Befriend Bananas

By Paromeeta Ray

Category: health

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A fruit, which is available throughout the year, does not need to be chewed much and can be consumed in less than a minute, is a fruit we tend to under-estimate. Yes, I am talking about the tasteful bananas, the fruits that originate from large plants, not from trees.

Let’s have a look at the nutritional properties of a serving of banana.
If the serving is of one medium-sized ripe banana weighing about 126 gm, then it contains:

Fat = 0 gm

Cholesterol = 0 gm

Energy = 110 calories

Potassium = 400 mg i.e. 10% of daily recommended value

Dietary Fiber = 4 gm i.e. 16% of daily recommended value

Vitamin C = 16% of daily recommended value

Vitamin B6 = 20% of daily recommended value

Protein = 1 gm i.e. 2% of daily recommended value

Sugar = 14.8 gm


Banana helps us in the following ways:

a) The Vitamin B6 content in bananas helps in fighting insomnia and irritability. It also prevents physical weakness. The vitamin helps the body in making hemoglobin. It also maintains a strong immune system and aids in antibody production.

b) The Potassium content regulates blood pressure and lowers the threat of strokes. It also takes care of the nervous system. It helps muscles in contracting properly and thus plays an important part in essential muscle-related activities like the rhythmic pumping of the heart, muscular movements, digestion, etc. Hence, it also helps during workouts lowering the risk of cramping up. Sportspersons find this very helpful and have bananas during tiring events.
A couple of bananas in the everyday diet should help maintain a healthy heart and nervous system.
The Potassium content also helps in suppressing Calcium excretion in the urine and thus considerably reduces the threat of kidney stones. Suppression of Calcium excretion also guards against the loss of Calcium from our body, lowering the threat of osteoporosis.

c) Bananas are called the “good mood food” as they help in mood enhancement and act as mild sedatives too. One of the reasons is that bananas contain norepinephrine, which helps in overcoming depression. A medium-sized banana contains 10.6 mg of the amino acid tryptophan, which helps the body in producing serotonin with the assistance of Vitamin B6. Serotonin acts as a mood stabilizer and has a calming effect on our psyche. Our body does not produce tryptophan, on its own, and we can get it only from our diet of which a banana is the most easily available constituent.

d) Bananas are stomach-friendly as the dietary fiber smoothens bowel movements and helps in easing constipation. At the same time the binding property of bananas help in fighting gastrointestinal disorders like diarrhea by hardening stools.