While severe potassium deficiencies aren’t particularly common, most people do get less than is recommended.
Tomatoes are fairly high in potassium, making them a good addition to many diets. We’ll look at the specific amount of potassium in different types of tomatoes in this short post.
We’ll also compare the amount of this important mineral in tomatoes to other vegetables.
Table of Contents
How Much Potassium is in Tomatoes?
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for potassium varies significantly based on age and gender.
The current guidelines from the NIH is to get 3,400 mg of potassium per day for adult males, and 2,600 mg for adult females.
Let’s look at the amount of potassium of different types of tomatoes per 100 grams of tomato. Note the bolded row, which we can take as a “general” value for tomatoes.
| Type | Potassium (mg) | Potassium (% RDA) |
|---|---|---|
| Tomatoes, sun-dried, packed in oil, drained | 1560 | 45.9 |
| Tomates, canned, puree | 439 | 12.9 |
| Tomatoes, grape, raw | 260 | 7.6 |
| Tomatoes, red, ripe, average | 237 | 7.0 |
| Tomato, roma | 193 | 5.7 |
The column for RDA is based on an RDA of 3,400 mg.
We can see that there is some variation among different types of tomatoes. Roma tomatoes (193 mg) have slightly less potassium than grape (cherry) tomatoes (260 mg).
There are 2 types of tomatoes that really stand out:
- Tomato sauce (pureed in a can) is significantly higher in potassium than raw whole tomatoes.
- Dried tomatoes are much higher in potassium than every other type.
This is not surprising, since both typically have lower water content per 100 grams.
Tomatoes have a significant amount of potassium. A standard portion of tomatoes or tomato sauce can contribute around 10-25% of the RDA for potassium.
Are Other Vegetables Higher in Potassium Than Tomatoes?
While tomatoes have a good amount of potassium, there are other vegetables that have more.
You can see a full list of the best plant-based sources of potassium, but let’s look at the top few. Here’s the amount of potassium in a 100 gram serving:
- Hemp seeds – 1200 mg
- Pistachio nuts – 1024 mg
- Pumpkin seeds – 919 mg
- Flaxseed – 811 mg
- Almonds – 733 mg
- Peanuts – 705 mg
- Dates – 696 mg
- Hazelnuts – 680 mg
You can see that most of the top potassium sources are nuts and seeds.
Tomato sauce would fall just a bit off this list.
Tomatoes Have a Relatively High Amount of Potassium Per Calorie
Even though nuts and seeds have more potassium than tomatoes by weight, they are also very high in calories.
Tomatoes have a nice balance between the amount of potassium per gram and per calories.
In terms of potassium per 100 calories:
- Spinach has 2432 mg
- Standard red tomatoes have about 1300 mg
Spinach is right at the top of the list, and tomatoes aren’t that far off.
Can You Get Too Much Potassium From Tomatoes?
In general, it’s difficult to get too much potassium to the point of it being unhealthy. There’s no published upper intake for the general public.
However, those without proper kidney function have trouble excreting excess potassium. For those people, too much potassium can lead to heart problems like heart attacks or an irregular heartbeat.
In theory, if someone was advised to limit potassium in their diet by their doctor, it may make sense to avoid or heavily limit tomato products like tomato sauce.
