Nutrition & Vitamins : Foods Containing Potassium

My name is Christine Marquette, and I'm a registered and licensed dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic, and I'm going to talk to you about foods containing potassium. A lot of people are interested in foods that contain a lot of potassium for various reasons. It has been shown to improve blood pressure, and of course a lot of athletes are interested because potassium has been shown to decrease the symptoms of cramps. Some of the highest vegetables and fruits that have potassium in them, as far as the vegetable side of things: tomatoes and tomato sauce. So in an athlete, this would be ideal if they like to have spaghetti with a marinara sauce, they would be getting a lot of potassium from the marinara sauce, plus a lot of carbohydrates from that pasta in the spaghetti. Some of the fruits, everybody always thinks of bananas. Bananas are fairly high in potassium, however, cantaloupe and apricots actually have even more potassium in them than bananas. Another very good source of potassium is avocados. Avocados do have a lot of fat, but it is that very heart healthy mono and saturated fat. So if you like your guacamole, you can definitely have it. That is a very good source of potassium. Potatoes, baked potatoes, also have a lot of potassium so that's another good source. Again, kind of going back to the athlete, somebody who needs a lot of carbohydrate if they're going to participate in an endurance event, potatoes are great. They are going to get their carbohydrate, plus they're going to get a lot of potassium. Some other foods that have a lot of potassium? Yogurt and milk actually have quite a bit of potassium in them as well. Typically over 300 milligrams, so that is considered a very good source. So yogurt and milk, not only do they have a lot of potassium, they have a lot of calcium and they have some amount of protein in them as well. So you have a wide variety of foods to choose from from the fruits, the vegetables, and the dairy products. Several different items that have a lot of potassium. If you choose at least a couple from each of these groups you should more than meet your daily requirement of potassium.