High Potassium Foods

The Holiday Season is loaded with baked goods – cakes, cookies, pies and breads. They are a delightful part of the season, and tempt us to overindulge. Most baked goods are among the high sodium and low potassium foods. Out of 500 entries in the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 22, those in the below table are the only ones with the desired 3 to 1 ratio of potassium to sodium. But even the ones listed in this table are low potassium foods. A typical serving has little potassium. But at least they have a favorable potassium to sodium ratio, making them better for blood pressure, bone density and kidney stones than most baked goods.

Most baked goods are high in sodium. Many are made with baking powder or baking soda, both of which are loaded with sodium. Those foods that are labelled low sodium have a much reduced sodium content. But even then the sodium almost always is greater than the potassium in the food. For those requiring a low potassium diet, baked goods are a good choice for avoiding excessive potassium consumption. For those who would benefit from a high potassium foods diet, baked goods should be accompanied by some high potassium foods, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts or other high potassium food.

The table on this page features baked goods that have a favorable potassium to sodium ratio, so at least you are making a step toward the best ratio. However, they all are low in potassium. The 2 products that would seem to provide a lot of potassium in a serving are low sodium baking powder and cream of tartar with about 500 mg per tsp. However, very little potassium is consumed in a typical product they are used to make. A tsp of baking powder is used to make 18 cookies – not a practical way to get 500 mg of potassium.

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.