Here’s why you should eat more bananas

Anyone who knows me relatively well is fully aware of the fact that I consume a lot of bananas on a daily basis. I often get asked if the reason I eat as many as I do is a result of my love for the taste of them, but I can assure you it isn’t. I started eating a lot of bananas when I went gluten, dairy and egg-free for a span of six years. A lot of the foods I was able to eat at the time were costly, and because I was in university, I wasn’t able to dole out a tremendous amount of money on my weekly groceries. I started eating bananas as snacks throughout the day because they are so affordable, plus they’re filling and aren’t difficult to carry around.

I thought I would see what I could find pertaining to the benefits of eating bananas for anyone interested. This information comes from healthline.com.

“Bananas contain a fair amount of fiber and several antioxidants. One regular-sized banana (126 grams) also boasts (1Trusted Source):

  • Calories: 112
  • Fat: 0 grams
  • Protein: 1 gram
  • Carbs: 29 grams
  • Fiber: 3 grams
  • Vitamin C: 12% of the Daily Value (DV)
  • Riboflavin: 7% of the DV
  • Folate: 6% of the DV
  • Niacin: 5% of the DV
  • Copper: 11% of the DV
  • Potassium: 10% of the DV
  • Magnesium: 8% of the DV

“One banana provides about 112 calories and consists almost exclusively of water and carbs. They hold little protein and no fat.

“Bananas are rich in soluble fiber. During digestion, soluble fiber dissolves in liquid to form a gel. It’s also what gives bananas their sponge-like texture (3Trusted Source). Unripe bananas also contain resistant starch, which isn’t digested by your body (2Trusted Source). Together, these two types of fiber may moderate your blood sugar levels after meals. Plus, they may help regulate your appetite by slowing the emptying of your stomach (4Trusted Source).

“Resistant starch, the type of fiber found in unripe bananas, is a prebiotic. Prebiotics escape digestion and end up in your large intestine, where they become food for the beneficial bacteria in your gut (2Trusted Source5Trusted Source).

“Several studies reveal that regularly eating resistant starch — for example, by enjoying unripe bananas — may improve insulin sensitivity. This could make your body more responsive to this blood-sugar-regulating hormone (2Trusted Source4Trusted Source18Trusted Source),” the web page says.

Feel free to check out the entire web page, linked above, to read about more benefits of eating bananas.

Image from https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1603052875302-d376b7c0638a?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=774&q=80


Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s