A counting system for potassium-containing foods and its application for increasing dietary potassium intake

The purpose of this study was to categorize foods into subgroups by their potassium contents and to establish an easy-to-use "potassium scale" . Portion sizes of foods in this table were set based on the common consumption weights obtained from a representative survey and on standard portion sizes. The potassium contents of foods were obtained from the Taiwan Nutrient Data Laboratory Database. Potassium content was represented by a "point" system : ≤50 mg potassium was scored as 0 points, and 1 point was added for each additional 200 mg of potassium. The main food sources of potassium in the Taiwanese diet are fruits, vegetables (particularly from the legume subgroup) , and milk and drinks alike (particularly from the subgroups of milk powder and coffee powder) . If the daily recommended intake of potassium is set to 4.1 g for healthy adults, including foods with a total of 14 potassium points in diet can add 2.8 g of potassium to meet the suggested allowance after taking the amount of the average minimum potassium consumption (of about 1366.1 mg) into account. This counting system can be used to guide people when selecting high-potassium-content foods among the various food groups and within given groups in order to improve their potassium status in an effort to prevent cardiovascular events.