The recommended potassium intake for adults is 3,400 mg a day for men and 2,600 mg for women, the Adequate Intakes the National Academies set in 2019. On a plate, a medium baked potato, a cup of cooked spinach, a cup of cooked lentils and a medium banana come to about 2,900 mg. Men in the United States average 3,016 mg a day from food and women 2,320 mg, so most adults eat less than their target.
Written by Dr Brad Stanfield, a general practitioner registered in New Zealand and Australia. Check every number against the sources at the end. This is general information, not medical advice.
The short version
- The National Academies set the adult Adequate Intake for potassium in 2019 at 3,400 mg a day for men and 2,600 mg for women, replacing an older figure of 4,700 mg. The European Food Safety Authority proposed 3,500 mg a day for all adults in 2016.
- In the 2013 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, men in the United States averaged 3,016 mg of potassium a day from food and women 2,320 mg, both below their Adequate Intake.
- A medium baked potato with the skin on carries about 925 mg of potassium, a cup of cooked spinach about 840 mg and a medium banana about 420 mg, according to United States Department of Agriculture food composition data.
- Potassium-only supplements sold in the United States mostly contain 99 mg or less. Among the 12 percent of Americans aged 2 and over who take a supplement containing potassium, it adds a mean of 87 mg a day.
- In people with chronic kidney disease, or on medicines that reduce how much potassium the kidneys excrete, even potassium from food below the Adequate Intake can push blood potassium dangerously high, so their total intake from all sources needs advice from a doctor or dietitian.
Where the potassium targets come from
In 2019 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a full review of the evidence on sodium and potassium and revised the reference values. For potassium they set an Adequate Intake of 3,400 mg a day for men aged 19 and over, and 2,600 mg for women of the same age who are not pregnant or breastfeeding. These replaced an older and higher figure of 4,700 mg. According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, the committee based them on the highest median potassium intakes in healthy children and adults, and they do not apply to people whose potassium excretion is impaired by kidney disease or by medicines.
The European Food Safety Authority looked at the same question in 2016 and proposed 3,500 mg a day for all adults.
An Adequate Intake is not the same as a Recommended Dietary Allowance. It is set when the evidence is not strong enough to calculate a requirement, and it describes an intake assumed to be sufficient. Eating less than it does not by itself mean a person is deficient.
How much potassium do adults in the United States eat?
Men in the United States average 3,016 mg of potassium a day from food and women 2,320 mg, according to the 2013 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey as reported by the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. Against the Adequate Intake, the average man is about 380 mg short and the average woman about 280 mg short. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020 to 2025 name potassium as one of four dietary components of public health concern that Americans under-consume; the other three are calcium, vitamin D and dietary fiber.
The Office of Dietary Supplements lists many fruits and vegetables, some legumes and potatoes as excellent sources of potassium, with meat, poultry, fish, milk, yogurt and nuts also contributing. It notes that whole-wheat flour and brown rice carry much more potassium than white flour and white rice, and that milk, coffee, tea, other nonalcoholic drinks and potatoes are the top sources in the diets of United States adults. Many of the same plant foods carry fiber, another nutrient on the Dietary Guidelines list, and the gap between recommended and actual fiber intake is covered separately.
What 3,400 mg of potassium looks like in food
Potassium in ordinary portions, calculated from the per 100 gram values in the United States Department of Agriculture's FoodData Central:
| Food | Portion | Potassium |
|---|---|---|
| Baked potato, skin on | Medium (173 g) | 925 mg |
| Cooked spinach | 1 cup (180 g) | 840 mg |
| Dried apricots | Half cup (65 g) | 750 mg |
| Cooked lentils | 1 cup (198 g) | 730 mg |
| Canned white beans | Half cup (130 g) | 590 mg |
| Plain low fat yogurt | 1 cup (245 g) | 575 mg |
| Tomato puree | Half cup (125 g) | 550 mg |
| Avocado | Half (100 g) | 485 mg |
| Banana | Medium (118 g) | 420 mg |
| Cooked salmon | 3 oz (85 g) | 325 mg |
The banana has a reputation it does not deserve. It is a perfectly good source, but a medium banana, at about 420 mg, is about an eighth of a man's daily target, and a baked potato with the skin left on, at about 925 mg, carries more than twice as much. If you want a single food that moves the number, the potato and the cup of cooked greens do more work than the fruit bowl.
Reaching 3,400 mg from food is entirely possible. A baked potato, a cup of spinach, a cup of lentils and a banana come to about 2,900 mg before anything else in the day is counted. It just requires that most of what you eat is food that still looks like it came from a plant or an animal.
How much potassium does a supplement add to the day?
Potassium-only supplements sold in the United States mostly contain 99 mg or less, a figure that comes from two drug rules rather than from any cap on supplements; why potassium supplements stop at 99 mg sets out both rules and what they cover.
Against the adult Adequate Intakes, 99 mg is 2.9 percent of the 3,400 mg set for men and 3.8 percent of the 2,600 mg set for women, or roughly a quarter of a medium banana. The survey data point the same way. Among the 12 percent of Americans aged 2 and over who used a potassium-containing supplement in the 2013 to 2014 survey, the Office of Dietary Supplements reports it added a mean of 87 mg to the day.
What is potassium citrate?
Potassium appears on supplement labels in several forms. The form decides the taste, how well the salt dissolves and how much of its weight is potassium, and the small trials that compared the salts with one another have not settled whether it matters for anything else.
Potassium citrate is the potassium salt of citric acid, the acid that makes lemons sour. It is a long-standing food ingredient, used as an acidity regulator across the food supply, and it is the most water-soluble of the common potassium salts, which is why it disappears into a drink rather than settling at the bottom. That solubility, and a milder taste than potassium chloride, are why Potassium Fiber uses it.
Potassium chloride is the cheaper alternative and the one used in low-sodium salt substitutes. It carries more potassium per gram, but a 2012 sensory study found panelists describing it as bitter, chemical and metallic.
Roughly 38 percent of potassium citrate by weight is potassium itself, calculated from its molecular formula. The rest is citrate. So a label promising 500 mg of potassium from potassium citrate contains about 1.3 grams of the salt. Every salt carries its own figure, and how much potassium each of the salt forms actually holds is the first thing worth checking on a label.
Who needs to be careful with potassium?
Potassium is one of the few nutrients where more is not automatically better, and where a supplement can genuinely be the wrong idea for some people.
Healthy kidneys regulate blood potassium tightly and clear any excess. When kidney function is reduced, that clearance slows. Several common medicines also reduce how much potassium the kidneys excrete. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, often called ACE inhibitors, and angiotensin receptor blockers do it as a side effect of how they work, and potassium-sparing diuretics such as spironolactone hold on to potassium as their main action.
If you have reduced kidney function, have been told to limit potassium, take any of those medicines, or already take a potassium supplement or a salt substitute, talk to your doctor before adding more potassium. They can look at your blood tests. We cannot.
For people whose kidneys handle potassium normally, the Office of Dietary Supplements says high potassium intakes from food pose no health risk, because the kidneys excrete the excess. For people whose potassium excretion is impaired by kidney disease or by medicines, it says "even dietary potassium intakes below the AI can cause hyperkalemia", a dangerously high blood potassium, and that anyone at risk should ask a doctor or registered dietitian about potassium from all sources. That total includes food, supplements and salt substitutes.
What the authorities recommend, and where the trial evidence is covered
The targets on this page come from the National Academies and the European Food Safety Authority, and the intake figures from the national diet survey. In the same 2019 review the National Academies committee declined to set a Tolerable Upper Intake Level for potassium and declined to set an intake for reducing chronic disease risk, in both cases because the evidence was insufficient. Randomized trials that compare potassium salts with one another are covered in the comparison of potassium citrate, chloride and the other salts, and research on potassium and disease risk is summarized in the National Institutes of Health fact sheet listed below.
Sources
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. Washington DC: The National Academies Press, 2019. doi:10.17226/25353
- EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies. Dietary reference values for potassium. EFSA Journal. 2016;14(10):4592. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4592
- US Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. 9th edition, December 2020.
- US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, SR Legacy. Portion figures calculated from the per 100 gram values.
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Potassium: fact sheet for health professionals. Updated 2 June 2022.
- United States Food and Drug Administration. Potassium salt preparations intended for oral ingestion by man. 21 CFR 201.306 [40 FR 13998, 27 March 1975, as amended at 55 FR 11576 and 67 FR 4906]. govinfo.gov
- United States Food and Drug Administration. Drug products withdrawn or removed from the market for reasons of safety or effectiveness. 21 CFR 216.24. govinfo.gov
- Sinopoli DA, Lawless HT. Taste properties of potassium chloride alone and in mixtures with sodium chloride using a check-all-that-apply method. Journal of Food Science. 2012;77(9):S319-S322. doi:10.1111/j.1750-3841.2012.02862.x. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22901084
This article is general information, not medical advice. Potassium Fiber is a drink powder containing 500 mg of potassium as potassium citrate and 8 grams of fiber from acacia gum per serving, on pre-sale and shipping from 1 December 2026.