If your potassium levels have fallen below normal following dehydration, digestive problems or medication side effects, fall back on a healthy diet for support. Foods in each food group will help you build your potassium totals steadily toward the 3,500 milligrams per day recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A few superfoods and potassium-fortified salt products will help you make big nutritional strides. Your doctor may also prescribe a mineral supplement or potassium-saving diuretic if your health condition warrants it.
Eat Beans
Get your potassium in leaps and bounds by eating legumes, which include dry beans, peas and lentils. Some of the greatest concentrations of potassium in all foods are found in white beans, lima beans, lentils and split peas. These legumes, along with black, kidney, navy and pinto beans, contain 700 milligrams or more of potassium per one cooked cup. The FDA considers food servings of 20-percent of the recommended daily value and up high in potassium content.
Eat Potatoes With Skins
Potatoes eaten with their skins offer a mineral bonus unmatched by other vegetables. The potassium value jumps by about 40 percent when you add the outer skin to the inner flesh of one baked potato, for a total 1,081 milligrams of potassium. This phenomenon holds true for sweet potatoes too, which offer 694 milligrams of potassium per each potato baked in skin.
Eat a Variety of Foods From Every Group
All the food groups contain foods with moderate-to-high potassium levels, making for reliable contributions to your daily mineral totals that help supply balanced nutrition as well. Healthy animal-based foods to eat for moderate potassium content include beef sirloin, pork loin, salmon, chicken and turkey breast, tuna and low-fat yogurt and milk. Plant-based foods with significant content include oat cereals, bananas, papayas, tomatoes and cooked spinach.
Switch to Salt Substitute
If you regularly use table salt in cooking and at the table, ask your doctor if commercial salt substitutes can positively alter your potassium-to-sodium ratio. Most Americans get too much sodium in their diets from salt, reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which advises cutting back on dietary sodium. Increase your potassium intake with 50-50 “lite” salt blends of potassium chloride and sodium chloride, or eliminate the sodium with salt substitutes that are 100-percent potassium chloride. Read food labels for potassium contents, which vary by brand.
References
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Recommended Daily Values for Nutrients
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Choosing Healthful Foods Using the Nutrition Facts on the Food Label
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
- U.S. Department of Agriculture; Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010; December 2010
- Harvard School of Public Health: Salt Substitutes
- MedlinePlus: Hypokalemia
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