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.
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.
Juice from potassium-rich fruit is also a good choice: Orange juice. Tomato juice. Prune juice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Most meats add some potassium to your meals. Chicken breast has the most per 3-ounce serving with 332 milligrams, but beef and turkey breast contain 315 and 212 milligrams, respectively.
Caffeine and tobacco reduce the absorption of potassium. People at risk for insufficient potassium intake include alcoholics, drug addicts and crash dieters.
Excessive water consumption may lead to depletion of potassium, which is an essential nutrient. This may cause symptoms like leg pain, irritation, chest pain, et al.
There are limited or no options for at-home kits to test potassium levels. If you are prescribed a 24-hour urine test, you will need to collect your urine wherever you are during the day, including at home. However, this testing is still prescribed by your doctor rather than sold as a separate at-home test kit.
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.
Eating up to 2 servings of bananas caused marginal increases in plasma potassium concentration. The small increases in plasma potassium concentration occurred 30 to 60 minutes postingestion of bananas.
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.
Chocolate and nuts contain high amounts of phosphorus and potassium.
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.