. How can the potassium in bananas not kill us as it’s one of most reactive elements in the periodic table?
In: Chemistry
Pure Potassium being reactive means that it wants to violently bond with some other element. That’s what makes it dangerous, but the potassium in bananas is in a molecule meaning that it’s already reacted with something. That’s what makes it safe.
This is the same reason that the chlorine in tablet salt doesn’t kill you.
Fun fact, the Potassium in bananas also makes them slightly radioactive but you should keep eating them anyway. You get 10 times more radiation from sitting in front of an old school monitor than you do from a banana. It’s perfectly safe.
Because bananas are measurably radioactive physicists often joke about a BED – Banana Equivilent Dose. IE how many bananas would you have to eat to get as much radiation as a chest X-ray? 10,000
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