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Radioactive Bananas

I was studying Nutrition the other day. Most of us doctors have something close to 4 hours Max of training on nutrition during our Medschool training.
So I told my myself:

Hey, wouldn't it be nice if I study it a little more to help people like really help.

When I came across this program were a panel of doctors invited a couple of Vegans. Then go onto, kind of mocking their eating style by treating it as EXTREME.

They eat 10-20 Bananas a day. Yeah, is a lot of bananas.

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Here's the video:

Go Bananas to Lose Weight?

"The Doctors weigh in on a new fad diet that calls for you to eat a whole bunch of bananas."
http://www.thedoctorstv.com/videos/go-bananas-to-lose-weight

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Here's a video response from the couple. As they had not much speech during the program.

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I couldn't 100% agree with the doctors. For a couple of reasons:

1. It is estimated that <3% of the population has the recommended minimum potassium daily intake (4700 mg/day ), however vegan diets are considered to have about 8,000-10,000mg
   Having a <1.0 Na: K index is a protective cardiovascular factor. Taking into account a habitual intake of > 2300g of sodium in 98% of the population would be good to increase potassium intake for most people. In the UK's National Health Service and WHO, they recommend a minimum 3,500mg day of K+. [1]

2. The radioactive banana! As potassium has a high half-life and the three types of radioactive decay (Alpha, beta and gamma).
   Is the main source of radiation in animals. In 1995, the BED (Banana Equivalent Dose) 1microsievert [2] was established as a protocol. The banana was used as an example because it was easy to calculate by the weight 150g and potassium content 450mg/K of the banana to obtain a "round" number. Since then there is a ridiculous fear fo bananas.

1. Radioactive potassium is 0.01% of terrestrial isotopes. 200 bananas are approximately 0.1mSv, equivalent to a single chest x-ray. It will require 20,000 bananas or 10bananas / day x 10 years to reach the radiation of a simple abdominal CT scan. The annual ambient radiation is already close to 2.5mSv, even if they do not eat bananas.

2. Reports of hyperkalemia in patients with an intact potassium-sparing gastro-renal axis have been...only one! in 2007 for anorexia nervosa, with daily exclusive intakes of >20 bananas for 2 years. [3] (The girl really liked the banana * wink *) Before starting a Vegan Diet is important to check your doctor for basic assessment.

3. Coffee or potatoes with peel contain more potassium per gram. [4] In fact there are reports of patients on dialysis with secondary infractions to high intakes of tomatoes and beans. In general, any pathology that predisposes to hydro-electrolytic disorders, including early childhood and extreme old age, benefit from low potassium intake, ergo, and little to eat at all.

4. There is also the black legend of calories, but not all calories can be accumulated because other wise you would a small chunk of carbon and there you go, set for the day. Let's also pay attention to...
   The high glycemic index of bananas because 220g of bananas (High glycemic index)have 4g of protein and 200 calories Mostly due to the carbohydrates, but half of it is dietary fiber.

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Don't get me wrong. Sometimes Vegans and other people that pay close attention to their diets take cringy decisions that endanger their health. Nonetheless, if as a doctor one knows less than it's patient (it happens more than you might want to know when it comes to risks) that is a huge problem.

So if your kidney and GI are ok. GO BANANAS!

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References:

[1] http://jn.nutrition.org/content/146/4/745.full.pdf+html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose
[3] Tazoe M1, Narita M, Sakuta R, Nagai T, Narita N. Hyperkalemia and hyperdopaminemia induced by an obsessive eating of banana in an adolescent anorexia nervosa. Brain Dev. 2007 Jul; 29 (6): 369-72. Epub 2006 Dec 27.
[4] http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/.../.../foodfacts/html/data/data5b.html

Images Pixabay.