Most of the previous posts have been about vegetable and fruit sources of potassium. Among the high potassium foods, these categories have the food items that rank highest, with the greatest ratio of potassium to sodium, and have the greatest amount of potassium in a serving. But many animal sources also rank well, and provide more protein and some amino acids lacking in plants. You do not need much, but when you need animal sources for nutrition, they can be high potassium foods also.
Dairy And Other Sources Of Protein
Previously we have discussed dairy products. Many dairy products are high potassium foods with a greater than 3 to 1 ratio of potassium to sodium. And they provide a good amount of potassium in a serving. Another animal source we discussed previously was poultry. The last two posts talked about fish and other seafood. Fish and seafood are excellent sources of protein. Many are high potassium foods. But some of the more popular items, such as Alaskan crab, shrimp and lobster, are too high in sodium to be considered a high potassium food.
Seafood
The best sources of protein among the seafood category of high potassium foods are clams and many fish, such as cod, halibut, and salmon, to mention a few. They also have no carbohydrate, and very little fat. And except for Florida pompano, the fat they do have is the heart favorable kind. The protein content is over 50 to 90% of calories. They supply 12 to 40 gm protein, depending on serving size.
The main caution to observe is that the fish you eat are fresh. Many of the problems with fish come from older fish. Often they are preserved in salt. And that takes the fish out of the high potassium foods category. Also fish that are not fresh decay rapidly, and the breakdown products are harmful to health. In the last post we discussed the induction of cancer in young people in Asia related to consumption of older, salted fish.
Poultry
Poultry is a high potassium source of protein. It can have more than 80% of its calories from fat if you include skin. Typically only 10 to 20% of calories come from fat if you only eat the meat. And the fat is mostly favorable, with a third or less being saturated fat.
We will discuss other animal sources of protein in future posts. Many of these sources you should consume in small amounts, because of the high percentage of saturated fat. And saturated fat is a major contributor to atherosclerosis, heart disease and stroke. The wild game animals have a better balance of fats and are less prone to this problem.
