Found a great little article today online that talked about bananas, titled nutrient-rich bananas and thought I would mention a few bright ideas about bananas. Bananas are a staple of of a nutrient-rich diet, in moderation. I rarely say “moderation” in the nutrient-rich lexicon because it’s really an economic and distribution principle, less a nutrition principle as it only applies to healthy food really.
Why would you want to eat nutrient poor or nutrient barren food in “moderation”?
Anyway, bananas are tropical food and secretly, require you to be active as they are a very high glycemic index food that gives you a great deal of nutrient-rich sugar. As healthy as they are, you don’t want to be eating 30 bananas a day. I’ve seen people do it (some pretty smart people too) and it can get pretty uncomfortable. It’s also just unnecessary.
Bananas are sweet, being rich in carbohydrates (mostly the sugars glucose and fructose), as well as in folic acid, vitamins B6, and C, and pectin.
Bananas is a good source of potassium having 100-200 mg.
They also contain an enzyme that aids in the production of sex hormones. Banana are a good source of energy in the form of non structural carbohydrate, but low in fat, they are an excellent food for pregnant mothers, babies and children.
Bananas are one of the first non-breast foods given to babies due to their consistency, ease of digestion, sweetness , non-allergenic properties and high nutrient content, and the kids love em!
The carbohydrate content on the edible of fresh bananas is about 20 percent. During the ripening period the starch is converted into sugar, though in the cultivars known as plantains this process does not take place.
Because of its high starch content, banana fruit is a major source of dietary carbohydrate uptake.
Banana fruit has been extensively used in folk medicine and is reported to exert a cholesterol-lowering effect as well as to decrease the risk of colorectal cancer.
Nutrient-rich bananas, are great for smoothies as a base and add a great deal of creaminess.
They need to be eaten in moderation, particularly if you have high triglycerides. They don’t raise triglycerides per say but if you are eating too much sugar they will.
More about bananas:
Not only are they a top selling fruit in the US, they have no fat, cholesterol, or sodium and a good source of countless phytochemicals, vitamin C and B6, potassium (as most people know) and dietary fiber. These fruits are extremely versatile and be be eaten raw and cooked, although raw is probably better.
The most widely available banana is the Cavendish and probably the most familiar to North American consumers and are available all year round.
Quick tip:
If you want bananas to ripen faster (given many bananas at tradition grocery stores are literally green these day because of picking and shipping cycles and the fact that stores do not want to buy already ripe bananas and deal with spoilage) bring them home and put them in a brown paper bag and push them aside for a few days on the kitchen counter. Even faster, put an apple in with them. They will ripen fast!
Of course, once they are ripe (hopefully you’ve purchased enough), but a bunch in the freezer (plastic Tupperware) next to the ground flax seed you are storing (should always be in the freezer), and you’ll have them ready for smoothies and Nutrient Rich Ice cream.
They taste better when they are ripe as the starch turns to sugar (not true of plantains).
More on bananas soon.