Do you eat pistachios or bananas? If so you're eating radioactive material! Apparently potassium is naturally radioactive so anything you eat that has potassium in it is a source of radiation.

Potassium is necessary for being healthy - so I definitely recommend getting your daily potassium each day. It's just fun to think that we're all radioactive beings!

youre right there lisa and you never see a weak gorilla now do you lol. got to put some bananas on my shopping list.

Maybe we will all start glowing with an inner beauty.

Potassium is very helpful in preventing leg cramps. I always know when my potassium is low because I will start getting leg cramps. I try to eat at least two bananas a week.

Does taking potassium supplement on a daily basis help? Or, is that too much?

About 0.012% if the potassium in our food is radioactive. But all of our food is going to be radioactive anyhow, because it contains carbon and some carbon is radioactive.

Mona thanks for the feedback on levels of radioactivity.

Phyllis a friend mentioned to me today that postassium deficiency can result in cramps and that bananas in particular could be helpful.

Bananas are great for potassium reasons but are high in natural sugars. Here's the page on bananas -

http://www.bellaonline.com/nutrition/detail.asp?id=9040&qty=5

So tons of natural sugar and starch in there.

I recommend pistachios instead -

http://www.bellaonline.com/nutrition/detail.asp?id=12151&qty=2

Also spinach and prune juice!

I wonder if I eat enough pistachios if I'd glow at night

Bananas have 14g sugar - that is a lot! I will have to try the pistachios. I love spinach so will have no problem eating that. Prune juice I can do without.

If we start glowing, we can cut down on our electricity bills. We can read by potassium in bed at night.

LOL I was actually thinking about the "reading at night" idea too!

Prune juice can be tasty if it's done right!

Do you make your own prune juice?

Dear Phyllis -

No, but after my septum surgery I had to drink a lot of it so I tried a variety of brands

Reading by our potassium levals would be great but would make it hard to sleep.

Lisa this made me look up "septum" because I had not heard the word before and I found there are several different septums. Should you feel inclined (and would be fine if you don't) it would be interesting to know which septum your surgery was for.

I admire you for starting on prune juice - I've never enjoyed prunes (maybe the wrinklyness of them - and think I would find prune juice a struggle. Which brand did you like best?

Thanks for the info. on bananas, pistachios and spinach (no problem eating those!)

Dear Lynne -

we'd have to wear eye shades I think! Unless our eyeballs themselves were glowing ...

Dear Asha -

I wrote up the whole experience, it was quite exciting!

http://www.lisashea.com/lisabase/biology/deviatedseptum/

I'll have to find my prune juice notes If you hate prunes, do you hate plums and raisins?

Bananas have more sugar, but the pistachios have fat which per gram has about 4 times more calories than sugar.

I see that gram for gram the pistachios are almost three times as high in potassium than bananas. So you could eat about a third as much to get the same amount. That would still give you double the calories of the banana.

Unless there is some specific reason for reducing sugars, swapping the nuts for the fruit doesn't seem to be an advantage.

PS These nutrition pages are absolutely fantastic. I hadn't got around to looking at them before.

Dear Mona -

I'm glad you're enjoying the pages!

Sugar rots your teeth and gives you blood sugar swings. In comparison the fats in pistachios are healthy fats which help your cholesterol levels -

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/pf-add060707.php

"... previous studies which have also demonstrated no weight gain from the addition of pistachios to a daily diet."

It's important to get healthy fats into your diet every day!

It's never important to get sugars into your diet Definitely you want to get healthy *carbs* into your diet - like fiber and broccoli and such - but that doesn't involve sugar.

I have this vivid image of all of us shining with glowing light as we hop around the forums -- kind of like watching a game where all these little lights are zipping here and there, leaving a trail of light behind. How delightful!

Dear Phyllis -

I do feel we all glow with an inner light, and maybe it's being fueled by Potassium! I wish I could leave a light trail!

That is interesting. It made me think about something I learned a very long time ago. I started school to become a Naturopathic Physician. One of the courses was herbs. The textbook listed an herb I hadn't heard of before and stated it was naturally radioactive. Does anyone have any idea what this might of been?

Wow that is cool I'll take a look for it!

Shoot I made a whole post about this! Where did it go???

Basil is a herb that easily draws up whatever is in the soil. So if basil is in a soil that contains mercury for example, the basil will then have mercury in it.

But first off, how much basil do you really eat? Tiny amounts. If you're going to worry about a food item drawing up minerals into it, you'd worry more about wheat and rice which you eat in quantity. Not in tiny basil.

And overall the quantities we're talking about are really small.

So - do they make bananas in smaller sizes, like a two-bite size? How about red bananas? I really like them and they are smaller. They have to be completely ripe before eating, though, because they are bitter if not ripe.

I eat very little basil.

Bananas do come in all sizes - keep in mind the smaller the banana usually the less potassium you are ingesting

I had a batch of pistachios yesterday and told Bob I was renewing my radiation levels I want to keep a healthy glow!

I admit I've been feeling hesitant to joke about my pistachios and radiation after the Japanese situation. It no longer seems quite as cute. Hopefully they'll get things settled over there.