SHORT FACT / RADIOACTIVE FOOD / BANANAS
Did You Know…All Bananas We Eat Are Radioactive!
Is it dangerous for our health?
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Have you ever thought of your morning banana as a tiny radioactive snack?
Well, I bet you will start looking at your favorite fruit differently after this article.
Bananas are rich in potassium, and one of their natural isotopes (variant) is potassium -40 which is radioactive. This means that it releases radiation over time after you eat it.
“A lorry full of bananas is radioactive enough to trigger a false alarm on a radiation detector looking for smuggled nuclear weapons”¹.
Does it mean that we could turn into some sort of green angry Hulk if we ate too many? Can we become radioactive by eating bananas?
Well, the answer is that we are already radioactive!
An average adult contains around 140g of potassium and consequently, 16mg of potassium -40. This makes us 280 times more radioactive than a banana.
So eating a single banana will increase our level of radiation of only 0.4% which our metabolism will absorb within a few hours.
We would need to eat millions of bananas in about 15 or 20 minutes to experience any harmful effects.
So, even though the fact that they are radioactive may make them sound a bit scary, they are completely safe.
Next time you enjoy a banana, you can impress your friends with this fun fact and have a laugh!
🤗 Thank you for reading! 🤗
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Reference:
[1]: Luis Villazon. BBC, Science Focus. How many bananas would I need to eat to become radioactive? https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/how-many-bananas-would-i-need-to-eat-to-become-radioactive
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