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Potassium is a key nutrient for our health that is easy to obtain through a balanced whole-foods, plant-based diet. Unfortunately, most people are not getting enough. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 refer to potassium as a dietary component of public health concern for the general U.S. population, and specifically for infants and toddlers.

98% of the population is not reaching the Daily Value of 4700 mg, and the average potassium intake for men and women over 2 years old is 2,496 mg which falls short of reaching Adequate Intakes for anyone over 9 years old – see our personalized calculator below to identify Adequate Intakes for you and your family.

We need potassium to maintain normal fluid levels inside every cell in our body. It also helps with bone density, it is essential to maintain normal blood pressure, and it helps mitigate the consequences of sodium consumption. Plus, potassium is an electrolyte that helps with muscle contractions, including our heart and our digestive tract.

When we don’t get enough, we increase our risk of high blood pressure, of developing kidney stones, and of losing calcium in our bones. High deficiency or hypokalemia can cause constipation, fatigue, muscle weakness and cramps. In extreme cases, it can affect heart muscle contractions, putting our lives at risk.

Check out some of the top sources of potassium to ensure you include them in your diet. Continue to scroll down to try our personalized calculator and to learn more interesting facts about potassium and our health.

Top Whole-Food, Plant-Based Sources

Hover over each food below to see how much potassium you can get with one serving. Click on each food’s picture to visit its interactive page with a personalized calculator of all the nutrition you can get from one serving, more information about how it supports our body, tips to choose and prepare it, interesting facts, and more!

Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato

1 medium baked = 12% DV

Link
Avocado

Avocado

1 medium = 15% DV

Link
White Beans

White Beans

1 cup cooked = 21% DV

Link
Spinach

Spinach

1 cup cooked = 18% DV

Link
Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash

1 c cooked = 12% DV

Link
White Mushrooms

White Mushrooms

1 c cooked = 12% DV

Link
Soybeans

Soybeans

Mature 1 c cooked = 19% DV | Edamame = 16% DV

Link
Banana

Banana

1 medium = 9% DV

Link

Potassium Personalized Calculator

See how much potassium you and your family members need, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. You will notice that the Daily Value (DV) is much higher than the Adequate Intakes (AI). This is because the DV reflects the AIs we had until 2020. For optimal potassium benefits, aim at getting as close as possible to the DV. Still, reaching our AI is associated with having lower blood pressure and can help counteract the effects of sodium intake.

Terminology:

  • Daily Value (DV): The recommended amount of nutrients to consume each day for individuals who are 4 years old or older.
  • Adequate Intake (AI): This is an approximation of nutrient intake by a group or groups of healthy people, based on age, sex, and whether a woman is pregnant, lactating, or none. This is used when a Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) cannot be determined.
  • Upper Intake Level (UL): The highest amount of nutrient intake that will not pose adverse health effects on most individuals.

Important Things to Know

Hover over each of the interesting facts below to flip the tiles and learn more details.

Check out the interesting facts below! Tap on the red triangles to flip the tiles and learn more details.

The word “potassium” comes from the words “pot” and “ash” or potash.

The word potassium comes from “pot ash.” Potassium used to be obtained by leaching it from plant ashes or wood ashes. They would gather the ashes in a pot, soak them in water, and then filter them. Lastly, they’d boiled the filtered liquid until it evaporated, leaving behind a white dust or potash. Wood ash contains between 14% and 19% potassium.

If you try doing this experiment, do not ingest the potash because it could lead to toxicity. Some people add it to their gardening soil to enrich it.

Vegetables and fruits rich in potassium should be given to infants and toddlers.

Since potassium is a nutrient of public health concern, specifically for infants and toddlers, the The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 recommends offering infants and toddlers age 6 to 23 months, plenty of vegetables and fruits rich in potassium. As well as legumes and whole grains instead of refined grains. Unfortified soy milk can also be offered after 12 months of age.

We need to increase our potassium to sodium ratio for our artery health.

Our body turns nitrates present in vegetables and leafy greens into nitric oxide to improve the flexibility and function of our arteries. Potassium  increases the release of nitric oxide, thus benefiting our arteries. Instead, a high-sodium diet, which is the typical intake anyone gets in one meal, reduces nitric oxide release and impairs arterial function.

In short, a high potassium intake can counteract the effects of high-sodium intake. For healthy arteries, we need to have a higher intake of potassium than sodium. Learn more.

Potassium chloride salt substitute can help reduce high-blood pressure.

While the best source of potassium is whole-plant foods, replacing regular salt (sodium chloride) with potassium chloride can help lower blood pressure. Even salt that has about 70% sodium chloride and 30% potassium chloride helps. Potassium chloride is generally considered as safe by the Food and Drug Administration, except for people who suffer from kidney disease, diabetes, severe heart failure, or adrenal insufficiency. Make sure you or your loved ones are not on medications that impair potassium excretions. When in doubt, always consult your doctor.

Increasing our potassium intake by 1,640 mg/day can reduce stroke risk by 21%.

A meta-analysis with 247,510 adults found that increasing potassium intake by 1,640 mg/day is associated with a 21% reduction in stroke risk. Another meta-analysis found that those getting about 4,027 mg/day had a 15% lower risk of stroke than those getting about 2,053 mg/day, which is less than the Adequate Intake for adults. Learn more.

A higher potassium intake may help reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

Our potassium levels can modulate the activity of our bone cells, osteoblasts and osteoclasts through potassium channels present in their membranes. These potassium channels enhance the activity of our osteoblasts as they deposit new bone matrix that becomes mineralized, and inhibits osteoclast activity of removing calcium from our bones.

As a result, higher intakes of potassium are associated with higher bone mineral density and less calcium excretion through our urine.

An adequate potassium intake cuts the risk of kidney stones in half.

As seen on the previous tile, potassium helps decrease the release of calcium from our bones into our bloodstream. This means that less calcium will be excreted through our urine.

Having too much calcium in our urine, or hypercalciuria, often leads to the formation of calcium kidney stones. So, a diet rich in potassium doesn’t just help us keep calcium in our bones, it also keeps us from having excessive calcium in our urine that could otherwise lead to the formation of calcium stones.

Watch our for toxicity from supplements, diuretics, and blood pressure medications.

Supplements with very high amounts of potassium, blood pressure medications like ACE and ARBs, and certain diuretics may lead to potassium toxicity or Hyperkalemia. This can lead to muscle weakness, paralysis, heart palpitations, and life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias.

Avoid bread and baked goods with potassium bromate. Read the labels!

Potassium bromate, an additive often found in commercial bread and baking goods is classified as a potential human carcinogen. For this reason, it’s banned in the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and other countries. Unfortunately, it’s still used in the U.S. and has been found in over 130 products. California does require a warning label. Be sure to always read food labels before buying any processed foods. Learn more.

The word “potassium” comes from the words “pot” and “ash” or potash.

The word potassium comes from “pot ash.” Potassium used to be obtained by leaching it from plant ashes or wood ashes. They would gather the ashes in a pot, soak them in water, and then filter them. Lastly, they’d boiled the filtered liquid until it evaporated, leaving behind a white dust or potash. Wood ash contains between 14% and 19% potassium.

If you try doing this experiment, do not ingest the potash because it could lead to toxicity. Some people add it to their gardening soil to enrich it.

Vegetables and fruits rich in potassium should be given to infants and toddlers.

Since potassium is a nutrient of public health concern, specifically for infants and toddlers, the The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 recommends offering infants and toddlers age 6 to 23 months, plenty of vegetables and fruits rich in potassium. As well as legumes and whole grains instead of refined grains. Unfortified soy milk can also be offered after 12 months of age.

We need to increase our potassium to sodium ratio for our artery health.

Our body turns nitrates present in vegetables and leafy greens into nitric oxide to improve the flexibility and function of our arteries. Potassium  increases the release of nitric oxide, thus benefiting our arteries. Instead, a high-sodium diet, which is the typical intake anyone gets in one meal, reduces nitric oxide release and impairs arterial function.

In short, a high potassium intake can counteract the effects of high-sodium intake. For healthy arteries, we need to have a higher intake of potassium than sodium. Learn more.

Potassium chloride salt substitute can help reduce high-blood pressure.

While the best source of potassium is whole-plant foods, replacing regular salt (sodium chloride) with potassium chloride can help lower blood pressure. Even salt that has about 70% sodium chloride and 30% potassium chloride helps. Potassium chloride is generally considered as safe by the Food and Drug Administration, except for people who suffer from kidney disease, diabetes, severe heart failure, or adrenal insufficiency. Make sure you or your loved ones are not on medications that impair potassium excretions. When in doubt, always consult your doctor.

Increasing our potassium intake by 1,640 mg/day can reduce stroke risk by 21%.

A meta-analysis with 247,510 adults found that increasing potassium intake by 1,640 mg/day is associated with a 21% reduction in stroke risk. Another meta-analysis found that those getting about 4,027 mg/day had a 15% lower risk of stroke than those getting about 2,053 mg/day, which is less than the Adequate Intake for adults. Learn more.

A higher potassium intake may help reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

Our potassium levels can modulate the activity of our bone cells, osteoblasts and osteoclasts through potassium channels present in their membranes. These potassium channels enhance the activity of our osteoblasts as they deposit new bone matrix that becomes mineralized, and inhibits osteoclast activity of removing calcium from our bones.

As a result, higher intakes of potassium are associated with higher bone mineral density and less calcium excretion through our urine.

An adequate potassium intake cuts the risk of kidney stones in half.

As seen on the previous tile, potassium helps decrease the release of calcium from our bones into our bloodstream. This means that less calcium will be excreted through our urine.

Having too much calcium in our urine, or hypercalciuria, often leads to the formation of calcium kidney stones. So, a diet rich in potassium doesn’t just help us keep calcium in our bones, it also keeps us from having excessive calcium in our urine that could otherwise lead to the formation of calcium stones.

Watch our for toxicity from supplements, diuretics, and blood pressure medications.

Supplements with very high amounts of potassium, blood pressure medications like ACE and ARBs, and certain diuretics may lead to potassium toxicity or Hyperkalemia. This can lead to muscle weakness, paralysis, heart palpitations, and life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias.

Avoid bread and baked goods with potassium bromate. Read the labels!

Potassium bromate, an additive often found in commercial bread and baking goods is classified as a potential human carcinogen. For this reason, it’s banned in the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and other countries. Unfortunately, it’s still used in the U.S. and has been found in over 130 products. California does require a warning label. Be sure to always read food labels before buying any processed foods. Learn more.

Comparison of Potassium Sources

You may be wondering about other potential sources of potassium, such as supplements and animal-based products. Below we make a quick and simple comparison between the three options.

Best source!
Plant-Based
Maintaining a balanced whole foods, plant-based diet is the best way to attain proper levels of potassium. Toxicity through dietary intake is not an issue among individuals with healthy kidney function.
Fruits and vegetables are naturally high in potassium, which helps explain why those following a whole foods, plant-based diet typically have lower blood pressure.
Supplements
Supplements can help attain proper levels of potassium if there is a high deficiency. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommend short-term supplementation of 2,500 mg for healthy individuals with normal kidney function, on top of adequate dietary intake. They warn against very high supplement doses, even in the absence of kidney disease, because they can lead to adverse effects, including death in extreme cases.
Animal-based
Animal-based foods are not a good source of potassium. When we eat a diet rich in animal-based foods, we end up eating less plants, thus reducing our potential potassium intake through diet. The same thing happens when our diet is rich in processed food.

References