High Potassium Foods

The winter months are a terrific time to have soups. Hot soups can warm you up after being out in the cold. Homemade soups can be a great source of potassium without sodium, and help provide the 3 to 1 ratio that reduces blood pressure and bone loss. Making the soup from the ingredients in some of the previous high potassium foods posts will provide the best ratio and a good amount of potassium to help you reach the Institute of Medicine's recommended 4.7 grams. Beans, vegetables, and poultry are good choices.

However, most commercially prepared soups have a lot of sodium. The ratios of sodium to potassium are unfavorable, and frequently there is not much potassium. The accompanying table is for commercially prepared soups, sauces and gravies. Of the 462 soups, sauces and gravies listed in the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 22, these are the only ones that have even a ratio of 1. Even those that are “reduced sodium” or “low sodium” often had a less than 3 to 1 ratio of potassium to sodium. Only 10 entries had better than that ratio, so we included those with a ratio better than 1.

In previous posts, we discussed preserving the potassium by not cooking in water. But if you preserve the water and consume it as part of the soup, chili, sauce, or gravy, you don't lose the potassium and will get the full benefit of this important mineral.

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