Is it healthier to eat a banana while it's fresh (green?) or when it's ripe?

 

There is a famous saying about avoiding buying green bananas...

But it's pretty morbid. It all has to do with whether or not you will live to see them mature.

However, when you dig a little deeper, there is a real chemical difference in buying bananas at different stages of their development.

Most foods change in appearance and composition as they age and their growth cycle is truncated, in other words, once we kill them. Typically, that change is a slow process of maturation, rotting, or rancidity.

Sometimes, as in the case of fermentation or preservation, it is the process of mixing the ingredients that causes this change.

Other times, the causes are a bit more mysterious, as in the case of bananas.  We know what happens: bananas ripen and ripen and ripen...going from green to yellow...accumulating brown spots that slowly take over the entire yellow surface.

Once this happens, we are faced with several options.

Eat the soft, sugary banana, throw it away, freeze it, or make it into banana bread.

However, we have been missing something important. Green and brown bananas actually offer profoundly different health benefits. They are made of different things and affect your body differently.

In fact, some argue that brown bananas are better for you.

Let's take a look at the facts...

What can green bananas do for you?

Bananas are very rich in potassium.

Often touted as being able to raise a diabetic's blood sugar in a pinch, or work to relieve painful menstrual cramps, there are plenty of reasons to keep bananas in your hanging basket.

When bananas are green and waxy, they are quite bitter.

That's because they're made up of about 40% resistant starch, which implies slow-burn digestion. (  Note to type 2 diabetics: this is the kind of banana you want to eat, not the brown kind.)

Resistant starch takes longer to digest and therefore keeps you feeling full longer. If you need to get through the day until your next meal, a green one will do the trick.

They also include a probiotic bacteria that has been shown to aid in colon health...

But they lack antioxidants, because they haven't had a chance to age, and in some people they can cause bloating and gas discomfort due to their resistant starch.

And the yellow bananas?

As the banana ripens and changes color, it loses starch content and gains sugar.

Because there is less starch to break down, your blood sugar rises more quickly as you are able to digest the banana and absorb the nutrients faster.

Since the banana is aging and losing micronutrients in the process, it is gaining antioxidants, which help give the immune system the kind of boost it could always use.

What about…brown and spotted bananas?

At this point… when you see those brown spots building up, you know all that resistant starch has been converted to sugar.

The question arises, how resilient could it really have been to begin with?

But those brown spots don't just mean sugar.

They also signify antioxidant content. The browner the banana, the more powerful the immune punch, and the sweeter it will taste.

However, the high content of pectin (dietary fiber) that was excellent for digestion in green bananas is almost completely absent in brown or spotted bananas.

And that 40% starch? It has dropped to 1%.

So while bananas offer many health benefits and nutrients at each stage of their journey, they are distinctly different.

Looking to improve your gut health with micronutrients and slow-digesting starch? Take a green banana and enhance the bitterness.

Interested in boosting your immune health with antioxidants and a quick sugar rush? Let them get a little brown and soft. It's the good kind of sugar, the one that feeds your brain and gives you energy!

If you enjoyed these thoughts and think we have something in common, I have a feeling you're going to love Urban Monk Academy. It's home to all the classes I teach, from Qi Gong to Life Gardening, Dream Yoga, Gut Health, and even Tantra (I teach that live!), and for two weeks, you can try it for free.