High Potassium Foods

Here is a list of vegetables that are among the high potassium foods. Only the values of the raw foods are included, to allow comparisons of foods. Any food in the table has a good ratio of potassium to sodium, to provide the desirable lowering of blood pressure, improved cardiovascular and stroke reduction effects, reduction of bone loss and reduction of kidney stones. The soil the vegetable is grown in makes a difference, so your specific food may vary some from the values shown. More potassium in the soil means more gets into the vegetable.

Most variations in food preparation will not change the potassium value much (although adding other foods, spices, or salts will). We've discussed previously how cooking in water will remove minerals from the food, including potassium. If packaged, canned or commercially processed, the food will be generally much higher in sodium, with a few exceptions. Sometimes the potassium to sodium ratio is improved slightly by certain forms of cooking or other preparation. Dehydrating or freeze drying generally increases mineral concentrations in foods. All vegetables are high in water content, being anywhere from 60 to over 90% water by weight, unless dehydrated, dried or freeze dried. We've also excluded beans and other legumes, since we discussed them previously in a separate post.

The values for the micronutrients are in milligrams. K is potassium. Na is sodium. All values are for 100 grams of food (about 3 1/2 ounces).

Source – USDA National Nutrient Database Standard Reference – Release 22

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