Bananas are good for us, aren’t they? It is a natural food that has many benefits to our wellbeing. Sports professionals are often seen munching on a banana to give them an energy boost.

What is in a Banana?

Nutrients are approximately based on 1 banana

•    Calories: 105
•    Protein: 1 gram
•    Carbohydrates: 27 grams
•    Fibre: 2.7 grams
•    Fat: 1 gram
•    Saturated Fat: 0.2 gram
•    Calcium: 7 milligrams
•    Phosphorus: 23 milligrams
•    Potassium: 451 milligrams
•    Vitamin A: 9 micrograms
•    Vitamin B6: 0.66 milligrams
•    Vitamin C: 10 milligrams
•    Vitamin E: 0.31 milligrams
•    Vitamin K: low levels
•    Folate (folic acid): 22 micrograms

(Hmmmm sounds yummy – Beeble)

So what is a Banana good for?

Looking at the figures we can see it has a high Vitamin C level approximately 11 % (U.S.) or 25% (U.K.) of an adult’s daily intake. It also has a high level of Vitamin B6 approx 28 % to near 50% of an adult’s daily intake, depending on age and gender.

A deficiency in these two vitamins in the human body can result in the following:

Scurvy (vitamin C), depression, anxiety, irritability, loss of libido, insomnia, water retention, inability to process glucose and finally body weight loss/gain.

So really it could be said that bananas have the ability for improving any of these symptoms, but if you do suffer from any one (or more) of them it would be wise to realise that there are also many other causes (bananas may not be the only answer – Beeble). So don’t think by stuffing yourself with bananas you’re going to find the cure for your inability to sleep or other bedroom activities!

So why do Sports people eat Bananas?

The answer to this is on the Glycaemic Index chart. The banana is sitting at around 50 to 70 on the chart depending on origin and ripeness. For a fruit it is relatively high on the GI levels due to it not being very fibrous and having quite a high concentration of fructose (fruits version of glucose – Beeble). Meaning that it will give the body a sugar rush (boost of energy – Beeble) it is light and not very filling which makes it ideal for consumption during a sporting event. There are of course drinks etc. that will give a greater boost but sports people do not enjoy a lot of liquid in their bodies washing around whilst they are moving about so much. The body is able to use the energy from the banana very quickly and get it to the areas of the body that need it, mainly the muscles.

When to eat a banana?

20 minutes before, during or within 20 minutes after completion of a sport or activity is optimum for the banana as the body can replace lost glycogen stores (the body’s energy system – Beeble). This can not only help improve performance during an event but also help speed up recovery after the event allowing the body to function better and not to be as exhausted as it maybe otherwise. However, bananas are still good to eat for people who aren’t so serious about sport due to their good vitamin content but eating one as a snack during the day may result in a sugar rush which, as we all know, is quickly followed by a energy depletion making us more tired than we were before. The trick is to slow the body’s consumption of the banana down. One way is to make it more fibrous, you can do this by adding it to a high fibre cereal or combine it with other high fibre foods. This mixes it up in our digestive system and helps to make the combined mulch more complex for the body to digest. This will result in the nutrients being absorbed over a longer period of time reducing the likelihood of a sugar rush. Another way to slow down the body’s consumption of the sugars is to eat it with protein, so some nuts or seeds would be good and it works in much the same way as the fibre does.

Be careful though!

Even though we have come to the conclusion that bananas are good for you in the right situation do not eat too many of them as they are also known for their mild laxative properties (could be embarrassing – Beeble) and too much Vitamin B6 has been proven to be bad for your nervous system although that would be a lot of bananas over a prolonged period.

Enjoy your bananas!

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Tags: banana, benefits, Fruit, nutrients

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Fruit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.