So, everybody knows that it's important for you to get your vitamins and minerals and all those other healthy things that human beings are supposed to ingest. What I never realized was exactly how crucial these things are.
First, I need to point out that my mental health situation is seriously lacking. If you can name it, I've got it. Since I was a child I've had such dramatic and impressive sounding disorders as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Sensory Defensiveness, and Trichotillomania. Maybe I'll write some posts about them some day, but for now you're going to have to deal with Googling them if you don't know what they are. As you can imagine, these unwanted intruders in my mind caused a lot of anxiety, mostly when my life started to get more stressful. High school, for example, was particularly stressing, and that was when I developed Irritable Bowel Syndrome. More fun for me. Also, I dislocated the cartilage disks in my jaw while chewing on a Twizzler, which has nothing to do with my mental health, it was just stupid. And then there was college. A pretty good college, if I do say so myself, which may be the reason I got that much more stressed out. By the time I realized I wasn't actually a straight A student anymore, I was on academic probation. Oops. And then I thought, Gee, maybe something's wrong. Good thing my school has free psychological counseling! It was there that I learned I almost definitely had Clinical Depression, and probably also had adult Attention Deficit Disorder. It's like I'm a collector of horrible things. (If you're wondering why I'm capitalizing all my disorders, it's because I'm telling you that they're legit. I don't think you're actually supposed to capitalize all of them.) Now, all this personal information I just threw at you, whether you wanted it or not, is all intended to lead up to the moment that I decided it was time to end at least some of my discomfort. This particular discomfort came from what I had assumed for years was a potassium deficiency. That's what everyone assumes when you say you have terrible muscle cramps for no apparent reason.
So, one day I was at the pharmacy getting probiotics (for the Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and I saw some potassium! Buy one get one free! So I did! Now, apparently you're supposed to ingest about 4g of potassium every day. I believe this is specific to Americans because we need to balance out the massive amounts of sodium in our food. The legal limit for potassium in a pill is 99mg (about 3% of your ideal daily value, so not a lot). I started taking one pill a day like it said to on the bottle. That was a couple of weeks ago. In the meantime, I started to feel content. Every day, I just felt more and more calm. The sky became more beautiful. The wind felt better. I managed to stop going to bed at sunrise. My nightmares went away. So did my muscle cramps. I'm not sure what exactly ignited my suspicion, but all of the sudden I decided to look up the side effects of potassium deficiency. I found a bunch of lists, some more helpful than others. Muscle cramps, check. Restlessness, check. Fatigue, check (could be caused by college). Depression ... check? Wait, potassium deficiency can cause depression? What?! If I've been depressed all year just because I haven't been eating enough bananas, I will seriously be upset with life! Of course, that might just mean that I'm on the road to recovery from at least one disorder. But still! How frustrating is that!
Boys and girls, especially Americans (because we like our salty foods), consider this a plea from me to you to watch your diet. Not to watch your weight or your figure, or even to try to live longer, but because if not eating bananas can make you hate yourself, what else could you be enjoying that you're not? Seriously, think about it. Also, read my blog more. It's good for your health and mine, even if this is only my third post. ;D
Please note: bananas are not the only source of potassium; they're just the funniest to talk about as a life-saving food.
