Can eating Too Many bananas simultaneously kill you?

Dear Readers, It’s sometimes stated that eating plenty of bananas concurrently may be dangerous – it’s also been recommended that eating far more than six in a single sitting could kill you. Can this really be true?

Bananas are one of many world’s hottest fruits, stuffed with vitamins and minerals. On the face area of it, they are great for you, why so many people think they are often fatal?

One well-known figure who has spread this idea around is Karl Pilkington, the grumpy friend of comedian Ricky Gervais.

“It is really a fact. Potassium levels are dangerously high when you yourself have six bananas… I saw a dish of bananas. There are six bananas there. You realize why there’s only six? Seven could be dangerous.”

Can eating Too Many bananas kill you?

So just how dangerous is potassium? Actually, it is a must for survival and is available “within each cell of the human body,” says Catherine Collins, a dietitian at St George’s Hospital in London.

“We utilize it to greatly help generate an electric charge which supports the cell function properly. It assists in maintaining your heart rate steady, it will help trigger insulin release from the pancreas to greatly help control blood sugars, and moreover keeps blood pressure in check.”

Irregular Heartbeat

On another hand, if the degree of potassium within the body is too low or excessive it can lead to an irregular heartbeat, stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea. Potassium chloride is actually one of several chemicals found in life lethal injections in the US, as high amounts might cause cardiac arrest.

However for a healthier person, “it could be impossible to overdose on bananas,” says Collins. “You’d possibly require about 400 bananas daily to produce the kind of potassium levels that can cause your heart to prevent beating… Bananas aren’t dangerous – and actually, they’re, and always have already been, excellent for you.”

Recommended For Adults

Adults should consume about 3,500mg of potassium daily, based on the UK’s National Health Service. The common banana, evaluating 125g, includes 450mg of potassium, indicating a wholesome individual may consume at the smallest amount of seven-and-half bananas before achieving the recommended level.

There are a few individuals who should stay away from foods which are saturated in potassium though, warns Collins – individuals with kidney disease.

“These individuals have a surprisingly low kidney function that may potentially visit a build-up of harmful potassium levels inside their bloodstream since they can’t eliminate the mineral if they pass urine,” she says. “So the theory is that it’s feasible for someone with kidney disease to die of a higher blood potassium level should they decided to eat several different food types full of the mineral.”

She once had an individual on dialysis who’d a coronary arrest after eating a lot of tomatoes – another fruit full of potassium. His kidneys had already stopped working so he was struggling to eliminate the excess.

Banana Is Radiation

One more thing that might cause some to be concerned about bananas is radiation.

Like many other fruits, bananas naturally contain some radioactive isotopes inside it – enough for the US-based believe reservoir, Nuclear Threat Effort, to warn that they may trigger detectors used at US ports to find smuggled nuclear material.

An average banana contains 0.1 microsieverts of radiation. To place that in context, an average CT scan in a hospital exposes humans to between 10 and 15 millisieverts – about 100,000 times more.

“The quantities of radioactivity are negligible,” says Collins. “Bananas aren’t as radioactive as Brazil nuts and they’re safe to consume in moderation.”

Before consuming more bananas take your doctor’s advice. If you know more about bananas do let me know in the below comment box.