Fruits
Banana
A green banana is mostly resistant starch; a ripe one is fast sugar. Choose the stage that matches what you want from it.
Banana vs potato: the potato has more potassium
Potassium brings bananas to mind, but per 100 g the potato carries 425 mg against the banana's 358 mg — and fewer calories with it.
Vegetables
Potato
Total potato intake showed no association with type 2 diabetes risk. Only fried potato did, at a hazard ratio of 1.12.
Banana — Leads on
- Fiber
- Vitamin B6
- Magnesium
Potato — Leads on
- Protein
- Vitamin C
- Potassium
Nutrition side by side
Per 100 g edible portion. Only rows where both have a figure are shown, and no winner is marked for items like calories or sugars where more is not better.
Basis for these figures
- Potato
- Per 100 g of raw potato, flesh and skin. A medium potato is about 170 g. Frying multiplies the calories three- to fourfold for the same weight.
| Nutrition | Banana | Potato |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 89 kcal | 77 kcal |
| Protein | 1.1 g | 2.05 g |
| Carbohydrates | 22.8 g | 17.5 g |
| Fiber | 2.6 g | 2.1 g |
| Vitamin C | 8.7 mg | 19.7 mg |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.37 mg | 0.298 mg |
| Magnesium | 27 mg | 23 mg |
| Potassium | 358 mg | 425 mg |
Bottom line
The banana's reputation as the potassium food is widespread, and the numbers do not support it. Per 100 g the potato has 425 mg against the banana's 358, about 19 percent more. At 77 kcal against 89, the gap widens further per calorie.
The reason bananas became the emblem is probably form rather than quantity. You peel one and eat it; you can carry it; it is the fruit people reach for after exercise. A potato has to be cooked, and how it is cooked changes the numbers a great deal.
That is the potato's catch. The 77 kcal in the table is raw, skin on. Fried, the same weight runs three to four times that. Potassium is water-soluble, so boiling leaches a good share of it into the water — baking or steaming in the skin protects the figure.
Vitamin C goes to the potato, 19.7 mg against 8.7 mg, more than double. Few people think of potatoes as a vitamin C food, yet they were among the foods that kept scurvy at bay in the age of sail. It is heat-sensitive, so cooking cuts it.
Sugar is the banana's row, 12.2 g, and the potato table does not have one. If you are watching blood glucose, that difference is real.
In short, if potassium is the goal, the potato is the better pick, though the cooking method decides most of the benefit. The banana's advantage lies in its form, not in the table.