High Potassium Foods

There are a great many baked goods that are low potassium foods. Cakes and cookies are no exception. A great many cakes will provide less than 100 mg of potassium in a slice of cake, and a great many cookies will provide less than 100 mg of potassium in a cookie.

In the table we have included these low potassium cakes and cookies. However, we have also included some with a higher potassium content to point out how some cakes and cookies will have a high potassium content. Those with chocolate, cheese, pineapple, fruit, ginger or other high potassium spices or ingredients will have a higher potassium content. For example, we included a yellow cake that has a vanilla frosting and one with a chocolate frosting to show how much even the frosting can make a difference in the potassium content.

Baked Goods Are High In Sodium

As with almost all baked goods, the cakes and cookies have a lot of sodium. And if you need to restrict potassium, you probably also need to restrict sodium, at least somewhat. The sodium content of baked goods is typically high. That is true for cakes and cookies too, except for those in the table that are special dietary with low sodium.

The table has a lot of commercial products to show the content of commercial products versus homemade. Typically homemade baked goods will have just as much sodium as commercial, since it takes the same amount of baking soda or powder to make, whether it is commercial or homemade.

A great many Archway cookies are in the table since they were the main brand studied by the USDA. And the Archway cookies vary widely in their potassium and sodium content, depending on the exact ingredients. Likewise, other commercially baked goods would be expected to vary in a similar fashion.

Medical Condition Caution

If someone has a medical condition requiring a low potassium diet, they will need to regulate multiple aspects of their diet, not just potassium and sodium. So they need advice from a physician and/or a dietitian to help with all aspects. These tables will be inadequate for managing their health, and are only meant to serve as a guide, showing how foods that seem similar will vary in significant dietary components.

The serving weight is grams, and 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.