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food source · 2
Potato with its skin has about 420–540 mg of potassium per 100 g, more than banana weight for weight. Its nutrients are concentrated in the skin and the thin layer just beneath it, so peeling it down to the white core throws away the most valuable part.
Mechanism · Potassium helps balance sodium
Many people eat too little potassium and too much sodium, and potassium helps balance sodium and keep blood pressure steady. A potato's nutrients are concentrated in the skin and the thin layer beneath it, so peeling it down to the white core throws away the most valuable part.
Numbers · More potassium than a banana
Potato with its skin has about 420–540 mg of potassium per 100 g, more than banana (about 358 mg) weight for weight. The fiber is mostly in the skin too, and peeling loses much of it. French fries and chips are a different story: what makes them fattening is mostly the frying, not the potato.
Avocado has about 480 mg of potassium per 100 g of flesh, a little more than the same weight of banana. Most of its calories come from fat, but people who need to limit potassium still have to count it by weight.
Mechanism · Potassium in a fruit that is not sweet
Most people eat too little potassium and too much sodium. Avocado is barely sweet and gets most of its calories from fat, and its potassium sits in the same flesh without any load of sugar. People who need to limit potassium still have to count it by weight: a fatty fruit is not a low-potassium fruit.
Numbers · The potassium in one avocado
Avocado has about 480 mg of potassium per 100 g of flesh, a little more than the same weight of banana (about 358 mg); a medium Hass avocado has about 150 g of flesh. High potassium is good news for most people, but people with more advanced chronic kidney disease, or on drugs that make the kidneys hold on to potassium (such as ACE inhibitors, sartan blood-pressure drugs or spironolactone), should follow their doctor's advice on how much high-potassium food to eat. Avocado is not an omega-3 source either; that is what fish is for.
synergy · 2
Potassium and sodium keep up the electrical charge across cell membranes and decide how water is distributed in the body; magnesium helps make and use energy (ATP) and affects how excitable nerves and muscles are. So fatigue and cramps during exercise usually cannot be explained by a shortage of a single mineral.
A potassium-rich diet, especially the potassium that comes as potassium citrate and similar forms in fruit and vegetables, reduces the calcium lost in urine, which the mechanism suggests may indirectly help bone. It is the opposite of high sodium, which increases calcium in the urine.
antagonism · 1
When you eat a lot of sodium, the kidneys excrete more calcium along with the sodium, so urinary calcium rises. Years of high sodium, combined with too little calcium and vitamin D, may quietly speed up bone loss.
regulates · 2
Where water goes in the body depends largely on sodium and potassium: sodium stays mainly outside cells and potassium mainly inside, and water follows them. So drinking water and taking in salt have to be considered together.
In the DASH trial (Appel 1997), participants ate a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy, and high in potassium, for 8 weeks, with sodium and body weight held constant; in those with hypertension, systolic pressure fell 11.4 mmHg more than on the control diet. In other words, eating more like DASH lowers blood pressure even without cutting salt; eating less sodium is a separate route.