Three Excellent Sources of Potassium for Runners

Runners have a terrific need for sodium, potassium, calcium in addition to glycogen.  To get potassium, we tend to look to bananas, but there are plenty of other sources of potassium.

Here are three that I really like:

1. Kale

A cup of chopped kale will give you 329 milligrams of potassium with negligible calorie expense, and a little protein bonus . Think smoothie.

2. Avocados [Post Run or Meal/Snack Time]

100 grams is roughly what an avocado weighs, but you can verify with your own food scale.  At 485 milligrams of potassium, you really would be hard pressed to beat the value here.  I tend to eat two of these at a time, along with some seasoning [yes, that means Old El Paso Guacamole mix] which brings the calorie count to 420, making it a significant caloric investment.  On the other hand, you gain over 900 milligrams, 4 grams of protein, 3.6 grams of polyunsaturated fat and 20 grams of monounsaturated fat.  

3. Dried Apricot

Okay, take another look at that...  1850 milligrams of potassium for every 100 grams consumed! What's even more interesting is that the only fat contained therein is poly and monounsaturated.  On the downside, this is pretty carb heavy stuff.  So I wouldn't necessarily recommend this on non running days.


Happy Canada Day!