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How Much Potassium In a Banana?

Ranking Produce

An average sized banana offers about one-tenth of that daily recommended intake, 400 milligrams. But the tropical fruit is by no means at the top of the list of fruits and vegetables high in potassium. Naturally made, standard-serving size items ahead of the banana include: a baked potato, with the skin still attached (926 mg); dried prunes (637 mg); raisins (598 mg); prune juice (528 mgs); lima beans (485 mgs); and acorn squash (448 mgs).

Surprisingly perhaps, multi-vitamin supplements contain far less potassium than any of these fruits and vegetables. Typically, the threshold is only 99 milligrams, far below the daily recommended intake. Still, part of the value of these hybrid vitamins is that they provide doses of a wide variety of daily recommended mineral nutrients.

Creative Recipes

In today's day and age of dozens of Food Network programs and thousands of specialized cookbooks, potassium intakes can be cleverly upped. One example of this is the idea of date-filled acorn squash. Dates are another fruit that boasts a high potassium content, 581 milligrams.(3) So adding them to acorn squash effectively doubles the potassium levels.

Similarly, a banana can be combined with all sorts of different ingredients to accomplish a higher potassium yield. A fruit salad or fruit plate can take advantage of the potassium levels of other items such as cantaloupe (431 mg), figs (666 mg) or honeydew melon (875 mg). Another good way to throw a banana together with some of these ingredients is to do so in the form of a smoothie. Blending together the fruits with milk, ice cream or even frozen yogurt can also bring in a layer of calcium to the equation.