Food of the month

Arius Norris BA, NSCA-CPT
Nov 18, 2016
2 min read

Banana

Bananas are the food of the month. The reason? They are quick, healthy and help sustain energy. Bananas are a very underestimated food and can be quickly eaten if you're on the go or if you're just too lazy to cook. It's usually the first food I eat upon waking up in the morning, after brushing my teeth of course. Like I said before, they are quick and require very little effort from you in order to be consumed, just peel and enjoy. How amazing it is that all these delicious and nutritious fruits and vegetables are at our fingertips and grown through nature's beautiful touch? The health benefits you get from a single banana are tremendous. Your typical medium sized banana has about 400-mg of potassium, which helps prevent high blood pressure and atherosclerosis (building up of fats, and cholesterol, and other substances on the artery walls). Along with that, eating one banana per day can give you 25% of your daily recommend B6 vitamin, which helps the body create neurotransmitters: chemicals that help carry signals from one nerve cell to another.

Other health aspects of bananas are that they are relatively low in sugar in comparison to other fruits. They are also considered low on the glycemic index (which is a positive). A single banana can provide enough energy for 2 hours of high intensity exercise, so it makes for a perfect pre-workout snack. It's also a great post workout snack as well, the complex carbs it provides helps restore depleted glycogen storage. There are many other benefits to be had from consuming this fruit on the regular but how could you pass it up after all the knowledge you've just gain.