Banana and Its Healing Powers

This tropic fruit is delicious chopped up in breakfast cereals. It’s high mineral and sugar content makes it a perfect after-exercise snack. Bananas are good blended with other fruits and even yoghurt.

Banana Nutrition
- Most of the health benefit of bananas are related to its nutritional value. Bananas are loaded with vitamin B6, containing about 30% of the daily value in one banana.
- Bananas are also rich mineral potassium (one (1) finger of banana contains about 422mg of potassium).
- Health benefits of bananas include heart disease prevention, stomach and colon health.
- They are also a good source of vitamin C and fibre.

One medium banana contains 1.29 grams of protein, 105 calories and 3.1 grams of dietary fiber.

Minerals Contained in Banana
• Potassium - 422 mg
• Phosphorus - 26 mg
• Magnesium - 32 mg
• Calcium - 6 mg
• Sodium - 1 mg
• Iron - 0.31 mg
• Selenium 1.2 mcg
• Manganese - 0.319 mg
• Copper - 0.092 mg
• Zinc - 0.18 mg
Also contains small amounts of other minerals.

Vitamins Contained in Banana
• Vitamin A - 76 IU
• Vitamin B1 (thiamine) - 0.037 mg
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) - 0.086 mg
• Niacin - 0.785 mg
• Folate - 24 mcg
• Pantothenic Acid - 0.394 mg
• Vitamin B6 - 0.433 mg
• Vitamin C - 10.3 mg
• Vitamin E - 0.12 mg
• Vitamin K - 0.6 mcg
Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.

Banana Helps in Heart Disease protection
The mineral potassium has been shown to help lower blood pressure, a major risk factor for atherosclerosis and heart disease. Bananas are very low in sodium, the mineral that can raise blood pressure.
Bananas are also rich in fibre which helps prevent heart diseases by lowering cholesterol.

Banana Helps in Stomach Health

Bananas can be used to help reduce stomach acidity and are useful in the treatment of reflux and peptic ulcers.
A compound in bananas, which is largely unidentified, seems to work by neutralizing the over-acidity of gastric juices and reducing irritation of the ulcer by coating the lining of the stomach.

Banana Helps in Gastro-intestinal Health
As mentioned earlier, bananas are a good source of fibre, which helps maintain regularity and prevents colonic diseases. Bananas are also rich in prebiotics, called fructo-oligasaccharides. Prebiotics are food for good bacteria in the colon. The more good bacteria in the colon relative to bad, the better digestion is and less the chance of diseases. Green bananas contain short chain fatty acids, which provide food for the colonic cell and helps increase the absorption of nutrients.

Banana Helps in Electrolyte Replacement.
Heavy sweating from exercise of diarrhoea can cause loss of electrolytes, including potassium. Eating bananas can help replace lost potassium, which helps the absorption of water back into the system and the correcting of dehydration.

Banana Helps in Eye care and vision
Research has shown that adults consuming at least 3 servings of fruit per day have a reduce risk (by 35%) of developing Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD), the primary cause of vision loss in older adults, compared to persons who consume less than 1.5 servings of fruit daily.

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