Cereal grains are among mankind's oldest food crops, and today they are consumed around the world for their nutritional value. The potassium content of cereal grains generally provides about 15 to 20 percent of your adult daily requirement for each 100-gram serving. Dietary sources of potassium-rich cereals include wheat, oats, corn and barley. Adding whole-wheat foods to your diet will provide more than twice the amount of potassium than more highly processed wheat products.
Cereal Plants
Cereal grains are all grass plants, and are a staple crop because they are high in vitamins and minerals and provide carbohydrates and protein. The edible portion of the plant is the seed head, which includes the endosperm, germ and bran. Cereal grains keep well once the perishable germ and bran are removed, but processing the grain also removes some of its nutrients and most of its beneficial fiber. The cereal plants include Old World species like barley, millet, rice, rye and buckwheat. Maize, which you probably know as corn, is a New World cereal. Quinoa and amaranth are considered to be pseudograins because they are not botanically true grains but are harvested and eaten like cereals. To get the best nutrition, add whole grain products to your menu.
Potassium
Potassium is an electrolyte, one of the minerals found in your body that is capable of conducting electricity. Potassium is essential to your heart because it helps to regulate smooth muscle contractions, which are necessary for the heart to beat properly. Potassium is thought to play a role in bone health and may have some hypotensive effects. The mineral is found in many foods, including meat and fish, fruits, vegetables and cereal grains. The recommend daily allowance of potassium for an adult is 2,000 mg.
Wheat
Wheat has a long history in the Old World but today is grown throughout the world in temperate regions. Wheat has several varieties, including soft red winter wheat, hard and soft white wheat, and durum. Soft red wheat provides the most potassium of these varieties, at approximately 397 mg of potassium per 100 grams of wheat. However, the wheat bran contains 1182 mg and the germ contains 892 mg, which is one reason nutritionists recommend eating whole-wheat products. Spelt and kamut, which you can find in health-food stores, are both related to wheat and have similar nutritional profiles.
Old World Cereals
Rye is an Old World cereal, which you are most likely to encounter as rye bread. The dark version contains 730 mg of potassium, while lighter varieties contain about half of that. Oats provide 429 mg of potassium per serving and barley provides 452 mg. Millet is harvested for its small round seeds, which contain roughly the same amount of potassium as oats. Barley contains about 452 mg of potassium and also provides you with fiber. Less common cereals include sorghum, at 350 mg of potassium, and buckwheat, which isn't really a grain. Buckwheat provides you with 460 mg of potassium per 100g serving.
New World Cereals
The most common New World cereal crop is corn, which comes in many varieties. For each one-cup serving of corn that you consume, including popcorn, you get about 476 mg of potassium. Corn is eaten by itself and is also found in many prepared food products. Quinoa is botanically a fruit, but is commonly used like a grain. It's a very good source of dietary potassium, with 750 mg of the mineral per 100 gram serving. Amaranth is another New World pseudo-grain; it's high in protein and provides 455 mg of potassium per serving.
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