Saturday, February 23, 2008

The truth about bananas


It was in the breakroom at the Emergency Department. The question of bananas had come up because a female patient in one of the behavioral (locked) rooms had requested a banana. So Sydney, the Emergency Tech, had gone down to the cafeteria and came back with two very ripe bananas.

That's when I raised the question, "Is it ever wrong to eat a banana?" My thinking being that bananas were close being a perfect good. But I 'm in health care now, in medicine, so we have to be scientific and test the null hypothesis. Maybe, sometimes, bananas could be bad for you.

Sydney brightened up with the answer, "Bananas have potassium, so if you're hyperkalemic, then bananas won't be good for you."

A good point, I said. That means that bananas are good to eat almost all the time.

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