Choose bananas with green or clear yellow peels without bruising. The ripening process will change the peel from being thick and stiff to thin and more flexible, with brown spots surfacing until the entire peel darkens.
For best flavor, wait until the banana is golden yellow with a few brown spots. With continued ripening, the entire peel turns brownish-black and the pulp begins to ferment and soften further while losing sweetness. The following are other banana varieties less commonly available in the U.
Plantain Green Banana — Larger, starchier, and less-sweet version of Musa that is often used for cooking. When green, the plantain is unripe with a neutral flavor and firm flesh.
In certain tropical regions including Central America, Africa, and the Philippines, the plantain is a major source of carbohydrate that is fried, boiled, or baked in a wide variety of dishes.
If allowed to mature, the skin will yellow and develop a slightly sweet flavor that may be eaten raw or cooked. Red Banana — This variety is shorter and plumper than the Cavendish variety with a dark reddish-purple hue. A ripe red banana will be creamy and often sweeter than Cavendish bananas. Lady Finger — Thinner and slightly shorter than the Cavendish bananas, they are sweeter and eaten raw or as dessert. Bananas and Health Cardiovascular health Bananas are an excellent source of potassium , a vital mineral and electrolyte in the body that carries a small electrical charge.
Digestive health Bananas are included in the BRAT diet an acronym for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast , a once commonly prescribed regimen for patients with diarrhea or who required a bland, easy-to-digest diet after stomach ailments. Weight control There is no evidence that bananas contribute to weight gain, despite popular belief. Do bananas have a high glycemic index? Do bananas cause blood sugar spikes and, if so, can they be included in the diets of those with conditions like type 2 diabetes and prediabetes?
Some physicians recommend that patients with diabetes choose foods with a low glycemic index. The glycemic index GI is a measure of the rise in blood sugar levels after eating a particular food. A GI score of 55 or less is rated as low, meaning that the food will not raise blood sugar significantly.
A score of 10 or less is rated as low GL. References The Banana Again. Maintaining these prices often means paying workers very little, which has led to violent suppression of attempts to expand worker benefits. That makes bananas a problematic fruit, Koeppel says, but he still recommends eating them as a healthy alternative to candy and salty snacks.
Ideally, customers should demand more varieties to break the monoculture, he says. But buying fair-trade bananas where some of the profits go to workers and the protection of the environment is a good place to start. Write to Mandy Oaklander at mandy. By Mandy Oaklander.
Related Stories. The 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance. Bananas are almost exclusively composed of water and carbs. People who watch their carb intake are interested in knowing the carb content of their food. Here is the carb content of standard banana sizes 1 :. A banana also contains 2—4 grams of fiber, depending on its size. Generally, green or unripe bananas contain fewer digestible carbs than ripe bananas.
An average-sized banana contains about 25 grams of carbs — maybe even less if the banana is unripe green. The main nutrient in bananas is carbs, but the carb composition changes drastically during ripening. Unripe bananas contain high amounts of starch, and some of it is resistant starch 2.
Because the starch in a banana is converted to sugar during ripening, yellow bananas contain much less resistant starch than green ones. Resistant starch is a type of indigestible carbohydrate that escapes digestion and functions like fiber in the body. It reaches the colon undigested. There, it feeds friendly gut bacteria 3 , 4. When the bacteria digest resistant starches, they form gases and short-chain fatty acids SCFAs , which are important for digestive health 5 , 6. So although resistant starches will not yield as many calories as regular carbs during digestion, they may be transformed into SCFAs that provide calories later.
Unripe bananas contain high amounts of resistant starch. Resistant starch escapes digestion and feeds the friendly bacteria in your gut, which use it to produce short-chain fatty acids.
One medium banana contains 1 :.
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