Although bananas are a good source of potassium, many other nutritious foods, including sweet potatoes, legumes, and beets, offer more potassium per serving. Swiss chard, yams, and white beans even have twice as much potassium per cup as a medium banana.
Potassium in Watermelon
While bananas might be the first fruit to come to mind, watermelon actually reigns supreme when it comes to potassium. In just 2 wedges, or about 1/8th of a melon, you'll get 640 mg of potassium, or about 14% DV.
How much potassium is in an egg? One large egg contains about 63 mg of potassium. 1 Eggs are considered a low-potassium food, but check with your doctor or dietitian to find out how often you should eat them.
Juice from potassium-rich fruit is also a good choice: Orange juice. Tomato juice. Prune juice.
A healthy adult should aim to consume 3,500–4,700 mg daily from foods. To increase your intake, incorporate a few potassium-rich foods into your diet such as spinach, yams, avocados, bananas, and fish, such as salmon.
Some of the best sources of potassium are dark leafy greens such as spinach, which when cooked has an astounding 1,180 mg per cup, per USDA data. Swiss chard is a close second, with almost 1,000 mg per cooked cup, and even bok choy has around 445 mg per cup when cooked.
Swiss chard, yams, and white beans even have twice as much potassium per cup as a medium banana. The key to getting enough potassium is to eat a range of plant foods each day. Certain fish, such as salmon, tuna, and cod, are good animal-based sources of this mineral too.
In fact, potatoes rank highest for potassium content among the top 20 most frequently consumed raw vegetables and the top 20 most frequently consumed raw fruits. One medium potato (5.3 ounces) with the skin contains 620 mg of potassium. That's 15% of your daily requirement and more than a banana.
One medium banana has 422 milligrams of potassium – almost 10 per cent of a day's worth – considerably more than a medium-sized apple (195 mg), orange (237 mg) or pear (212 mg). In fact, bananas outrank almost all other types of fruit when it comes to potassium.
The most common cause of genuinely high potassium (hyperkalemia) is related to your kidneys, such as: Acute kidney failure. Chronic kidney disease.
Usually, 60–80 mmol of supplements per day for a few days to weeks is sufficient for treating mild to moderate hypokalemia. That said, always follow the recommendations of your healthcare professional ( 1 , 19 ). In severe hypokalemia cases, intravenous (IV) treatment may be recommended.
Vomiting, diarrhea or both also can result in excessive potassium loss from the digestive tract. Occasionally, low potassium is caused by not getting enough potassium in your diet. In most cases, low potassium is found by a blood test that is done because of an illness, or because you are taking diuretics.
Peanut butter also gives you some fiber, some vitamins and minerals (including 200 milligrams of potassium), and other nutrients. Unsalted peanut butter, with 5 milligrams of sodium, has a terrific potassium-to-sodium ratio. Salted peanut butter still has about twice as much potassium as sodium.
Eat potassium-rich foods as soon as you suspect your potassium levels might be too low. Early symptoms might include fatigue, weakness and muscle cramps. The best foods to eat include bananas, potatoes, acorn squash, spinach, melon or beans.
You want to avoid high-potassium surf such as halibut, tuna, cod, and snapper. 3-oz servings can contain as much as 480 mg of potassium. On the low end, the same amount of canned tuna has only 200 mg. Salmon, haddock, swordfish, and perch run about 300 mg per 3-oz serving.
Adults should consume about 3,500mg of potassium per day, according to the UK's National Health Service. The average banana, weighing 125g, contains 450mg of potassium, meaning a healthy person can consume at least seven-and-half bananas before reaching the recommended level.
Nuts with the Most Potassium
All nuts contain some potassium, but pistachios have the most. If you eat a 1-ounce serving of pistachios, you'll get 291 milligrams of potassium, according to the University of Michigan Health System website.
Low potassium (best choice)
Cereals that are free from bran, dried fruit, nuts and chocolates such as: Weetabix®