ABSTRACT
The result of a nutritional survey on potassium intakes of population and serum potassium contents of healthy adults in Shanghai (high occurrence of hypokalemia), Sichun (moderate occurrence of hypokalemia) and Shandong (null occurrence of hypokalemia) revealed that the average daily potassium intakes for the three areas were 60.1?16.6, 54.6? 13.4 and 58.7? 11.1 mmol per capita per day respectively; The serum potassium contents of the three areas were 4.2?0.3,4.0 ?0.3 and 4.2?0.4 mmol/L respectively. These results indicated that the daily potassium intakes and serum potassium contents between Shanghai and Shandong were not significantly different and might suggest that the occurrence of gossypol related hypokalemia in Shanghai and Sichun could not be attributed to the low potassium intakes and low serum potassium contents of the population.