High Potassium Foods

Many of the fillings and toppings of desserts are high potassium foods. The ones included in this table have a favorable 3 to 1 ratio that can promote increased bone density and cardiovascular health, including lowering high blood pressure. The two superstars in the table are the natural sweeteners – molasses and sorghum syrup. Some of the pie fillings are an exception to the high sodium content of most canned food and are excellent.

The best entries for getting a large amount of potassium in an amount that an individual would eat at a single sitting are molasses, the syrups of sorghum, malt, and maple, and the pie fillings, the frozen chocolate milk desert, and the chocolate mousse.

The advantages of the natural sweeteners over refined sugar are the potassium content and the inclusion of many of the other minerals and nutrients occurring in the plant. The refined sugars do not have the potassium and other nutrients of these more natural sweeteners.

Molasses have calcium, iron, magnesium, selenium and choline in large amounts. Sorghum syrup has even more of these components. Maple syrup has less, but still significant amounts. Maple sugar and brown sugar have large amounts also, but not as much as maple syrup. Honey also has significant amounts of these nutrients, but about 1/6 the amount in molasses.

Some would consider the sugar content to be a negative, but the important negative aspect of the carbohydrate in a food is its glycemic index. These sweeteners are absorbed more slowly than refined sugar, and thus have a lower glycemic index. The glycemic index of white sugar is 68, a medium value. For maple syrup and honey, the glycemic index is 52 and 54 respectively. These low values can be combined with protein and fat sources to reduce their glycemic index even more. The glycemic index for molasses is unavailable, but should be lower than honey, especially for blackstrap molasses.

The ability of these high potassium foods to deliver great amounts of nutrients and large amounts of potassium in a small volume makes them a valuable food. Molasses will give you over 600 mg of potassium from just 2 tbsp. Sorghum syrup will give over 400 mg from 2 tbsp.

The weights for the potassium and sodium are milligrams. The potassium and sodium values given are for 100 grams of food.

As usual, K is potassium, and Na is sodium.

Except for the potassium to sodium ratio (which we calculated), the source of data is: USDA National Nutrient Database Standard Reference – Release 22.