bananas: Experts reveal the benefits of the fruit based on its colour

As one of the cheapest and most satiating fruits, bananas are up there with the most popular snacks you can buy.  And while their health benefits are widely known, few are aware of how the ripeness of a banana impacts on its nutritional make-up.

Source : Dailymail

So to help make it clear, Australian sports dietitian Ryan Pinto recently shared a graphic about the various benefits – and why eating an over-ripe banana may not be a great idea.

‘The best way to understand how the health of a banana can change is by investigating what really happens to them internally over time,’ he wrote on his page, High Performance Nutrition AU.

Green bananas

According to Ryan, green bananas are ‘youthful, low FODMAP and full of starch’. ‘Referred to as “resistant” starch, this nutrient makes your digestive system work a little harder. It’s also the reason why green bananas seem to fill you up so quickly,’ he wrote. However, the starch in green bananas can also ‘make you feel gassy or bloated’ and also ‘contributes to their waxy texture’. ‘If you’re looking for a banana that’s lower GI, go for a green one. Eventually, your body will break this starch down into glucose. This way, green bananas will raise blood sugar levels slowly,’ he said. ‘The trade-off here is taste. Green bananas can be bitter, as they contain less sugar in every bite.’

Yellow bananas

‘Say goodbye to starch and hello to sugar,’ Ryan said. According to the sports dietitian, yellow bananas are ‘softer and sweeter’ because it contains more sugar. They’re also higher on the glyecmic index, meaning they’re easier to digest. ‘With less starch to break down, your digestive system will soak up the nutrients quicker,’ Ryan said. ‘Unfortunately, there is always micronutrient loss as bananas age. To make up for this, yellow bananas are more developed when it comes to antioxidants.’ Dietitian Leanne Ward, from Brisbane, usually has a boiled egg and a yellow banana as her second meal of the day.

health benefits do bananas provide

• Bananas are rich in pectin, a type of fibre that gives the flesh its spongy structural form.
• Unripe bananas contain resistant starch, which acts like soluble fibre and escapes digestion.
• A medium-sized banana has about three grams of fibre, making bananas a fairly good fibre source.
• Several studies reveal that 15–30 grams of resistant starch per day may improve insulin sensitivity by 33–50 per cent in as few as four weeks.
• One 13-year study in women determined that those who ate bananas three to three times per week were 33 per cent less likely to develop kidney disease.
• Source: Healthline