Banana 101

Raise your hand if you love bananas 🍌!!!

They are a great source of many nutrients! Particularly potassium, magnesium, and B6. But really, I eat them because they’re so delicious, convenient, and cheap. I can eat them almost every single day.

🤔 Have you ever wondered what happens as they change in color? If so, let me tell ya!

Green—> Yellow—> Brown

💚 Resistant starch content decreases

💚 Tastes sweeter- resistant starch turns into sugar

💛 Digests easier and quicker (causes a spike in blood sugar)

💛 Some of the micronutrient levels decrease- happens with all the fruits/vegetables to some degree once harvested

🤎 Antioxidant levels increase

For babies and toddlers, really green bananas may be too hard on their little Tommy’s and can cause or make pre-existing constipation worse.

They are a great source of pre-biotics though. I purchased unripe bananas and start offering them to my daughter when it was predominantly yellow with a slight hint of green. Yellow ones disappear quickly around here, and the brown ones get used for baking (Banana Bread 😋)

If you want to speed up the ripening process, place in a brown bag. If you want to slow it down, then place it in the refrigerator. The peel will turn brown but the inner flesh will be just fine.