All about Bananas + a recipe!

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Hello beautiful people and welcome to another nutrition blog post. It’s been a minute since I’ve highlighted a special food on here but as I write this temperatures are climbing into the high 30s C (90s F) so I thought it would be fun to give you a recipe you can enjoy in this heat.

Today I’d like to highlight the humble banana as it is one of my favorite fruits, a portable snack, and so versatile. Keeping with tradition here on the nutrition blog, I’d like to first list a few of the health benefits of this fruit as well as how to prepare it so that the body reaps as many of its benefits as possible, and finally I will leave you all with a delicious recipe to make use of this fruit at home. 

So, let’s dive right into the benefits of this berry*

  1. *That’s right, the banana is actually classified as a berry. “True berries are simple fruits stemming from one flower with one ovary and typically have several seeds. Tomatoes fall into this group, as do pomegranates, kiwis and—believe it or not—bananas. (Their seeds are so tiny it's easy to forget they're there.)” [1].

  2. They contain tryptophan and vitamin b6, both of which are linked to the production of the feel-food hormone serotonin. In the absence of light, tryptophan turns into melatonin which helps to induce sleep.

  3. Good source of fiber with approximately 3g per 100g.

  4. Lots of vitamin C with approximately 8.7mg per 100g.

  5. They’re available almost everywhere and they’re portable!

Now that we know how good bananas are for us, there are a few things to look out for when picking the right one:

1. The browner and spottier they are, the better. Not only are the brown bananas sweeter, but they are also much easier for our tummies to digest. 

2. Try to buy fair trade whenever possible as it promotes a healthy and fair environment for those who work to cultivate the yellow fruit. 

3. If your bananas get too brown and mushy, simply cut them up and store them in the freezer to use later in smoothies, oatmeal or banana bread. 

4. Fun fact: if you open the banana from the bottom (where the little dark button is) you’ll avoid getting those little strings that cling to the banana as you eat :) 

And, last but not least, I promised you all a glorious banana-fied recipe so I’ve decided to include one from my e-cookbook :)

Chocolate Banana “Nice” Cream

Prep: 5 min Total: 1 hour 

gluten free, vegan

Makes 2 cups

5 very ripe bananas

2 T peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 T cacao powder

Splash of milk (almond, coconut, soy or rice)

1 tsp Maca root powder* (optional)

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together using a blender of your choice. Add the milk in, a little at a time, to help with the blending, but be careful not to allow the mixture to get too runny. 

Transfer the mixture to a covered freezer-friendly plastic container and freeze for a minimum of 1 hour.

Scoop it out into your favorite bowl and top with whatever your heart desires, such as coconut flakes, chocolate chips or fresh berries.

Recipe notes: 

*Maca root powder can be found in most health food stores and adds a nice toffee flavor to the dish. Be careful not to use too much as it is also has medicinal properties and can have an effect on your hormone levels and thyroid. If you are new to Maca, I would suggest using between 1/4 tsp - 1/2 tsp to start.

The ice cream will keep in an airtight container, frozen, for up to a month. Allow it 10 minutes to thaw before serving

Thanks so much for stopping by this week and I hope that you all learned something new about bananas or at least picked up a new recipe to try :)

If there’s another food you’d like to see highlighted on here just let me know down below and I’ll see what I can do. Until then, I’ll see you all here next week for a fresh new post!

Xoxo,

Alexandra 

Sources:

1. Lorge, Greta. “Bananas Are Berries?” STANFORD Magazine, 2013, stanfordmag.org/contents/bananas-are-berries.