How Do I Get More Potassium?

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wanttogetskinny
wanttogetskinny Posts: 194
in Food and Nutrition
I've started tracking my potassium and it's quite obvious I need more. A lot more. I get between 300 and 700mgs a day (RDA is 3500mgs).

I don't know where to get more......besides bananas and potatoes. Potatoes are ok, once in a while, but I'm not an 'eat a potato every day' person.

I will not eat a banana more than a few times a month. I have type 1 diabetes. Even giving myself the appropriate amount of insulin, the natural fructose in a banana acts VERY FAST on my blood sugar and can send it into the stratosphere before my insulin has even started to do a darn thing. So I will only eat a banana if I am starting that meal with a low blood sugar.

What else has a lot of potassium in it?

Replies

  • Dnsnyder
    Dnsnyder Posts: 263 Member
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    V8 low sodium vegetable juice and coconut water are both good sources of potassium. Cherries are another good source, but like with bananas, you'd have to watch your sugar intake. Beans and fish are also supposed to be good sources. Hope this helps! =)
  • KHaverstick
    KHaverstick Posts: 308 Member
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    Pistachios, fish (salmon, tuna, etc), paprika, seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, etc).
  • wanttogetskinny
    wanttogetskinny Posts: 194
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    I didn't know about the fish...that helps! I eat fish (tuna, salmon, tilapia...I had pollock last night........about 5 times a week). I think the problem with tracking it is also that it's not required to be listed on food labels, so many foods I eat......I have no clue if it has potassium or how much. I just checked the tuna and tilapia I have........potassium is not even included on the nutrition labels.
  • TK421NotAtPost
    TK421NotAtPost Posts: 512 Member
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    Most veggies like broccoli and romaine lettuce will have a good amount of potassium.

    Lima beans, lean cuts of red meat, milk, .... all I can think of right now.
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
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    Are you using the tracker on here to monitor potassium? One thing I've noticed is that a lot of foods don't include potassium information, and this isn't because they don't have potassium in them. That's because American nutrition labels often don't list potassium; it's optional according to the FDA.

    For instance, last night for dinner I had wild salmon from Trader Joe's. This item is listed in database, but potassium is listed as 0 because TJs doesn't include it on their label. However, wild salmon has about 700-850 mg of potassium per 6oz.

    Your tracker here is probably not accurate for this reason. It's a good thing to eat more potassium, but it took me tracking elsewhere to figure out how much I was actually consuming. Turns out that eating a varied diet meant I am generally getting the potassium I need even if it's not listed here.
  • sh0ck
    sh0ck Posts: 168 Member
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    Are you using the tracker on here to monitor potassium? One thing I've noticed is that a lot of foods don't include potassium information, and this isn't because they don't have potassium in them. That's because American nutrition labels often don't list potassium; it's optional according to the FDA.

    For instance, last night for dinner I had wild salmon from Trader Joe's. This item is listed in database, but potassium is listed as 0 because TJs doesn't include it on their label. However, wild salmon has about 700-850 mg of potassium per 6oz.

    Your tracker here is probably not accurate for this reason. It's a good thing to eat more potassium, but it took me tracking elsewhere to figure out how much I was actually consuming. Turns out that eating a varied diet meant I am generally getting the potassium I need even if it's not listed here.


    This is very true and it is more than likely because a lot of foods do not include potassium in their nutrition information on the back of the package. I would recommend doing some digging for similar foods to what you are eating to see if there is any potassium. For example I was looking up the Private Selection Sugar Snap Peas and it shows that they do not have any potassium. When I looked up Mann's Sugar Snap Peas it showed they have 110 mg of potassium per serving.

    Fruits and veggies generally have a lot of potassium, as does milk. I would recommend googling it and you can find some good stuff. For example: http://www.highbloodpressureinfo.org/foods-with-potassium.html

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