How many bananas can you eat before you die?

I remember, years ago, hearing that if you eat enough bananas, you will die of a potassium overdose.

I also remember thinking that if you ate enough of anything, you’d die of an anything overdose.

Lasagne overdose is how I'd like to go

So, how many bananas can you eat before you die? Well, according to this Discovery Channel forum, the average banana gives you about 350mg of potassium. Your average RDA of potassium is about 4,000-4,500mg, so one banana is about 8% of that.

So about 12 bananas and you’ve hit your RDA of potassium. So if you eat around 20 bananas, you’re probably in danger of arrythmias – your heart getting fucked up.

Fun times at the grocery shop? Or a cry for help?

But Discovery Forum member z0g0j0 says otherwise:

Yea, but one of my friends was in his gap year and didn’t have much money – he had lost his wallet, so he cancelled his credit card and lost something like £50.

He couldn’t take any money out, so for 3 days, or so, before he got his new card he only had £10, (the money he had in his pocket) for food. he bought loads of bananas, because they were going off and didn’t cost much.

So all he had to eat for 3 days was bananas, and he ate loads of them. But he is not dead.

(this was about 10 years ago)

You can’t argue with the facts. He ate loads of bananas and he is not dead.