Potassium rich foods chart: 50 top foods by serving

Ask most people to name a potassium food and they say banana. Our data says the banana is a mid-table player. A standard serving of bananas, raw delivers about 451 milligrams of potassium, which is real money, but a cup of dry lentils carries around 1,300 milligrams, and per 100 calories, beet greens, raw deliver roughly eight times what a banana does. This chart ranks the top potassium foods in the NutriVerdict index two ways: milligrams per typical serving, and milligrams per 100 calories. Both views matter, because a food can be a potassium powerhouse by the plateful yet ordinary by the calorie, and vice versa. All values come from the USDA FoodData Central figures behind our database, and you can browse the full live ranking on our potassium-rich foods page.

How to read this chart

Per serving tells you what a realistic portion puts on your plate. Per 100 calories tells you how efficiently a food carries potassium, which is the fairer test for anyone watching calories. A few entries below are dried or concentrated foods, like sun-dried tomatoes, where removing water concentrates the mineral. They are legitimate potassium sources, just eaten in smaller amounts than their per-100-gram numbers suggest.

Vegetables: the deepest bench

Vegetables win this category on both scoreboards. Per serving, the standouts in our index are:

• Tomatoes, sun-dried: about 1,852 mg per cup, and a striking 3,430 mg per 100 grams. Density score 87.
• Hearts of palm, raw: about 1,810 mg per 100 grams, at only 115 calories.
• Yam, raw: about 1,224 mg per cup of cubes.
• Bamboo shoots, raw: about 805 mg per cup, at a mere 27 calories per 100 grams. Density score 91.
• Parsnips, raw: about 499 mg per cup of slices.
• Broccoli, raw: about 468 mg per serving. Density score 96.
• Sweet potato, raw: about 448 mg per cup of cubes. Density score 91.
• Beets, raw: about 442 mg per cup.
• Potatoes, flesh and skin, raw: about 425 mg per 100 grams, one reason the humble potato keeps showing up in potassium conversations.
• Pumpkin, raw: about 394 mg per cup of cubes. Density score 97.

Switch to the per-100-calorie view and the leafy greens take over. Beet greens, raw lead our entire index at roughly 3,464 mg of potassium per 100 calories, with 762 mg in every 100 grams. Watercress, raw runs about 3,000 mg per 100 calories and spinach, raw about 2,426 mg. Even celery, raw, rarely praised for anything, delivers around 1,857 mg per 100 calories. Beet greens usually get thrown away at the store. On this metric, that is the most potassium-dense food in our database going in the trash.

Fruits: bananas are fine, not first

The banana is convenient and consistent, but the fruit aisle has stronger plays per serving:

• Breadfruit, raw: about 1,078 mg per cup, more than double a banana serving.
• Dates, deglet noor: about 964 mg per cup of chopped dates, though the calories add up fast.
• Prune juice, canned: about 707 mg per cup.
• Coconut water: about 600 mg per cup, and an efficient 1,316 mg per 100 calories.
• Bananas, raw: about 451 mg per serving.
• Apricots, raw: about 401 mg per cup of halves, at roughly 540 mg per 100 calories.
• Papayas, raw: about 264 mg per cup, with a density score of 91.
• Avocados, raw: about 485 mg per 100 grams, so half an avocado lands near banana territory.

Legumes: the per-serving champions

Nothing in our index beats beans by the bowl. Soybeans, mature seeds, raw top the whole-food chart at roughly 3,348 mg per cup of dry beans, with a density score of 84. Mung beans, raw follow at about 2,588 mg per cup, then lentils, raw at about 1,300 mg and natto at about 1,276 mg per cup. Dry-measure servings cook up into several portions, so scale accordingly, but even a half-cup of cooked lentils comfortably outruns most snacks. Legumes are also where potassium travels with fiber, protein, iron, and magnesium in the same spoonful, which is why they score so well across our rankings.

Fish: steady 300 to 420 mg per fillet

Fish will not top either scoreboard, but it is remarkably consistent. Per 3-ounce portion in our index: wild Atlantic salmon about 416 mg, Spanish mackerel about 379 mg, lingcod about 371 mg, and Atlantic cod about 351 mg. Cod is the efficiency pick at roughly 504 mg per 100 calories, thanks to its very lean profile and density score of 84. A tilapia fillet lands around 350 mg. Pair any of these with a potato and a pile of greens and one dinner covers a serious share of the day.

The takeaway pattern

Potassium lives in plants and lean fish, and it concentrates wherever water leaves and calories stay low. If you want the most per bite, eat beans and starchy roots. If you want the most per calorie, eat leafy greens, and stop throwing away the beet tops. The banana can stay in the lunch bag, but it should never be the whole plan. For the always-current version of this list, sorted straight from the data, see the potassium-rich rankings.