"If you don’t believe the health benefit of bananas, just watch Chiquita the Banana dance. Okay, if she ate bananas, she’d be queen of the banana cannibals. So forget Chiquita and just remember, bananas are good for you. Athletes know this and often keep bananas on hand during times of physical exertion.
If you’re feeling weak and irritable or are a raging insomniac, grab a banana at bedtime each night and the increase in vitamin B6 will help you feel better and sleep better. Bananas are loaded with B6. In fact, one banana a day gives you one third of your daily vitamin B6 nutritional requirement. Because of the serotonin and norepinephrine, bananas improve your mood as well as a bar of chocolate
According to a study in the “International Journal of Cancer,” women who consumed at least 75 servings of vegetables or fruit every month reduced their risk of kidney cancer by as much as 40 percent. Eating a banana every morning provides more than 1/3 the number of servings of fruits and vegetables necessary. The study went on to say that if women ate a banana a day at least five times a week, they’d cut the risk of kidney cancer in half compared to non-banana eating women.
Bananas are high in potassium. Potassium helps to maintain the heart functions and keep your blood pressure normal. A number of studies show that people that eat a diet that contains high fiber, potassium and magnesium had a lower chance of having a stroke. Besides the abundance of potassium, bananas are a great source of fiber.
Potassium also plays another role besides helping your blood pressure. It also helps bone growth. Most Americans consume a high salt diet. Potassium counteracts any increase in the loss of urinary calcium because of this. Less calcium lost means less bone thinning.
Bananas play another role in reducing bone loss. The bananas contain fructooligosaccharide. It’s a prebiotic. That means it helps the friendly bacteria in your body.
Beneficial bacteria that live in the colon help to make the vitamins and mineral you eat available to the body and kill predatory bacteria and fungi. One of the minerals that friendly bacteria help the body to absorb is calcium. Besides increasing your calcium levels, it makes your colon work better and reduces the time waste sits in the colon. That also reduces the potential of colon cancer.
Bananas are normally one of the first foods fed to babies because they’re easy to digest and don’t cause allergies. However, bananas are also good for their soothing effect on grown-up stomachs. They have the same effect as an antacid to lower acid secretions. They also improve the lining of the stomach and make it thicker to protect it. Bananas also contain protease inhibitors that reduce the number of unfriendly bacteria that cause ulcers.
Bananas help you in the bathroom. If you have diarrhea, they replenish the potassium you lost. If you can’t go, bananas help get you moving by providing soluble fiber. The difference is whether you eat them green or ripe. Green bananas were part of the diet for babies with persistent diarrhea and therefore malabsorption. The babies responded by reducing the weight of the stools by half. The reduction of stool weight indicated that they received more nutrition from the food.
Besides the fact that some varieties of banana also have vitamin A, there’s another good reason to eat bananas. They come in a great container that’s easy to carry and great as use for compost on the garden. This means that when you eat bananas and compost the peel, you not only reap the health benefits of bananas, you replenish the earth."
Health Benefit of Bananas
