8 Foods You Didn't Know Were Radioactive

8 Foods You Didn't Know Were Radioactive

[T]he average person's exposure to radioactive isotopes in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island disaster -- within a 10 mile radius from the site -- was 8 millirems, a little less than the average chest X-ray. If you ate a banana every day for a year, your exposure to radioactive potassium-40 would be about 3.6 millirems. So the banana equivalent dose (BED) for the average Three Mile Island survivor was 2.22 BED. Taking circumstances into consideration, that would be the equivalent of eating 810 bananas in one day. (No, this is not a suggested hazing ritual, college kids.)

The fact of the matter is that naturally present radiation is everywhere, even in our own bodies. The average human is comprised, at least in part, of radionuclides like carbon-14 and uranium. So any fuss over foods that contain naturally occurring levels of radiation is just silly. But that doesn't mean it isn't interesting. Below are eight foods that are radioactive.

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