Eating too much bananas can kill you

Question

This article by Eat This, Not That! states the dangers of eating too much bananas and mentions about potential overdose on bananas with its side effects. The article ends off by telling you to eat bananas in moderation. Does eating too much bananas raise your chances of death?

Comments

I will preface this comment by stating, yes in theory eating too many bananas can kill you. Now, the way that this was phrased is extremely misleading. It would take about 400 bananas consumed in one sitting to injest enough potassium to poison yourself. This means you would have to consume over 40,000 calories worth of bananas to get potassium poisoning. Another concern that you didn't address but is widely debated is that bananas contain some levels of radiation that could harm you. A banana contains about 0.1 microsieverts of radiation on average, which initially could be considered concering. However, a CT scan at a hospital contains about 100,000 times this amount, and it isn't considered dangerous.

Article: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34225517#:~:text=But%20for%20a%20healthy%20person,%2C%20very%20good%20for%20you.%22

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I like that you straight up say how eating too many bananas can be bad. overall yes, eating too much bananas can lead to an overdose if consumed over a specific amount in a day. For me personally, I believe bananas have a good benefit as the potassium it contains helps my health. Supporting your point though, eating too much banana can ultimately lead to a fatal incident such as beta-blockers. in this article by MedicalNewsToday https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/271157#risks, it does a good job on supporting the benefits and risks of eating too much banana more in depth.

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Interesting article but I think it just proves the common fact too much of anything can kill you cool find though

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I guess by definition eating too many bananas can kill due to the fact that eating too much anything can kill you so I'm thinking the only reason you said that is due to all the potassium that you could consume when having a lot of bananas but no I still don't think this is true because nobody is gonna consume hundreds of this fruit in a day for no reason

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as many has stated before me, is it the overuse of things that can cause harm or even kill you that truly is to stand the question. I mean everything in todays time according to so many accounts if overused can kill you, or consuming to much f something can kill you. While this was a very interesting topic and defiantly caught my eye in this.

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What evidence is gathered that suggests only over consumption of bananas can kill you and not other foods?

Answer 1

While it is true that bananas contain Tannic Acid, they don’t contain anywhere near enough to kill you. The LD 50 (lethal dose) of Tannic Acid is about 2.26g/Kg (for reference; oxalic acid found in Rhubarb is only 375 mg/kg)(Tannic Acid LD50)(Rhubarb LD50). The most amount a green banana will have is about 240 mg of Tannins when it's unripe. So a 150 lb human would have to consume roughly 640 unripe bananas to reach a level which could more than likely be considered fatal, (without considering the general problems consuming that much food would entail)(Banana Tannin Levels). So yes, the Tannic Acid in Bananas could kill you, but only if you eat a small town’s worth of em. This isn’t to say that the gastric problems that come with eating bananas aren’t real. Large amounts of Tannic Acid can indeed cause stomach irritation, nausea, and vomiting (Web MD). A person would only need to eat about 7.5 bananas before they reach their recommended potassium consumption for the whole day, with more than this putting you at risk of harboring too much potassium in your bloodstream which could lead to heart attacks, etc. (people with low kidney function being more at-risk)(BBC). However, this is still not a guarantee that anyone who eats more than this amount will certainly see these effects. Overall, the article does make good points in relation to the largely unknown compounds that Bananas foster (haha), but you don’t have to worry about certainly dying after eating a pack of Bananas as the article insinuates. Like literally everything else, Bananas should just be eaten in normal moderation. 

Answer 2

It is logical what was said about eating too many bananas being bad and how the article stated that it should be done in moderation. But this can apply to most foods and not just bananas. According to MD Andeson Cancer Center overeating any food can be bad for you and affect your sleep, weight, and your organs. Therefore, it is bad to eat too many bananas, but this applies to all fruit in general as well being that if you focus on one food group you aren’t getting enough nutrients from other foods according to WebMD

https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/What-happens-when-you-overeat.h23Z1592202.html

https://www.webmd.com/diet/how-much-fruit-is-too-much

Answer 3

This claim is silly because yes, eating too many bananas may cause physical harm, but this applies to every food and beverage. Drinking too much water can kill you, eating too many carrots can kill you, anything you consume has to be in moderation. This claim’s source of concern originated from a Planos Nutrition article about eating too many bananas. They then reference a study done at Makerere University about the levels of tannic acid in bananas and how too much of it is harmful to gut health. What seems to have happened here is that the writer saw these few studies on how too many bananas can harm your gut and went with it. According to Select Health, GutFit, and more health organizations, bananas are actually very good for your gut health. They are high in fiber, probiotics, prebiotics, and hold other nutritional aspects that benefit gut health. Even the amount that qualifies to be “too much” bananas would likely not be enough to kill a person. However it is also dependent on personal health issues, if someone has kidney issues or is taking certain medications, overly high amounts of potassium could be lethal, although rare. Overall it is extremely unlikely that one could eat enough bananas to kill them, unlikely enough to make the claim not true. Too many bananas making one sick on the other hand is more plausible. Putting the word “kill” in the claim is definitely dramatic and derails it. 

Sources:

-https://www.gutfithealth.com.au/blog/2021/10/26/bananas-and-gut-health

-https://selecthealth.org/blog/2018/09/4-foods-you-should-be-eating-for-good-gut-health

-https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/health/nutrition/health-benefits-bananas

Answer 4

With a quick look at the source identified in the original claim, we are able to see that eating too many bananas is about as high risk as consuming too much of any food. As stated in Eat This, Not That!, overconsumption in general can lead to bloating and constipation, which are the same symptoms for eating too many bananas. While it is possible to eat too many bananas, it is not a high risk and certainly is not likely to shorten your lifespan unless you have extreme health issues or go out of your way on a regular basis to eat bananas until you feel sick. 

https://www.eatthis.com/warning-sign-eating-too-many-bananas/

Answer 5

While reading this article, it becomes evident that consuming excessive amounts of bananas carries certain risks, including potentially severe consequences. However, the way this claim was presented was highly misleading. Overconsumption of almost any food can have negative effects, making it crucial to ensure that claims are both factually accurate and properly articulated.

Answer 6

It is true that eating too many bananas can kill you but you would need to eat around 400 bananas to die from them. This is according to BBC.com. The claim is misleading though suggesting that you could easily die from eating bananas even though it is very unlikely anyone would eat 400 of them.

Answer 7

Eating too many bananas isn’t likely to be dangerous for most people. While they’re high in potassium, which is important for heart and muscle function, a healthy body is usually good at managing potassium levels. Issues like hyperkalemia, where potassium gets too high, are more of a concern for people with kidney disease or those on certain medications. To actually reach harmful potassium levels just from bananas, you’d have to eat an unrealistic amount in a short period. Some estimates suggest it would take around 42 bananas in a day to cause problems, which is far more than anyone would normally eat. A single banana has about 450 mg of potassium, while the daily recommended amount is around 4,700 mg—so you’d need to eat over 10 just to meet your daily needs, let alone exceed safe levels. The more likely issue with eating too many bananas is digestive discomfort, bloating, or missing out on other important nutrients by eating them in excess. But there’s no real evidence that bananas alone increase the risk of death. As long as they’re part of a balanced diet, bananas are a healthy and safe food to enjoy in moderation.

Answer 8

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Comments

I like that you straight up say how eating too many bananas can be bad. overall yes, eating too much bananas can lead to an overdose if consumed over a specific amount in a day. For me personally, I believe bananas have a good benefit as the potassium it contains helps my health. Supporting your point though, eating too much banana can ultimately lead to a fatal incident such as beta-blockers. in this article by MedicalNewsToday https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/271157#risks, it does a good job on supporting the benefits and risks of eating too much banana more in depth.

Answer 9

Though this claim is objectively true (you can die by bananas though it is near impossible) (BBC), it’s a misleading title that has little to do with the contents of the article itself. In fact, though it discusses the negative side effects of eating too many bananas, the article never mentions death by bananas at all. Though the information that the website does provide seems generally reliable, it is also framed in an attention grabbing way and the website itself is far from professional looking, and most of their articles have similarly attention-grabbing headlines that don’t accurately reflect the articles content. To verify the claim itself I started with a general Google search that led to the BBC and American Heart Association. The BBC explains that it would take around 400 bananas to kill you, and it would be the potassium that would ultimately cause the issue. American Heart Association also warns against potential negative health effects of eating too many bananas but doesn’t mention that death or serious harm are at all a risk. Overall the original claim is misleading as dying by bananas would be nearly impossible, and the article itself doesn’t even discuss death at all. 

BBC source: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34225517#:~:text=But%20for%20a%20healthy%20person,%2C%20very%20good%20for%20you.%22 
American Heart Association source: https://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/04/20/dont-go-bananas-but-maybe-eat-one

Answer 10

This person claims that eating too many bananas could kill you. They refer to https://www.eatthis.com/warning-sign-eating-too-many-bananas/, a website that provides the possible side effects of consuming bananas in obscene amounts. While the source explains why bananas can cause digestive issues and possibly worsen existing ones, it in no way implies that bananas are a death sentence. On https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34225517, Catherine Collins, a dietitian at St George's Hospital in London states that "...for a healthy person, "it would be impossible to overdose on bananas.""  The website https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/nutrition/can-bananas-kill-you/ agrees that the average person is simply not capable of consuming the amount of bananas that would be necessary to kill a human. All of this being considered, it is not true that bananas are a killer unless you have a dying need to consume every banana you have ever seen all at once.