Banana and Nutrition
Through out the western non-Mediterranean world, there has been since the 1970s a steadily rising awareness of the importance of diet to health. There is now little doubt that choice of diet contributes to the risk of developing diseases such as heart disease, strokes, some cancers, diabetes, bowel disease, gallstones, dental caries and osteoporosis – though to what degree is not yet known.
Northern Europe and United States, have sought with varying degrees of success to reduce saturated fat consumption, i.e. sugar not contained within the cell wall of a plant or animal food. By comparison, bananas contain their sugar content – fructose, sucrose and glucose – intrinsically, as well as containing substantial amounts of fiber (non-starch polysaccharides) which is helpful for digestion. Unripe banana contain ‘resistant’ starch, which is indigestible in the human small intestine. The nutritional qualities of the banana actually change with ripening, the sugar percentage rising form 2% to around 23% and the starch percentage falling from 23% to 1%.
Banana is high in vitamin B6, which helps fight infection and is essential for the synthesis of heme, the iron containing part of hemoglobin. The banana is a good source of vitamin C, needed to help fight infections. The combination of a good amount of potassium and low sodium may help protect against high blood pressure. As an easily digestible source of fiber, the banana is valuable in preventing both diarrhea and constipation. It has a creamy texture often associated with fatty foods, yet is virtually fat free.
Banana and Nutrition
Bananas represent on of the most widely traded agricultural goods in the world with annual export valued at five billion dollars. There are two main varieties of bananas, the fruit or sweet banana and the plantain.....
The most popular posts
-
The pulp of ripe banana consist essentially of sugar and is therefore easily digestible. The fruit is mainly starch some of which is convert...
-
Bananas need a lot of water to grow well. Banana thrives in fertile, well-drained soils with high water holding capacity. The soil moisture ...
-
Banana Physical Characteristics Healthy filling, and even already wrapped for the consumer, bananas are one of nature’s ideal foods and the...
-
Banana processing There are many products that can be obtained from banana processing. In addition to dried banana, other important product...
-
Plantains or banana plants were cultivated in India from very early times. Religious rituals in Sastric tradition describe it as highly ausp...