How many bananas a day is too many?

I eat a lottttt of bananas.  A medium sized banana has 422g potassium  -- how many grams of potassium a day is dangerous?

 

I'm a 17 yr old female.

How many bananas is a lot? 2? 4? 50? There are calculators you can find online that tell you the individual breakdown of your nutritional needs. I would recommend finding that and then figuring out how many bananas will fit in there!

I'm the same- I eat at least two bananas a day! Usually frozen and in a smoothie, mind; but they're still amazing. :] I looked up "potassium" on wikipedia and got this from it:

"The 2004 guidelines of the Institute of Medicine specify a DRI of 4,000mg of potassium, though most Americans consume only half that amount per day."

Hope that helps?

LINK

Alysha,

I don't think it is possible to eat too many bananas a day. I highly doubt you could OD on potassium from a natural food, unless you are on dialysis, but you would have already been told to stay away from food like that.

I eat between 2-4 bananas every day. Some people might say it's too much sugar, but it has got to be better than 2-4 snicker bars! BTW, I am a 42 year old, 160 pound male.

Hope this helps,

Brad

I can not say how many bananas for you  would be too many for you to eat in one day. For me I can not have more then one medium/large banana a day because of the potassium levels but it isn't the only food that I have to watch the amount I consume. I do not have kidney problems but with the medication I take for other health issues I could at any point.

 

I hope this link will help answer some of your questions:   http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC4069.h tm

Anything > 0 is too much banana for me, but that's because the sugar in them is mean to me.

You can OD on potassium, but it takes an awful lot.  Like, drinking gallons of OJ in a day would do it.  A bunch of bananas every day probably isn't going to kill you.  But I do have to put in the disclaimer that I'm not a doctor, so what the heck do I know?

I don't think bananas will kill you! Bananas apparently also trigger the 'happy' feeling in your brain, and while they are more calorific than some fruits they're a really good pre/post-exercise boost.

However, I think they only count as one piece of fruit no matter how many bananas you have. If you eat five bananas a day, it's not reaching your five-a-day, you have to eat other fruit like apples, peaches, kiwis...and veggies..thats what i heard anyways...

While we're on the topic of 'too much', is tuna really that bad? I heard that too much tuna can lead to mercury poisoning...not that i eat loads of tuna...

r2r2-  If you eat 5 bananas it does not only count as 1 piece of fruit. It doesn't matter if you eat 5 of the same type of fruit, each piece is still "a serving" of fruit. 

It is, however, recommended that you get your 5-9 servings of fruits and veges from a variety of fresh and/or frozen sources if possible! Eating a variety of healthy foods with many colors helps to ensure you are getting adequate nutrients to meet your RDI's...

To answer the question as to whether or not you can OD on bananas, I think it would be very difficult... It is highly unlikely that you will reach toxicity levels for potassium by eating too many bananas. The only time you would have to worry about that is if you had advanced kidney disease of were on certain heart related prescription drugs.

Hope this helps...