Health & WellnessSuper Foods

Banana Benefits: Eat 2 Bananas Per Day For A Month, This Is What Happens To Your Body!

Banana Benefits: Eating a banana every day can take your life a long way. Perhaps Banana is the only fruit in your basket, which is equally nutritious and cheaper in comparison with other fruits. It is a storehouse nutrient, and it has unlimited health benefits.

On one side it is an energy booster and stress buster, but on the other hand, there are also many myths about its impact on health. Being the most traditional and widely consumed fruit in the world, bananas are recurrently a matter of argument as far as health benefits are concerns.

Many people keep banana at bay as they think it will help in weight gain and it will raise blood sugar level and so on.

Therefore to ward of all the wrong concepts about banana, we are requesting you to go through this article where you will come to know how good banana is for anyone of different ages.

Why is Banana Important to our Diet?

Banana has been considered a useful fruit for thousands of years and consumed every day around the world in a different way. It is believed that bananas were native to south-west Asia and now bananas grow in many countries, and there are almost 1000 different varieties of bananas which are being cultivated.

Among which Cavendish banana, as is the most common and frequently taken during breakfast, which is a desserts banana due to its sweet taste. It is green when unripe and turned yellow when ripe.

We can eat raw or mark our favourite dish with bananas. So a banana is popular as they are –

•    Affordable and available all the season.

•    Easy to store.

•    Easy to carry.

•    One banana is quite enough to fill your stomach.

Nutrition Value:

Banana which is a complete fruit in terms of nutrition value comes in curvy shape which contains soft, starch enriched flesh with a rind, which may be yellow, green, purple or red in ripe condition.

It sometimes misunderstood that banana has lots of calories and carbohydrates, whereas they are indeed one of the best fruit that we can take any time—both for health and weight management.

 Let us quickly check the nutrients that we get from this humble-looking fruit

 One medium-sized banana contains:

  • Calories: 89
  • Carbohydrate: 22.84gms
  • Sugar: 12.23 gms.
  • Water: 74.91 gms.
  • Protein: 1.1 grams
  • Fat: 0.3 grams
  • Fibre: 2.6 gms.

VITAMINS:

  • VITAMIN B6: 4mg.
  • VITAMIN C: 8.7mg.
  • VITAMIN B1 (THIAMINE) : .031mg.
  • VITAMIN B2 (RIBOFLAVIN) : .073mg.
  • FOLATE: 5%.
  • VITAMIN B3 (NIACIN) : .665mg.

   Minerals:

  • Iron: 26 mg.
  • Magnesium—– 27 mg.
  • Potassium— 358 mg.
  • Phosphorus—22mg.

Ripe or Unripe: Which Banana is Good for you and why?

Usually, banana is edible at any stage of ripeness—-green or yellow. Banana turns yellow and soft when they ripe, but before that, it looks green in colour and hard to peel off.

This green banana is also edible as a vegetable, and it has plenty of benefits for health in a different way.

So let us see the difference between the ripe and unripe banana:-

 Texture:

•    Green banana is hard and solid, not easy to peel off.

•    Ripe banana is yellow, soft and it’s easy to peel off the rind.

Taste:

•    Green banana is more or less tasteless and a little bit pungent whereas ripe banana is sweet and we can take it raw or make other dishes.

Properties:

•    Green banana contains a high amount of starch, and it has probiotic bacteria that help to keep the colon healthy. The amount of antioxidant is less in green banana.

•    Ripe banana contains high sugar as the resistant starch converts into sugar, hats why it is sweet. As the amounts of antioxidants increases with age, so it has a high volume of antioxidant.

 Now coming to the next point that which banana is good for you, we can say that both have more or fewer health benefits. It depends on individual’s choice, and their health issues that will help to decide which one is suitable.

Those who have type 2 diabetes must not take a ripe banana, because of its high sugar content, but instead, they easily take a moderate quantity of cooked green banana as a vegetable.

Children of growing age and babies like the sweet taste of ripe banana, so they easily accept ripe banana, which is a staple and convenient food for them.

In spite of its taste and banana benefits, some people avoid it because of high carbs and sugar, but this to fuel our body. Moreover, its fat content is very low, and fibre content is high, that helps to digest the sugar slowly.

Banana Benefits:

1. Banana keeps your Heart Healthy:

Heart is one major functional organ in our body, so keeping the heart in good condition is vital.  Heart diseases are one the cause of premature death, so heart care is the primary need after a certain age.

Banana is a heart-friendly fruit as has some properties to control blood pressure. There is a high amount of potassium, which is useful to control blood pressure.

The analysis says that one medium-size banana a day can reduce the risk of heart attack also.

2. Reduce your Weight with Banana:

In spite of the myth that banana aids in fattening; you can include this humble fruit into your weight loss diet. 

Yes, I know that you are thinking about the high carbohydrate and sugar quantities that it provides. But if you are a banana lover, then plan your diet accordingly with this nutritious fruit. Let us see how—

 Weight loss depends on how much calories you are in taking and how much you are burning. As banana provides lots of calories, then you can take at least one banana as a snack or in breakfast. The excess carbohydrate will provide you with extra energy to do exercise.

Banana has lots of dilatory fibre and so it keeps your hunger at bay for a long time. So subsequently, it reduces your craving towards junk foods and resists overeating.

It is nutritious and protects your heart. Hence, to lose weight, you must minimise your calorie intake. So one medium banana is enough for those who are following a weight loss diet. 

[Also Read: How to Eat Chia Seeds for Quick Weight Loss]

 How You Can Incorporate Banana in Your Diet Plan:

  • With Oatmeal:

Cut a small to medium-sized banana into pieces and add it with oatmeal.

  • Make Yummy Snacks:

slice a banana and sprinkle cinnamon on the top. Take it in between meals.

3. Strengthen Bone:

To get a perfect body shape, we need a strong bone structure. Fruits are always helpful to maintain health as they contain lots of vitamins and minerals.

Banana too has much usefulness among which ensuring bone strength is worth to mention. Banana contains lots of minerals which are beneficial for our bone health. They are-

 Vitamin B6: This vitamin aids in Glutathione production and it is the significant antioxidant to protect the bones from damage due to oxidation.

 Manganese: It helps collagen production, which is essential for bone matrix and calcium absorption.

4. Improve Vision:

Fruits and vegetables are always good for overall health benefits and vision. All though carrot and other red coloured fruits are on the top of the list as far as the amount of vitamin A is related.

But recent analysis says that banana too has a good amount of Vitamin A and it also effectively works for good vision and other eye-related ailments.  

Consuming banana daily is good to preserve the eye membrane, and it also prevents the blurry vision.

[Related: Amazing Indian Secret To Improve Your Eyesight in 7 days!]

5. Beneficial For Pregnant Ladies:

Pregnancy is an important phase that women have to face with lots of do’s and don’ts. Picking up the healthy food that contains all the necessary nutrients is a significant factor that decides the child’s growth inside the womb. Therefore, banana can provide a good portion of the required nutrition as it.

Boost up the haemoglobin as during pregnancy women tends to affect by anaemia. The banana supplies iron and increases the haemoglobin level.

Banana provides all the necessary nutrients to the baby inside and ensures its growth.

Banana is a good source of folic acid and it plays a vital role in spinal and brain development of the child.

 The presence of vitamin B6 helps in nervous system development of the child.

6. Ensure Good Digestive System:

Banana has dilatory fibre, which has a direct link to improve digestion and other health issues. It has pectin and resistant starch, the two types of fibre that help to improve digestion.

Resistant starch is soluble carbohydrate, and when it reaches to lower intestine, it gets metabolised by beneficial bacteria whereas pectin maintains a healthy colon.

[Also Read: Lemongrass Kill Cancer Cells, Treating the Digestive Problem]

7. Green Banana can Improve Insulin Sensitivity:

Green banana contains a type of starch known as resistant starch, which is a chain of insoluble glucose. 

It helps to slow down the absorption of sugar from food, and this is effective to keep blood sugar level low.

8. Banana Helps Babies to Grow:

Babies love banana simply because of its nature’s candy. It is an ideal starter for them when they learn to eat solid food even without teeth. It is easy to swallow.

Apart from all, banana has all the essential nutrients which babies need for their overall growth and development.

9. Boost up Brain Function:

Consuming banana can enhance your power to concentrate as it has potassium and magnesium.

Potassium is responsible for energising our brain and magnesium increased the ability to focus.

[Also Read: Eat 5 Walnuts Everyday See What Happens to your Body]

10. Banana Helps to get more Energy:

Banana is an energy booster. Each banana has three types of sugar, among which glucose and fructose get absorbed in the blood very quickly and raise the energy level.

So, the trainer also advice to take banana before exercise to enhance the level of performance.

To spike your energy level with banana, you can make a smoothie with honey, banana and yoghurt.

•    Add yoghurt and honey with sliced banana and pumpkin seeds.

•    Put them in a mixer and grind well

•    Your tasty smoothie is ready. You can add some chat masala for taste

In conclusion we can say, that apart from these benefits, there are lots more to say about the benefits of banana. On the one hand, it can treat stomach ulcers, it is a natural remedy of heartburn,

on the other hand, and eating banana can make you happy and stress-free. This pocket-friendly fruit will always help you to get a better and healthy lifestyle.

So, friends, we hope that after going through the above What Happens, Banana Benefits will surely help you.

Dr Maria

MD. Board Certified physician. Fellowship In Family Medicine UK. 8 years of medical experience in Lifestyle-related health disorders. Graduated from AIIMS – All India Institute Of Medical Science, INDIA

Related Articles

Back to top button