Foods High in Potassium: 121 Healthy Choices

SUMMARY

Foods high in potassium provide your body with the support it needs to regulate fluids and function at its very best. The list of potassium-rich foods includes choices such as avocado, salmon, bananas and yam.

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Potassium is a mineral that supports your health in countless ways.

For starters, it provides vital assistance to your muscles and your nervous system. It also helps regulate essential functions such as your heartbeat and your blood pressure. If you don’t get enough of it in your diet, you’re more likely to develop hypertension or come down with a stroke.

Because of this, potassium deserves to play a starring role in your diet. The bad news is that most people in this country fall short of consuming an adequate amount of this mineral.

Certain foods are naturally rich in potassium. Consuming foods high in potassium can help you shore up your intake of this valuable nutrient.

In this article, we will:

Define potassium, and explain the role it plays in supporting your health
List the benefits that come with consuming adequate amounts of this mineral
Explain how much potassium you should aim to consume each day
List 121 foods high in potassium

What is potassium?

Potassium is a mineral that helps your body function efficiently. It falls within the electrolyte family; it helps your nerves and muscles function as they should, and it helps you maintain a regular heartbeat.

To stay healthy, the cells in your body need to be able to move nutrients in and kick waste out. Potassium assists with this process.

Then there’s the issue of sodium. Sodium in your diet can raise your blood pressure. Potassium can help lessen some of sodium’s harmful effects.

Back when humans were hunters and gatherers, potassium was plentiful in the diet, while sodium was scarce. According to Harvard Medical School, the typical diet that was consumed by humans during this time contained about 16 times more potassium than sodium.

Today, most Americans get less than half the recommended amount of potassium in their diets. And because many processed or prepared foods are high in salt and low in potassium, the average American diet these days contains about twice as much sodium as potassium.

This imbalance isn’t healthy. It’s believed to be a key cause of high blood pressure, a condition that affects one in three American adults.

What are potassium’s health benefits?

Potassium supports good health. Getting enough potassium-rich foods in your diet can provide these health benefits:

1. Supports healthy fluid balance

Roughly 60 percent of the body is made up of water. About 40 percent of this water is found inside your cells, and it’s referred to as intercellular fluid (ICF). The rest of this water is found outside your cells, in places such as your spinal fluid and your blood. It’s known as extracellular fluid (ECF).

If the balance of water in your body runs low, dehydration can set in.

Consuming enough water is an obvious way to address this. However, the amount of water that’s inside and outside of your cells is also affected by the amount of potassium and sodium in your body.

If potassium is low, dehydration is more likely. Dehydration can have negative implications for your heart and your kidneys.

Adequate potassium intake – along with proper hydration – can help you maintain a healthy fluid balance and keep dehydration at bay.

2. Nourishes the nervous system

Your nervous system is a conduit that establishes a path of communication between your brain and your body.

This communication takes the form of nerve impulses. Each impulse governs bodily functions such as muscle contractions, reflexes and your heartbeat. If you experience pain, your nervous system sends those pain signals to your brain. The nervous system also regulates things such as body temperature; if you get too hot, it will tell the body to sweat more so you can cool down.

Research shows that a drop in potassium levels can hinder the body’s ability to generate a nerve impulse.

As such, adequate dietary potassium is necessary if you want to maintain a healthy nervous system.

3. Supports heart health

As potassium moves in and out of your cells, it helps your heart maintain a consistent beat. A steady heartbeat is necessary to maintain life. It helps your body pump vital blood to your organs, brains, tissues and muscles.

If the potassium level in your blood is less than optimal, it can impact the way your heart functions. The heartbeat can become abnormal, creating a condition called heart arrhythmia. This condition can be fatal.

4. Helps maintain healthy blood pressure

Blood pressure is a term that refers to the force of blood as it pushes against your artery walls. If your blood pressure is higher than normal, it can cause damage to your heart, and create a litany of health problems.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2018, high blood pressure was a causal factor in roughly half a million deaths in the United States. Excessive sodium intake in linked to high blood pressure.

Foods high in potassium can help remove excess sodium from the body. In so doing, high-potassium food can help you maintain healthy blood pressure levels.

5. Protects against strokes

Strokes are a common cause of death in the U.S. The CDC reports that someone in this country has a stroke every 40 seconds. And every four minutes, someone dies due to a stroke.

A stroke happens when blood flow to your brain is compromised. Research shows that if you maintain an adequate potassium level, you’re less likely to fall victim to a stroke.

One 2011 meta-analysis concluded that higher dietary potassium intake is linked with lower rates of stroke.

6. May prevent osteoporosis

Osteoporosis in a condition in which the bones become weak and porous. This disease can make it more likely for you to break a bone; this breakage typically takes place in the hip, forearm, wrist and spine. While most people with this condition break bones due to falls, breakage may also be caused by more innocuous actions, such as bumping into something or coughing.

This disease is more common in women, and it’s more prevalent in older people. Osteoporosis affects about 25 percent of women aged 65 and older. About 5 percent of men aged 65 and older have this disease.

Osteoporosis is often linked with low calcium levels. Studies show that eating foods high in potassium can help the body retain more calcium. In so doing, a potassium-rich diet may help prevent osteoporosis.

Potassium chloride is a form of potassium. One 2015 meta-analysis looked at the effect of supplementation with potassium chloride. It showed that this type of supplementation reduced calcium loss in ways that benefit bone health.

Research also shows that high potassium intake can help you maintain strong bones. A 2000 study shows that participants who have a high potassium level (via fruits and vegetables) were likely to have better bone mass and bone metabolism than those with medium or low potassium.

7. May prevent kidney stones

A kidney stone is small, hard clump of material that forms in your kidneys. It’s eliminated via your urine, and the process of getting rid of it in this way can be painful.

If a kidney stone is present, it can cause pain in your side, back, lower abdomen or groin. It can also cause pain or a burning sensation as you urinate.

In many cases, kidney stones are mostly made of calcium. Studies show that a form of potassium known as potassium citrate can help lower calcium levels in urine. Potassium citrate is commonly found in many fruits and vegetables.

By having this effect on calcium in your urine, potassium can help fight kidney stones.

8. May reduce water retention

Water retention occurs when fluid builds up in your body tissues and cavities. It can be caused by things such as prescription medication, hormonal changes or eating too much salt.

The symptoms include:

Abdominal bloating
Swollen feet, ankles and legs
Facial puffiness
Stiff joints
Weight fluctuations

Potassium can help reduce water retention. Over the years, it’s been used to treat this condition.

Research shows that a high potassium intake can relieve water retention. It does so by ramping up urine production and reducing the amount of sodium in your body.

How much potassium should I get each day?

Per the National Institutes of Health (NIH), here are the adequate intakes for potassium across various age groups:

Birth to six months: 400 mg, both genders
Seven to 12 months: 860 mg, both genders
One to three years: 2,000 mg, both genders
Four to eight years: 2,300 mg, both genders
Nine to 13 years: 2,500 mg males, 2,300 mg females
14-18 years: 3,000 mg males, 2,300 mg females
19-50 years: 3,400 mg males, 2,600 mg females
51-plus years: 3,400 mg males, 2,600 mg females
Pregnancy and lactation, 14-18 years: 2,600 mg pregnancy, 2,500 mg lactation
Pregnancy and lactation, 19-50 years: 2,900 mg pregnancy, 2,800 mg lactation

It’s rare for otherwise healthy people to get too much potassium.

However, if you have poor kidney function or chronic kidney disease, your body may be unable to remove potassium via the urine.

People with these kinds of kidney problems may be at risk for excess potassium in the blood. As a result, they may need to restrict their potassium intake.