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Legal skirmishing continues in the federal government's effort to require warning labels on "liquid protein" and other protein products intended for use in weight reduction or as diet supplements. Food and Drug Administration officials have been seeking the warning labels for three years ( JAMA [MEDICAL NEWS] 1977;238:2243-2244, 2680) after becoming concerned "about the rapidly growing use of liquid protein products that were being used as the primary or sole source of calories in low-calorie diets." Seventeen deaths have been attributed to use of these products. In the absence of supervision to ensure adequate potassium intake, hypokalemia is a possibility, the FDA has said. Cardiac arrhythmias may also occur ( N Engl J Med 1980;303:735-738). A regulation requiring the warning labels was to have gone into effect Sept 4, but a federal judge granted a stay to those opposing it. The FDA officials say the court has directed them "to do some more

These studies examine the effect of sodium (Na) and potassium (K) intake on the pressor and metabolic actions of ACTH (20 micrograms/kg/day) in sheep. After 21 days on each of five regimens in which Na and K intake varied from 0 to 100 mmol/day, no simple relationship between Na and K intake and blood pressure was found. After five days of ACTH treatment, mean arterial pressure (MAP) rose + 5 mmHg in sheep on 0 mmol Na, 0 mmol K (expressed as 0 Na 0 K); + 13 mmHg on 10 Na 100 K; + 5 mmHg on 0 Na 100 K; + 20 mmHg on 100 Na 0 K and + 24 mmHg on 100 Na 100 K. Plasma [K] was unchanged by ACTH on 0 Na 0 K but fell in sheep on the other electrolyte regimens. Water intake increased with ACTH on all regimens except 100 Na 0 K. Blood aldosterone concentration was high in sheep maintained on 0 Na regimens but lower after five days of ACTH treatment in all groups. Blood cortisol and corticosterone concentrations increased with ACTH on all regimens studied.

Excerpt To the Editor:Our potassium intakes are believed to have fallen sharply since prehistoric times (1-3). I have often wondered whether our present level of intake might be responsible for som...

To the Editor:— The long-term use of thiazides and other oral diuretics necessitates long-term supplemental potassium intake in many cases. Though potassium chloride tablets are inexpensive and a logical choice of treatment (since chloride and potassium deficiencies are likely to co-exist), experimental and circumstantial evidence suggests these tablets may cause small-bowel ulcerations.1,2Hence, the pharmaceutical industry has in recent years introduced a number of liquid potassium preparations. These vary greatly in cost and some do not supply chloride ions. A 20% plain potassium chloride solution diluted in fruit juice has, in my experience, been the most useful and least expensive orally administered potassium agent. One teaspoonful in 6 oz of fruit juice taken three times daily provides 40 mEq potassium chloride plus another 15 to 30 mEq of potassium depending on the type of fruit juice used. (Apple juice contains approximately 5 mEq potassium per 6-oz glass, tomato juice

A DRASTIC change of the mineral supply represents one of the main characteristics of the rice diet. 1 The sodium and chloride intake is extremely restricted, about 4.3 mEq. of sodium and 5.6 mEq. of chloride in 24 hours, the potassium intake is unchanged or moderately increased, between 75 and 100 mEq., varying according to the amount and kind of fruits and fruit juices consumed. There is no doubt that a major part of the beneficial results achieved by the rice diet is due to the change in mineral metabolism. On the other hand, one of the objections to the rice diet is that this drastic change in the electrolyte supply might endanger the maintenance of the concentrations of the individual electrolytes, as well as of the total osmolar concentration, of the body fluids. Irrespective of the possible benefits or dangers of the treatment, the patient who follows the regimen

The purpose of this paper is to present a few of many observations made on cases of edema which have been influenced chiefly by the dietary mineral control. This material is offered only as evidence of the probable importance of the daily intake of sodium and potassium in the control of chronic cases of disturbed water balance of cardiac and renal origin. It is not necessary to enter into a long discussion of sodium, potassium, the chlorides and acid-base equilibrium, which have been so ably discussed by Blum, Widal, Bunge, Peters, Van Slyke, Keith and many others included in the editorials ofThe Journal. It is sufficient to say that there have been repeated statements of the importance of sodium rather than the chlorides in fluid storage and that there is abundant evidence of the antagonistic or the displacing influence of sodium by potassium with a resultant fluid loss. However