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From:	Janey (74.111.46.131)
Subject:	So Doing BANANA ISLAND is a bad idea because of all the potassium??
Date:	April 30, 2012 at 3:40 am PST

I am posting below an email that came to me that Roger Haeske wrote about the "Dangers" of eating Banana Island - only bananas for a while because of the Potassium/Sodium balance. I'd like honest answers on this. Many people have actually resolved problems by Mono dieting on bananas for several days to a few weeks. This type of thing scares people. Some people cannot digest so much greens either til they free up their digestive systems a bit too. Dr D or anyone that really understands, please weigh in on your thoughts. Thank you.

Here is his thoughts on why banana Island is so bad:

_________ From Roger:
Have you heard of a banana island?

It's something rather popular these days in the low fat raw food
world. People seem to do it to balance themselves out and purify
their bodies.

What you do is pretend you're on a tropical island and the only
food available to you is bananas. It's sort of like doing a fast on
bananas only.

But is doing a banana island a good idea?

Is it even safe?

And I'd have to say it's NOT a good idea and it's NOT safe.

Personally, I can't stand just eating a day of fruit only. I
quickly get "fruited" out if I don't eat a heavy dose of greens
throughout the day.

But below let me give you a real concrete reason why doing banana
islands can jeopardize your health and make you crave cooked food
like crazy.

It's very simple as to why.

Bananas have a HORRIBLE potassium to sodium ratio. It's 358 to 1.

In my average raw food diet on a typical day I rarely get beyond a
15 to 1 potassium to sodium ratio. I recommend you shoot for 15 to
1 or lower yourself.

You can easily determine this by entering all of the foods you eat
in a day into a free site like fitday.com.

Then you just divide your total potassium intake by your sodium
intake and you'll have your ratio.

On 9/29/11 (last year) I had a 11.75 ratio in my fitday account. It
was the most recent day which I tracked a full day of eating.
Another time I had around a 13 to 1 ratio for the entire day.

I strongly suggest you don't let it get worse than 15 to 1 ratio
otherwise you're going to start feeling unbalanced and this could
lead to putting you in the hospital.

Symptoms of Too Much Potassium: Hyperkalemia

Heart palpitations
Irregular heartbeat
Sudden muscle weakness
Unexplained fatigue

So imagine how unbalanced your going to feel if your only eating
bananas for a week or longer. This will rapidly throw off your
electrolyte balance and make you feel like crap.

Ok, then take a look at the chart below to get some more insight
into what I'm talking about.

* Chart of Potassium to Sodium Ratios Assorted Raw Foods *
NOTE: Goes from highest or worst to lowest ratio

1. Bananas: 358 to 1 ratio
2. Apples: 107 to 1 ratio
3. Cucumber Peeled: 68 to 1 ratio
4. Avocado (California): 63.4 to 1 ratio
5. Tomato: 47.4 to 1 ratio
6. Cantaloupe: 16.7 to 1 ratio
7. Honeydew Melon: 12.7 to 1 ratio
8. Spinach: 7.1 to 1 ratio
9. Celery: 3.25 to 1 ratio

This ratio is for my favorite breakfast and lunch meal:
Roger's Blueberry, Cherry Chunk Green Smoothie: 13.1 ratio

As you can see from a purely potassium to sodium ratio basis; a
honeydew melon would be the best fruit to eat if you wanted ease
your digestion and eat only one fruit for a few days.

And in terms of total nutrient intake it seems that cantaloupes are
the highest fruit I've found yet. Honeydew is pretty high as well.

So if you're thinking about doing a banana island I'd think twice.
And while bananas are my staple because they're calorie rich and
taste great in smoothies.

I'd never just eat bananas alone for days on end.

I balance out the excess potassium from my bananas by having a my
typical banana, blueberry and cherry chunk smoothie by adding at
least 3 large stalks of celery to it.

And of course, by devouring 2 or 3 large Savory Veggie Stews for
dinner.

I remember long ago reading that the potassium to sodium ratio
should be only 2 to 1. But that comes from nutritionists on a
cooked food diet... a diet which is low in potassium and incredibly
high in sodium.

Even celery, the absolute highest raw food in terms of sodium to
potassium ratio has a 3.25 to 1 ratio. So how could it be natural
to have a two to 1 ratio since virtually all raw plants foods much
higher ratios?

What I'm trying to say is don't worry about trying to make a 2 to 1
ratio. I believe it's way off the mark.

Even a 5 to 1 ratio would be next to impossible to achieve on a
whole food raw vegan diet that actually supplied enough calories.

You'll never have a potassium shortage on a raw vegan diet. But you
can easily have a lack of sodium if you don't eat enough sodium
rich foods like celery, spinach, other greens and some melons.

Eating my two or three Savory Veggie Stews in the evening makes me
feel balanced out (many people get fruited out precisely for this
reason) because I'm getting all of the organic sodium and other
minerals I need to balance out my potassium to sodium ratio.

Of course there are other ratios to balance out as well. But that's
for another time.

I hope you found this information helpful. Please feel free to
forward it to your friends.

To Your Radiant Health, Happiness, Fitness and Infinite Power,

Roger Haeske
The 44-Year Old Teanajer

P.S. The best way to have balanced potassium and sodium levels is
to eat a HIGH quantity of mineral and specifically "organic" sodium
rich, green vegetables.

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