When I’m absolutely starving, fruit just doesn’t cut it. Despite all the science about fruit sugar and its immediate boost to my blood sugar level, I just can’t get that instant relief from a plum that I’d get from a Danish. Give me a cake. Now.
Bananas: Energy, vitamins, minerals, and a calming influence all in one little yellow suit
OK, it’s my fault for leaving it too long between meals, or training with the enthusiasm of Tigger and the body of Pooh. However, when I could murder for an iced bun, there is one fruity exception. Bananas.
I devour bananas like a post-marathon chimp. Normality swiftly returns. I feel happy, balanced, calm and reenergised. And I put the baker down.
I’ve always known bananas were great to eat for exercise, with around 100 calories each of starchy, slow-release energy, plus some essential salts lost in sweat. But further research blew my mind. I can see why Eric Twinge is Bananaman. It’s a veritable cure-all in a yellow suit.
Three words leapt out at me: serotonin, potassium, and pyridoxine. Sounds like a Greek girl group? Actually, it’s a dietary doddle.
Firstly, it’s in the brain. Bananas are indeed calming as they are a source of serotonin, that nifty chemical messenger associated with feelings of wellbeing.
Secondly, they are rich in the mineral potassium. One banana contains around 440mg. The average adult consumes 1.9-5.6g daily. So, a super fruit. Why?
We are all five per cent potassium, found mainly in our billions of cells, where it stimulates so many of our essential functions: the kidneys; stomach, intestinal and insulin secretions; waste disposal; nerve transmission and muscle contraction. It also regulates water retention, reduces blood pressure and enhances mental alertness. Powerful, vital stuff.
Thankfully, deficiencies are rare but extreme bouts of sickness and diarrhoea could prompt symptoms as charmless as bloating, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, nervousness, fatigue and arthritis. No wonder bananas are often given to the young and the frail.
Before they are fully ripe, your typical Cavendish type ‘nana can also help treat diarrhoea and haemorrhoids. Fully ripe, they can benefit constipation and ulcers. While the Zulus discovered the peel can help relieve psoriasis. And there’s more.
The average banana contains over a third of the recommended daily requirement of Vitamin B6, or pyridoxine. And this antioxidant vitamin is a metabolic maestro.
It promotes energy in the muscles, helps control obesity, lowers cholesterol, prevents water retention and kidney stones, and assists in nerve function. It also inhibits the release of histamine – a blessing for asthma and allergy sufferers – assists in blood formation and strengthens the immune system. It also promotes healthy, sickness-free pregnancies – and that production of serotonin. Which makes you wonder why anyone says “go bananas”.
Be warned. For all its power, pyridoxine can be destroyed by cooking, alcohol and the pill. Deficiency symptoms make grim reading: water retention, nail ridges, inflamed tongue, inability to tan, numb hands and feet, convulsions in children, depression, tremors, hypoglycaemia, diabetes, loss of appetite, high cholesterol, kidney stones, osteoporosis, arthritis, allergies, asthma and anaemia. Which makes you wonder just how many people in the world are B6-deprived.
The recommended daily allowance for adults of Vitamin B6 is 2.2mg. One banana contains about 0.5mg.
So, go calmly but fruitfully bananas.
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