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In your estimation, what is the optimal number of bananas per day for a sedentary adult male human?
(slrpnk.net)
To eat, I mean. Just curious what people here think.
this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
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Do you really trust the medical industry's information on banana-based nutrition? Excess potassium is easily excreted, and IIRC, potassium overdose can only happen when an extremely large amount is consumed "all at once" (in other words, over a very short time). The dangerous dose of potassium must be expressed not in bananas per day but rather in bananas per second, and (again, IIRC) that dose is approximately 33 bananas per second.
6 bananas per day? If more than that were dangerous, Freelee's kidneys would have given out a LONG time ago.
Good point. I'm sure the recommended daily value is just the minimum after all. I did genuinely think that potassium was more dangerous than other vitamins because it isn't water soluble and therefore had a harder time getting excreted as you point out. And I've bought potassium supplements at the pharmacy before where the pharmacists told me to be careful, so it's the one thing I've tried to be extra cautious about.
Yes, I think that the optimal intake of potassium is much higher than the recommendations and that those numbers are more of a minimum to prevent deficiency symptoms. You really don't need to worry about consuming too much of any nutrient from fruit, unless you binge on high-fat fruits or fruits of questionable edibility. Potassium in a supplement may be dangerous, but the potassium in fruit is easily absorbed and utilised by the body, and any excess is easily dissolved and excreted. Potassium is an alkali element, and these are known for forming ionic compounds with very high solubility in water. Of course, pure elemental potassium will combust if it comes in contact with water, so you shouldn't eat that, and as another commenter pointed out, a very small amount of the potassium in bananas tends to be radioactive, so you shouldn't eat more than a few million bananas per day...
Haha, that was never a concern to begin with. It's a fun fact though.