Research Article Ghanaians Might Be at Risk of Inadequate Dietary Intake of Potassium David Oscar Yawson, 1 Michael Osei Adu, 2 Benjamin Ason, 3 Frederick Ato Armah, 4 Emmanuel Boateng, 1 and Reggie Quansah 5 1 Department of Soil Science, School of Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana 2 Department of Crop Science, School of Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana 3 Soil Research Institute, Council for Scientifc and Industrial Research, Accra, Ghana 4 Department of Environmental Science, School of Biological Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana 5 Department of Biological, Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana Correspondence should be addressed to David Oscar Yawson; oscaryawson@gmail.com Received 12 July 2016; Revised 27 September 2016; Accepted 27 October 2016 Academic Editor: Pedro Moreira Copyright © 2016 David Oscar Yawson et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Adequate dietary intake of potassium (K) helps fght noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), mainly hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Tis paper (i) estimated the K intake of Ghanaian population using food supply and food composition data and (ii) compared this estimate with the WHO recommended requirement for K in order to assess if there is a risk of inadequate K intake. Food supply data (1961–2011) was obtained from the FAO Food Balance Sheet (FBS) to derive trends in food and K supply. Te average food supply in the FBS for 2010 and 2011 was used in assessing the risk of inadequate dietary intake of K. Te K contents of the food items were obtained from food composition databases. Te mean K supply per capita per day was approximately 856mg. Te assessment suggests a potentially large risk of inadequate dietary K supply at both individual and population levels. Te results suggest the need for assessing options for managing K defciency, including assessment of K supplying power of soils and K fertilizer management in food crop production systems, as well as empirical estimates of K content of food items (including those underreported in the FBS) and mixed diets in Ghana. 1. Introduction Potassium (K) is an essential element which plays crucial roles in the nutrition and health of plants, animals, and humans. Potassium is known to activate over 60 enzymes in plants, promotes photosynthesis, plays a role in stom- ata opening, use of nitrogen, transport of assimilates, and microbial population in the rhizosphere [1–3]. Major roles of K in humans and animals include maintenance of water balance, osmotic pressure and acid-base balance, activa- tion of enzymes, mediation of carbohydrate, and protein metabolism. More importantly, potassium plays a crucial role in the regulation of neuromuscular activity and heartbeat [4, 5]. Inadequate intake of vitamins and mineral elements (known as the “hidden hunger”) has adverse health outcomes and is a global health and food security challenge. As a result, hidden hunger has received increased policy, research, and practical attention, especially with regard to vitamin A, iron, iodine, zinc, and selenium [6]. Globally, noncommu- nicable diseases (NCDs) constitute a major contributor to mortality and morbidity [7, 8]. Tere is a strong evidence of association between low K intake and increased risk of a number of NCDs, including hypertension, cardiovascular Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism Volume 2016, Article ID 3150498, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3150498