You might have heard that bananas are a healthy fruit. But how well do you really know them? Here are 5 facts you may not know that might just surprise you.
If you often eat bananas with the skin on them, you may have grown up eating them too.
Source: Running with Spoons
Then you reached adulthood, and one day you saw yourself with a banana in your hand. You thought to yourself: “I can surely have something sweet and delicious with this.” This opened up a whole new world of possibilities.
Or maybe they were just second on your list, but you couldn’t pick just one between all the options available. You must have at least tried them all.
A banana is not a perfect food. It has a bad reputation among some because it is very high in calories and has no fibre.
However, many other fruits and vegetables also have fibre, and that’s even more important for a healthy diet. Fibre helps you to feel full and satiated.
A single banana has about 7 calories, so it’s not known to have much fat or salt. So you can eat lots of bananas on a regular basis without much danger of gaining weight.
Another myth says you can only eat one banana a day. However, other more popular myths say you get off eating one banana, but only if it’s a really ripe banana.
Either way, not eating any means you’re giving up on taking the banana to its peak. But you can make it only one day a week, another easy way.
About Bananas
Your body craves fresh fruit and vegetables. If you’ve been eating them on occasion, you will burn them less. If you haven’t been eating them often, you won’t be burning as many calories.
You may not know that bananas, being a hangover cure, are very filling if you drink some hot water with them.
You’ll surely be full after drinking some banana water, so you’ll eat more food to get rid of all the excess water. Banana Joe’s ice cream spent more than 47 billion yen in R&D to make a better banana ice cream. This is how much they spent in total on research. This betters all the ice creams and waffles they sell.
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for our bodies. All important vitamins and minerals must be taken in order for the body to function properly.
One important thing we must understand is that carbohydrates are known to cause weight gain.
While eaten frequently, carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates, aren’t stored as such in the body as fat. You can burn them as long as you don’t overeat them.
There are seveal types of this fruit
When it comes to bananas, there are three different types: Cavendish, Mecuba and East Indian. Depending on which type you look at, they have very different nutrition profiles.
Let’s take a look at each type, then we’ll dig deeper.
Cavendish bananas have a mild, sweeter taste and are an acceptable for most recipes. They have a higher concentration of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) compared to the other two types. That’s because the compound that gives Cavendish bananas their yellow hue (carotenoids) is not present in Mecuba or East Indian bananas, explains Pete McConnon, a registered dietitian.
The absorption of carotenoids depends on the type, says McConnon, so it’s important to read the nutrition labels of any banana variety you’re considering.
Not all bananas are created equal
Most of us think of bananas as green. But because they’re such a versatile fruit, there are different types, including yellow, red, pink and purple.
Generally, yellow bananas have higher levels of magnesium. And people who are deficient in this mineral tend to be at higher risk for heart disease, says McConnon.
A study in Diagnosis found that people without adequate magnesium tend to have a 3 to 4 fold increased risk of high blood pressure, and they also have higher levels of fat within their vessels.
Red bananas are a good source of potassium.
It’s a good potassium-to-calcium ratio.
Merrill
Consuming dietary sources of potassium can help maintain blood pressure and preserve vertebrae and ligament cells, compounds necessary to support and protect the heart.
Merrill
A fellow dietitian joins the conversation:
We have found that red bananas are slightly higher in total vitamins when compared to green and pink
McConnon
He goes on to say:
This makes red bananas a good dietary source of vitamin A, vitamin B6 and potassium.
McConnon
Research also shows that, compared to purple bananas, yellow bananas may provide slightly more fibre. In addition, they have twice the phenolic content, which is key for supporting blood health and heart health, Merrill says.
There are lots of bananas out there
While you can get all of these benefits from a yellow or red banana, McConnon recommends eating the purple variety more often since it is easier to transform them into stains on the pinny.
Bananas containing lower levels of sugar have become more widely available, thanks to the explosion of packaged, single-serving varieties. For convenience, they taste good to eat, and that’s their biggest selling point.
For example, you can find candies with lower sugar levels like Black Beauty, Orange Damn Fruit and 17 Fruit Roll-Ups containing up to 40 grams of sugar per serving.
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