High Potassium Foods

All the legumes (beans) in the table are low potassium foods, having less than 100 mg potassium per serving. Very few legume (bean) based foods are low in potassium. As a group they are considered high potassium foods.

Processing Problem

However, the foods in this table are processed, mostly from soy. The processing usually adds sodium. We have placed the products in a slightly different order than normal. Since those on a low potassium diet usually also need to restrict sodium, we placed those with the lowest sodium content at the top of the table. As you can see, there are only 12 foods with less than 100 mg of sodium per serving and 40 with more than 100 mg per serving.

The last three in the table have more than 1000 mg of sodium in a serving. Two of the last three entries are soy sauce, so the 1000 mg of sodium is contained in just a tablespoon of sauce. All three entries should be avoided by everyone. Even those on a high potassium diet should avoid such large amounts of sodium in a serving. These items can only contribute to osteoporosis and high blood pressure, since they make it very difficult to restrict daily sodium to less than 1500 or even 2300 mg of sodium.

Vegetarians

For vegetarians, whether or not on a low potassium diet, much of the diet may be soy based. It is very important to know the composition of each food you eat, especially if you are on a restricted diet. There is nothing magical about soy. Soy based products can be very harmful. The advantages of soy can be quickly lost if there is too much salt (sodium) added to the soy. Look for low sodium soy products.

The Table

The serving weight is grams. The potassium and sodium weights 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, amount of potassium per serving, and sodium per serving (all of which we calculated), the source of data is: USDA National Nutrient Database Standard Reference – Release 22.