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 areless than200 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 withsome 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 dressingbuy low sodium commercially prepared dressing. Better yet,homemade salad dressings are easy to make, inexpensive and contain no additives. Tryone of these DaVita.com salad dressing recipes:
Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing
Additional Kidney Diet Resources
Visit DaVita.com and explore these diet and nutrition resources:
DaVita Kidney-Friendly Recipes
This article is for informational purposes only andis not a substitute for medical advice or treatment. Consult your physician anddietitian regarding your specific diagnosis, treatment, diet and healthquestions.
