Kidney Diet Tips: How Much Potassium in Salad Greens?

Posted April 10, 2012 in FAQ by Sara Colman, RDN, CDCES.

What’s not to love about a cold salad served in a chilled bowl with your favorite salad dressing? Today’s kidney diet tips will help if you’re following a low potassium diet but love salad greens. As you can see from the chart below, all the salad greens listed are less than 200 mg potassium for a 1 cup portion. Mix and match the ones you like best. The goal is to stay below 200 mg potassium for one salad. If you want a larger portion, select the lowest potassium greens, arugula and green or red leaf lettuce.

Salad Greens	Portion	Potassium	Phosphorus	Sodium	Protein
Arugula	1 cup	74	10	5	.5
Butterhead	1 cup	131	18	3	.7
Endive	1 cup	157	14	11	.6
Green leaf	1 cup	70	10	10	.5
Iceberg	1 cup	102	14	7	.7
Looseleaf	1 cup	108	16	15	.8
Red leaf	1 cup	52	8	7	.4
Romaine	1 cup	116	14	4	.6
Watercress	1 cup	112	20	14	.8

Unfamiliar with some of these greens? Go to Cooks Thesaurus foodsubs.com, to see pictures.

Salad greens are naturally low in sodium, but the wrong dressing can really boost the sodium content. When selecting a salad dressing buy low sodium commercially prepared dressing. Better yet, homemade salad dressings are easy to make, inexpensive and contain no additives. Try one of these DaVita.com salad dressing recipes:

Basic Salad Dressing

Cranberry Dijon Vinaigrette

Creamy Vinaigrette

Italian Dressing

Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing

Tarragon Vinaigrette

Additional Kidney Diet Resources

Visit DaVita.com and explore these diet and nutrition resources:

DaVita Food Analyzer

DaVita Dining Out Guides

Today’s Kidney Diet Cookbooks

DaVita Kidney-Friendly Recipes

Diet and Nutrition Articles

Diet and Nutrition Videos

Kidney Smart® Virtual Classes

This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment. Consult your physician and dietitian regarding your specific diagnosis, treatment, diet and health questions.

Comments

July 24, 2013 at 5:57 pm

helen r goddard

1) Is there a paper back book listing foods and their potassium and calcium content? I cannot find one. I am on a very low potassium and calcium diet.

2) Is there a list of potassium and calcium in grain products and in meat, fish and poultry products?

3) Is there a list of vegetables and fruit and their potassium and calcium content?

July 25, 2013 at 1:20 pm

DaVita Dietitian Sara

One reference book I use is Bowes & Church’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Used. It will give you the nutrients and minerals for most foods. You can purchase in most bookstores or online. You might also consider a software program called DINE Healthy. It’s inexpensive and allows you to create lists of foods and view chosen nutrients. You can also use the free USDA Nutrient database to easily get list of foods/nutrients. http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=22769 Go to this link, find calcium and click on the purple ‘W’ to creat a list of common foods with the calcium content. You can do the same for Potassium.

Whole grains are generally higher in potassium than refined grains. Meat, fish and poultry contain approximately 100 mg potassium per ounce. Calcium is low–about 5 mg/ounce unless it’s a fish with bones like canned salmon.

Fruits and vegetables range from 100-500 mg potassium so it’s best to look those up. Check the DaVita.com article Chronic Kidney Disease and Potassium for a list of high and low potassium foods.

Reply

July 11, 2018 at 6:36 am

Doug Shader

Is there a place with Davita where I can copy the above chart listing the different ingredients of salad greens. I follow the restricted diet closely but I’m still getting swollen ankles and so I’m trying to tighten up which greens I’m eating too much of. I’m getting too much potassium someplace. It’s a recent condition for less than the last months or so, but I’ve been end stage renal for about 5 years. Originally they thought I’d need dialysis, but I made severe diet changes after finding Davita online and the Dr’s said I’m in the bottom range of normal and slowly rising in the normal range after initially being in the dangerous kidney failure range 5 years ago. I’m also on facebook and I just saw your FB group… So I’ll be signing up there too. Thx.

February 13, 2022 at 10:34 pm

Vickie Sallaz

I’m trying to figure out the renal diet for people that are taking dialysis three times a week I don’t know might dues and don’ts of the heating I kind a need help with that

February 17, 2022 at 11:52 am

Jackie Termont, RD

Thank you for that question. It can definitely be a challenge, but not impossible. The diet is individualized. Your dietitian will look at your Nutrition Blood Results each month and work with you on how to tailor your diet based on those results. Generally looking at protein, potassium, phosphorus and fluid intake. Here is an article on the general diet guidelines to give you a reference.https://www.davita.com/diet-nutrition/articles/basics/the-hemodialysis-diet (The Hemodialysis Diet)

Reply

October 5, 2024 at 7:55 am

Delton Murphy

Thanks for this chart!

I’ve been on peritoneal dialysis for six years. I’m extremely careful about my diet so I’ve been totally avoiding watercress (which I love) the entire time because I thought it was too high in potassium and phosphorus to even consider.

I’ll double check with my dietitian but it seems with the proper portioning, I can enjoy it again.

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