Low Potassium Foods – Nuts, Seeds Table

Nuts are one of the high potassium foods. As a general rule, they should be avoided by those on a low potassium diet, who need to eat low potassium foods. Nuts and seeds are not one of the low potassium foods. But nuts are like fruits, vegetables and some of the other high potassium foods. If a small amount is eaten, it adds only a small amount of potassium to your daily total.

The table includes those seeds and nuts that can provide less than 100 mg of potassium in the serving size mentioned. As can be seen from the table, this varies from 1 oz to 1 tbspn. Eating a handful of nuts would contribute too much potassium to someone who needs to restrict potassium intake.

In the table, the best source of a low potassium seed or nut can be seen to be sunflower seeds. Sunflower butter also contributes only a small amount in a tablespoon. If a nutty flavor is desired, this would be good way to get it while limiting potassium. Sunflower meal is another source that is relatively low in potassium.

Safflower seed meal is a lower potassium seed that can provide a slightly different taste. An ounce only provides 19 mg of potassium.

Even in this table, most of the other nuts and seeds are much higher than sunflower and safflower seeds. If the seed or nut is not in the table, it has even higher amounts of potassium. Those who require low potassium foods should avoid the nuts and seeds that are not in the table.

The weights all are grams except for the potassium and sodium, which are milligrams. The calories, protein, total fat, carbohydrate, fiber, 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 and the amount of potassium per serving (which we calculated), the source of data is: USDA National Nutrient Database Standard Reference – Release 22.

Food K Na Serving Wt Serving Size Ratio K:Na K per Serving
Nuts, cashew butter, plain,
w salt added
546 614 16 1 tbsp 0.89 87
Nuts, cashew butter, plain,
w/o salt added
546 15 16 1 tbsp 36.4 87
Nuts, chestnuts, chinese,
boiled and steamed
306 2 28.35 1 oz 153 87
Nuts, chestnuts, japanese,
boiled and steamed
119 5 28.35 1 oz 23.8 34
Nuts, chestnuts, japanese,
raw
329 14 28.35 1 oz 23.5 93
Nuts, formulated,
wheat-based, all flavors except macadamia, w/o salt
320 91 28.35 1 oz 3.5 91
Nuts, formulated,
wheat-based, macadamia flavored, w/o salt
261 47 28.35 1 oz 5.6 74
Nuts, formulated,
wheat-based, unflavored, w salt added
318 505 28.35 1 oz 0.63 90
Seeds, chia seeds, dried 160 19 28.35 1 oz 8.4 45
Seeds, safflower seed meal,
partially defatted
68 3 28.35 1 oz 22.7 19
Seeds, sesame butter, paste 582 12 16 1 tbsp 48.5 93
Seeds, sesame butter,
tahini, fr raw and stone ground kernels
414 74 15 1 tbsp 5.6 62
Seeds, sesame butter,
tahini, fr roasted and toasted kernels (most common type)
414 115 15 1 tbsp 3.6 62
Seeds, sesame butter,
tahini, fr unroasted kernels (non-chemically removed seed coat)
459 1 14 1 tbsp 459 64
Seeds, sesame butter,
tahini, type of kernels unspecified
459 35 15 1 tbsp 13.1 69
Seeds, sunflower seed
butter, w salt added
72 520 16 1 tbsp 0.14 12
Seeds, sunflower seed
butter, w/o salt
72 3 16 1 tbsp 24 12
Seeds, sunflower seed
flour, partially defatted
67 3 64 1 cup 22.3 43

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