Can too many bananas kill you?

One of the food myths that comes up from time to time is that you could die if you eat more than six bananas at once. While of course it's not healthy to overdo anything, this myth is false.

Bananas are very healthy, they are full of vitamins and minerals, especially potassium, which is essential for our life and can be found in every cell of our body. The body uses it to conduct electrical impulses through the cells, potassium plays a role in the release of insulin, which regulates the level of sugar in the body, and most importantly, it helps maintain the blood pressure level.

However, if the level of potassium in the body is too low or too high, irregular heartbeat, stomach and digestive problems, diarrhea and nausea can occur. Potassium chloride is even one of the chemicals that Americans use in lethal injections given to death row inmates, because very high doses of potassium cause heart attacks.

Still, six or more bananas can't kill you. You would have to eat more than 400 of them a day to create a level of potassium that can kill.

Adults should consume 3500 milligrams of potassium per day. The average banana contains about 450 milligrams, which means that you can eat more than seven pieces to get the recommended dose of potassium in your body.