful for someone trying to lose weight. They identify a problem area on their body that they want to fix and decide to start on a diet.  There is nothing wrong with the plan to lose weight, improve one’s appearance or improve one’s fitness, but the problem is that people unintentionally look at it as short term solution for what is a long term problem.  Making this decision isn’t something that is going to be easy to fix.  A better view would be making a lifestyle change rather than going on a diet and finding some good protein shake recipes as well.

With most diets, weight is best lost if it is paired with exercise.  But after losing the weight desired, most people end the diet and most people eventually regain that weight back again.  Understanding that a “diet” is the fix is the most common misconception.  Yes, a diet does create the change desired, but continuing a diet to keep your changes is necessary.  This equates to changing your lifestyle, not to simply starting and eventually stopping a diet.  To truly do this, one has to have a great deal of discipline and realize that there is a mental change that is required as well.  A diet sounds like one is taking things away from your life.  Sometimes it can be simple changes such as drinking low calorie alcoholic drinks when you go out. Make the changes and see the difference.