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The Benefits of Potassium: Why and How You Should Get Enough

The periodic symbol for potassium is “K.” Why would that be? Were the table’s inventors too preoccupied with their fascinating discoveries to perform a simple spell-check? It turns out that, starting centuries ago, the English had a habit of sprinkling wood ashes on their garden beds, and seeing the plants grow faster and healthier as a result.

Over time, they learned that when they soaked wood ash in iron pots, they could create what came to be called “potash.” Then, in 1807, a British chemist by the name of Sir Humphry Davy isolated potassium from potash. He called the result “kalium,” which is the Latin word for potassium — and the periodic table had its “K.” Even though the English…

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Featured

  Potassium-Rich Foods Worth Going Bananas Over

While notorious in bananas, potassium-rich foods are abundant beyond the peel. In fact, these foods high in potassium might even have more of the essential mineral than bananas!

 Almost No One Gets Enough Potassium—And That’s A Big Problem

We spend a lot of time worrying about whether we’re getting enough of nutrients like vitamin D, calcium, and even vitamin C, while potassium, which bananas are chock-full of, is often overlooked. That really shouldn’t be the case, considering less than two percent of Americans get the recommended 4,700 milligrams of potassium per day! This is such a problem that the 2015 USDA Dietary Guidelines called out potassium as a ‘nutrient of public health concern’ and food companies will soon have to include it on food labels.

 Can potassium cut your stroke risk?

The dangers of salt are well known, but a new study shows that you can reduce the chances of a stroke by eating more potassium.

 Nutrient to Know: Potassium

Your muscles just wouldn’t be the same without this mineral. Most folks know there’s potassium in bananas, but that’s not the only place you can find this powerful electrolyte.

 Potassium Content of Foods

This is a guide to help you as you watch the amount of potassium you eat each day.

 The Important Nutrient You Never Think About—And Are Probably Deficient In

Other vitamins and minerals get all the hype, but potassium deserves your attention, too.

Articles of Interest

A Healing Nutrient Profile: Potassium

The flow of potassium and sodium in and out of cells supports the normal functioning of the heart, brain, kidney, and skeletal muscles. Without potassium it would be impossible for your body to maintain a regular heartbeat or properly transmit nerve signals to muscles so they can contract.

All About Potassium

Perhaps you know enough about potassium to reach for a sports drink after a long workout, or to eat a banana after leg cramps awaken you at night. But that’s not all potassium is good for—there’s much more to this key nutrient than you might expect.

An Ode to Bananas

There’s something so very friendly and edible about a banana, from its helpfully tubular design to its yielding texture to its mild and alkaline flavor; something so easy, you just want to shove it into your face. It could be astronaut food, almost: a specially engineered, hygienically sealed nutrition cylinder in high-visibility yellow.

Are Potatoes Healthy? Nutritionists Weigh In

The vegetable is one of the most effective low-cost sources of potassium—containing even more potassium than bananas.

Foods High in Potassium: 121 Healthy Choices

By eating foods high in potassium, you can give your body the nourishment it needs to regulate your heartbeat and support your nervous system. Potassium-rich foods can protect against strokes and may prevent osteoporosis.

Foods That Are High in Potassium

While many whole foods contain potassium, dietary surveys suggest that very few people in the United States are eating enough potassium each day, which can put their heart health at risk.

For Teenagers, Potassium May Matter More Than Salt

A diet high in potassium appears to protect teenagers from high blood pressure in adulthood, while a low-salt diet had no effect, according to new research.

Hold the Sodium, And Pass The Potassium-Rich Produce

From a public health point of view, reduced sodium intake accompanied by increased potassium intake could achieve greater health benefits than restricting sodium alone.

Micronutrients: Potassium

Every heartbeat, contraction and muscle impulse relies on potassium. The third most-abundant mineral in the human body, potassium is an electrolyte, regulating fluid balance by transferring nutrients and waste in and out of cells. Awareness of potassium’s role in health has been heightened by its repeated classification by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as an under-consumed nutrient.

Potassium and Health

Potassium is 1 of the 4 major shortfall nutrients in the American diet according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for American's Advisory Committee.

Potassium and Your CKD Diet

While all the foods on this list are high in potassium, some are higher than others.

Potassium does a body good

What do you think of when you hear the word potassium? Bananas, orange juice, leg cramps, possibly even kidney disease? For most of us, that may be the extent of it.

Potassium Power

Let’s take a look at some of the foods that are highest in potassium. Here are some of the best sources:

Role of Potassium in Maintaining Health

Potassium is a very significant body mineral, important to both cellular and electrical function. It is one of the main blood minerals called "electrolytes" (the others are sodium and chloride), which means it carries a tiny electrical charge (potential). Potassium is the primary positive ion (cation) found within the cells, where 98 percent of the 120 grams of potassium contained in the body is found.

Up the Potassium Food Sources for Good Health

Potassium is a mineral that does not get the most attention, but it is an essential nutrient to the body.

What Is Potassium?

Potassium is a mineral that, among other things, helps muscles contract, helps regulate fluid and mineral balance in and out of body cells, and helps maintain normal blood pressure by limiting the effect of sodium. Potassium also may reduce the risk of recurrent kidney stones and bone loss as we age.

Why Health Officials Want You To Eat More Potassium

So, with the tsk-tsking out of the way, let's focus on something we should be adding more of to our diet: potassium. By amping up consumption of potassium-rich foods, public health officials say, we can cut the risk of high blood pressure — which may, in turn, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Why Potassium is Good for Your Body

Potassium is essential in our daily diet. Yes, you can get it from bananas, but when you know exactly what potassium does for our energy and function on a cellular level – you’ll realize it’s a big deal.

Resources

11 Foods With More Potassium Than A Banana

Turns out it isn't the only food packed with this powerful nutrient.

11 Potassium-Rich Foods for a Healthy Heart, From Nutrition Experts

If you're one of the millions of people keeping an eye on your heart health, experts say it can be as simple as eating more of these foods that you probably already love.

Linus Pauling Institute

Potassium (K+) is the principal positively charged ion (cation) in the fluid inside of cells, while sodium (Na+) is the principal cation in the extracellular fluid. Potassium concentrations are about 30 times higher inside than outside cells, while sodium concentrations are more than 10 times lower inside than outside cells.

NIH

Potassium, the most abundant intracellular cation, is an essential nutrient that is naturally present in many foods and available as a dietary supplement. Potassium is present in all body tissues and is required for normal cell function because of its role in maintaining intracellular fluid volume and transmembrane electrochemical gradients. Potassium has a strong relationship with sodium, the main regulator of extracellular fluid volume, including plasma volume.

The Nutrition Source

Potassium is an essential mineral that is needed by all tissues in the body. It is sometimes referred to as an electrolyte because it carries a small electrical charge that activates various cell and nerve functions. Potassium is found naturally in many foods and as a supplement. Its main role in the body is to help maintain normal levels of fluid inside our cells.