My son asked the other day, aren't bananas radioactive? Yes, but...
Here's an article to look at. I would copy and paste it but it has a chart that doesn't copy well.
From the article...
Is Radioactive Food Dangerous?
All foods naturally high in potassium contain some potassium-40 isotope. It’s just a fact of life and not a cause for concern. People, plants, and animals are all very slightly radioactive from the potassium in their cells. Cells contain repair mechanisms to counteract ordinary exposure to radiation.
Foods that are radioactive from radium or radon could pose more of a risk because ingesting these isotopes exposes the mouth, esophagus, stomach, and intestines to alpha particles. But, these radioisotopes only occur naturally in trace amounts in food. Again, they aren’t cause for concern.
Food and water made radioactive due to man-made contamination may be unsafe to eat or drink. Examples include crops, livestock, and water exposed to fall-out from a nuclear test or reactor accident. Some radioisotopes persist for years. For example, the half-lives of tritium, cesium-137, and strontium-90 are 12.3 years, 30 years, and 29 years, respectively. The half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years.
Posts
19 comments:
Another interesting post!
Echoing Cloudia. And thankful that the radioisotopes in my food are the natural variety. To the best of my knowledge.
Cloudia - There's going to be a test tomorrow. Study carefully.
Sue - No more brazil nuts and everything will be OK.
Beer is radioactive? That may explain the behavior of a lot of people.
Bananas, beer, peanut butter -- must be the source of my glowing personality!
So THAT'S why I glow in the dark!
Since (as far as I'm aware) the food I consume hasn't been exposed to man-made radiation I'm not going to lose sleep over the rest of it.
I could glow soon, I eat a lot of these and I drink 2litres of water a day at a minimum. Oh oh.
Bill - I think it would only be the beginning of the explanation.
John - Do them all! Let's see how bright we can get you!
Deb - I just saw an article that people do glow in the dark a little bit. Now I may have to try and find it again... or not.
Kathy - Have you checked in your refrigerator recently for strange containers? Hmmmmm?
Peg - Don't you just have a natural glow. See if Rick has noticed it. Or maybe not.
Just a handful a brazil nuts a month will lower bad cholesterol so they are a keeper in small quantities.
Lady - Sounds like a good trade off.
Aren't mushrooms also radioactive? Or is that just when they're clouds?
Kirk - I found the following...
"Edible mushrooms can mop up radioactive pollution because one of their pigments captures elements such as cesium, say chemists in France. ... Fungi such as the bay boletus accumulate cesium-137, along with other toxic metals such as lead and mercury. Caesium-137 has no known natural sources."
"As a result of the Chernobyl reactor accident, certain species of mushrooms and wild game are still highly contaminated with cesium-137 in some areas of Germany."
Four of my favourite foods are there, but I've made it this far so I won't be giving them up. Well, maybe bananas, since the cold storage ones sold in supermarkets are so awful.
River - We picked up some green bananas that were so green and hard you could hammer nails with them. We put them in a plastic bag and let them sit for a week and we could finally eat them.
I've been eating quite a few of these throughout my life, so at my age, I should be glowing somewhat! I'll have to test this. LOL
Martha - Next time someone tells you, "You're just glowing", respond with, "I know, it's the Brazil nuts".
Given that List, I should be glowing like a Deep Sea Creature!
Dawn - You just might be!
Post a Comment