Since starting the Keto lifestyle, I’ve been monitoring my nutrition (or trying to anyway) and I’m very aware that I could be suffering from nutritional deficiencies especially given that my appetite has decreased significantly and as a result my food consumption has reduced.
I’ve been using an app called Cronometer (the free version might I add) to track what I eat and monitor what I need to against my macros, and it has come to my attention that (as I suspected), three things that I do struggle to meet each day are electrolytes – magnesium, potassium and sodium.
This is quite common in the keto and other low-carb diet and could explain my extreme low energy levels at present! Adding to that I’ve been under excessive stress due to a recent shoulder surgery and other personal issues.
So although an easy way to boost magnesium is through supplements (a 400mg pill is 100% of the RDA), and sodium can easily be added to your diet through salt-water / lemon-salt-water / bone broth etc, POTASSIUM is not so readily available in supplement form as too much of it can be toxic.
Prior to going keto this was not something that I’d thought about given that I was eatingt bananas and potatoes in abundance!
High Potassium (>200mg) & Low-Carb Food List
It’s safest therefore to make sure you’re getting enough potassium from food first as you won’t be able to get it from supplements. I therefore decided to compile a go-to list of high potassium keto-friendly low-carb foods, i.e. foods with over 200mg potassium per reasonable portion. Click here for the Excel version of the list.
Potassium Tactics
I also decided on a few ‘Potassium Tactics’ for myself based on a potassium range of 2000 – 4700 mg (the Estimated Daily Minimum – Adequate Intake).
Following these tactics, I should be able to achieve my target amount of potassium whilst keeping within my carb limits.
Potassium food tactics:
- Eat 1 cup of Yogurt & Keto Coconut Granola every day = 380 & 300 mg respectively
- Eat 6 Vegetables from the list inc. Avocado = 1920-3233 mg
- Eat 2 proteins = 460-971gm
- Smaller amounts from other foods (mainly vegetables, nuts, seeds and proteins) not listed.
Additional:
- Supplement = 200-400mg
- Eat a few squares of dark chocolate / Drink cacao milk = 100-240mg
- Eat almond / peanut butter = 200mg
- Optional: During carb-cycling days – Sweet potato= 224mg
Please do contact me if there’s anything you feel that needs to be added to the list, bearing in mind that it needs to contain over 200mg of Potassium in a reasonable portion. There are a lot of other high potassium foods e.g. with over 100mg potassium that aren’t listed, as that isn’t the purpose of this table.
I hope this helps some of you struggling with Potassium!
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