What Are Bananas?
Bananas grow from a tropical flowering plant. They’re soft, sweet, and a convenient source of some important nutrients.
They have origins in Southeast Asia. People have grown bananas since ancient times, and their health benefits have been promoted for more than a century.
Today, bananas are grown in more than 150 countries in tropical climates, including Africa, South and Central America, China, and India. There are hundreds of types. The dessert banana (Cavendish) is the most popular variety in North America and Europe.
Bananas are versatile as well as tasty. You can eat them raw, mixed into your favorite smoothie, or in a peanut butter-banana sandwich, banana bread, or muffins. Bananas:
- Can be found at your grocery store all year long
- Are easily stored
- Travel well in their peel
Is a banana a fruit?
A banana is considered a fruit. Bananas grow in a cluster at the top of a tropical plant.
Banana Benefits
Bananas are rich in potassium and other important minerals and vitamins that help your body perform critical functions. Their potential benefits include:
Heart health
Bananas are best known for containing potassium, which is a big player in heart health. This vital mineral and electrolyte carries a small electrical charge, causing nerve cells to send out signals for your heart to beat regularly and muscles to contract. Foods with potassium help protect against hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and high blood pressure.
A medium banana gives you about 450 milligrams, which is about 10% of what you need every day. Potassium-rich foods also help you get rid of more sodium when you pee and relax the walls of your blood vessels, both of which help lower your blood pressure.
What’s more, potassium:
- May lower your risk of stroke
- Can help keep your bones healthy as you age
- May help your muscles work better
- Can help prevent kidney stones
If you have kidney problems, too much potassium isn’t good for you. Check with your doctor to see how much you should have.
Digestive health
Despite their sugar content, bananas have a low glycemic index (GI) value of 51. (Glycemic index is a measure of how fast a food causes your blood sugar to rise.) Their fiber – which helps with digestion – is the reason for this. Bananas contain a type of fiber called pectin, which can play a part in controlling how quickly you digest carbohydrates.
Bananas may be good for your tummy, too. They have probiotics, which are the good bacteria found in your gut, and prebiotics, carbs that feed these good bacteria.
There’s also evidence that probiotics can help with the annoying diarrhea people get after taking some antibiotics.
Probiotics may also help:
- Improve yeast and urinary tract infections (UTIs)
- Treat some infections in your gut
- Ease irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Lessen lactose intolerance
- Ease some allergy symptoms
Probiotics may even help make colds and the flu less severe.
Bananas contain fructooligosaccharides (FOS), which are unique fructose-filled carbohydrates that you don’t fully digest. These FOS are involved in a process that helps maintain the balance of good bacteria in your lower intestine.
Green, or unripe, bananas are a good source of resistant starch, which is a type of carbohydrate that isn’t digested in your small intestine. Instead, it ferments in your large intestine and feeds good bacteria in your gut. Resistant starch can make you feel fuller, which helps with weight loss. It’s also good for dealing with constipation. Resistant starch can also lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of colon cancer. Because most people don’t like to peel and eat a green banana – they’re hard to chew – the unripe fruit is being used in flour and other food products.
Weight control
Eating low-GI foods may promote weight loss. Fiber, like that found in bananas, can also help you control your weight.
It’s no secret that the right amount of fiber in your diet is good for you. An average-size ripe banana gives you 3 grams of it. That’s about 10% of what you need each day. Most of the fiber in bananas is what’s called soluble fiber. It can help keep your cholesterol and blood pressure in check and help ease inflammation.
In general, foods that are high in fiber make you feel full without extra calories. That also makes them a good choice if you want to shed a few pounds.
Faster workout recovery
Research suggests bananas can also help you bounce back from strenuous workouts. But we need more studies to confirm this.
Cancer prevention
One study found that children who ate bananas and oranges regularly, and drank orange juice, had a lower risk of childhood leukemia. Various compounds in bananas have shown promise against breast, cervical, colorectal, esophageal, liver, oral, prostate, and skin cancers. But more research is needed.
Memory and mood help
Bananas contain tryptophan, which is a beneficial amino acid. In your body, it gets converted to serotonin, which boosts mood. Many other substances in bananas are known to fight cognitive decline, which can cause memory loss. Research continues on the best way to use those compounds for brain health.
Credit: webmd
