. How can the potassium in bananas not kill us as it’s one of most reactive elements in the periodic table?
In: Chemistry
The same reason why the sodium in table salt (Na, sodium + Cl, chlorine, sodium chloride) does not explode on contact with water, or in your mouth, and the chlorine does not poison you. Both these things have properties of their own when separate, but when they undergo chemical reactions and form compounds, they gain new properties that are separate from their properties as individual elements.
The potassium (K) found in bananas exists as a compound, likely some form of a salt, such as KCl. Most of the elemental minerals that people refer to in food exist in compounds that your body breaks down in metabolic reactions. I’m not qualified to talk about any of the processes beyond that as that delves into organic/bio chemistry and nutrion, and I’m a Civil Engineer.
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