Thoughts on bananas. ..
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If you like bananas eat. Make sure to weigh them. They're not all 100 calories. Some are huge.0
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Plantains are huge and always blow my sugar (if I cared).
So the rec to eat plantains instead seems dumb.
Bananas are fine.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Plantains are huge and always blow my sugar (if I cared).
So the rec to eat plantains instead seems dumb.
Bananas are fine.
Personally I eat half a plantain at a time. They're also a staple in some cultures. As far as I know they're starchy and have to be cooked prior to eating, so although so similar to bananas in appearance, it's hard for me to place them under the same category since bananas are ready to eat raw once ripe
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So after reading all the replies. ...can I eat a banana without worrying I'm gonna gain weight ☺☺0
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »A large banana is not very different from a cupcake in terms of macros. They are very high in carbs/sugar, so they always need to be weighed carefully.
If you are not sensitive to carbs, they are probably just fine. If you are...they are probably a no-go or an occasional treat food.
Personally, I prefer plantains if I am going to stray that far from my goals. I just enjoy them more.
There are tons of foods that have more potassium with fewer carbs and calories if that is what you are after. Try a cup of spinach--only 8 calories!
Okay, so a cup of Spinach has 8 times the amount of sodium than a cup of bananas. Are we going to start seeing people offering a cup of Spinach after a 5k race? I hope not! Bananas for the win!! Win!! Win!!
I would agree to measure the banana very carefully. As many women have noted a small banana keeps them satisfied. Plantains, cupcakes, and ice cream are different topics though.
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dawniemate wrote: »So after reading all the replies. ...can I eat a banana without worrying I'm gonna gain weight ☺☺
If it fits into your calorie allotment for the day you can have a large meatlover's pizza with extra meat on top and you won't gain weight
just stick to your deficit--and compared to that pizza, a banana is nothing! Especially if you don't heap on the peanut butter like I always do 
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Faithful_Chosen wrote: »dawniemate wrote: »So after reading all the replies. ...can I eat a banana without worrying I'm gonna gain weight ☺☺
If it fits into your calorie allotment for the day you can have a large meatlover's pizza with extra meat on top and you won't gain weight just stick to your deficit--and compared to that pizza, a banana is nothing! Especially if you don't heap on the peanut butter like I always do
Hey, I had a slice of that yesterday! And I had a banana. Overall, I did go over my calories for the day but only by about 45 or so, but I was under goal all last week, so it's all good.
I had a banana, slice of pizza, tacos and a brownie all in one day. Win!0 -
MommyL2015 wrote: »Faithful_Chosen wrote: »dawniemate wrote: »So after reading all the replies. ...can I eat a banana without worrying I'm gonna gain weight ☺☺
If it fits into your calorie allotment for the day you can have a large meatlover's pizza with extra meat on top and you won't gain weight just stick to your deficit--and compared to that pizza, a banana is nothing! Especially if you don't heap on the peanut butter like I always do
Hey, I had a slice of that yesterday! And I had a banana. Overall, I did go over my calories for the day but only by about 45 or so, but I was under goal all last week, so it's all good.
I had a banana, slice of pizza, tacos and a brownie all in one day. Win!
Big win! And well under maintenance too (assuming you are using MFP correctly) so you actually lost weight eating all that! ;-)))0 -
My issue is that an apple or an orange will be more filling for me for the calories... I hardly have bananas anymore.0
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Bananas are horrid OP. Horrid fattening toxic things.
.... Excellent. Hopefully more for me now.
I honestly think they're one of my favourite snacks. I get irrationally sad when I come down to the kitchen of a morning and there's none left.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Plantains are huge and always blow my sugar (if I cared).
So the rec to eat plantains instead seems dumb.
Bananas are fine.
Personally I eat half a plantain at a time. They're also a staple in some cultures. As far as I know they're starchy and have to be cooked prior to eating, so although so similar to bananas in appearance, it's hard for me to place them under the same category since bananas are ready to eat raw once ripe
Yeah, I think of plantains as more like potatoes or sweet potatoes.0 -
PeachyCarol wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »A large banana is not very different from a cupcake in terms of macros. They are very high in carbs/sugar, so they always need to be weighed carefully.
If you are not sensitive to carbs, they are probably just fine. If you are...they are probably a no-go or an occasional treat food.
Personally, I prefer plantains if I am going to stray that far from my goals. I just enjoy them more.
There are tons of foods that have more potassium with fewer carbs and calories if that is what you are after. Try a cup of spinach--only 8 calories!
Please. Our carb intakes are not that far apart for all you say you eat low carb and... yet I have room in my day for a banana.
No different than a cupcake? Hyperbole.
And you would know what my carb intake is per day...how?
If a banana is 60 grams and I need to be around 75G/day, that is going to seriously limit what I can eat for the rest of my day. It's not a terribly brilliant way to spend your carbs if you need to be on a moderate or low-carb diet.
I am not talking about an enormous Panera cupcake...I am talking about a small one with minimal frosting.0 -
It's a fruit! I think that is false for sure. If it fits in calories I think its great. Def has a lot of health benefits0
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Most things that you can pick off of a plant are good for you. I can't imagine that anyone got fat eating bananas, beets or carrots because of their sugar level. We should eat more vegetables and fruit and stop paying attention to knuckleheads who decide that a whole non processed food is bad for you.0
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caroldavison332 wrote: »Most things that you can pick off of a plant are good for you. I can't imagine that anyone got fat eating bananas, beets or carrots because of their sugar level. We should eat more vegetables and fruit and stop paying attention to knuckleheads who decide that a whole non processed food is bad for you.
well done on that comment! agree 100%
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »PeachyCarol wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »A large banana is not very different from a cupcake in terms of macros. They are very high in carbs/sugar, so they always need to be weighed carefully.
If you are not sensitive to carbs, they are probably just fine. If you are...they are probably a no-go or an occasional treat food.
Personally, I prefer plantains if I am going to stray that far from my goals. I just enjoy them more.
There are tons of foods that have more potassium with fewer carbs and calories if that is what you are after. Try a cup of spinach--only 8 calories!
Please. Our carb intakes are not that far apart for all you say you eat low carb and... yet I have room in my day for a banana.
No different than a cupcake? Hyperbole.
And you would know what my carb intake is per day...how?
If a banana is 60 grams and I need to be around 75G/day, that is going to seriously limit what I can eat for the rest of my day. It's not a terribly brilliant way to spend your carbs if you need to be on a moderate or low-carb diet.
I am not talking about an enormous Panera cupcake...I am talking about a small one with minimal frosting.
Hmm? I might be a bit confused here. A 100g banana is coming up as 22.8g of carbs, 2.6g of fiber, and even some protein thrown in there. To have 60g of carbs from a banana, you would need to eat 263g of bananas
As to the cupcake, If you tweak portion sizes enough, I suppose just about anything is comparable.
PS: Your diary is public. Is this recent? If not, that's how one might have known what your typical carb intake might be0 -
Yes, us knuckleheads who actually LOOK at the nutritional details. Bananas have many, many times the sugar of carrots or beets. Most tropical fruits are quite a bit higher in sugar than other fruits.
The other thing to consider in eating bananas is that they aren't an environmentally or socially sustainable product. A few reasons why:
1. They are monocropped and grown with extraordinarily high levels of pesticide, in countries where there are no limitations on the kinds of pesticides that can be used. Cavendish is pretty much the only variety grown commercially these days, which is horrible for the food web. Worker conditions on banana plantations are atrocious.
2. Bananas have a huge carbon footprint. For example, bananas grown inland in Ecuador are trucked from the southern part of the country to Machala or Guayaquil, then put on refrigerated container ships, where they spend 2+ weeks in transit getting to the US. Then they have to be trucked inland--bananas are not moved by train, which would be somewhat more energy efficient. Most bananas come into the US via San Francisco, New Orleans or New York. If you live a long ways from one of those ports, your banana had to be driven to you, burning gas and contributing to global warming. An apple that you can buy locally? Much more responsible in terms of carbon burned to get the fruit into your hand.
3. Bananas have huge social and political impacts. The history of bananas in Latin America is not pretty--see United Fruit and Guatemala for one of many examples. Currently, in Ecuador, banana production is controlled by several families that are basically a mafia. If you've ever heard of the Lebanese mafia in South America...well, they are funded by bananas. In Europe, most bananas are imported from Africa, were there are similar horror stories. Export crops like bananas prop up dictatorships.
Food is all about choice--nutrition is just one aspect of the choice that we are making.0 -
caroldavison332 wrote: »Most things that you can pick off of a plant are good for you. I can't imagine that anyone got fat eating bananas, beets or carrots because of their sugar level. We should eat more vegetables and fruit and stop paying attention to knuckleheads who decide that a whole non processed food is bad for you.
Someone doesn't know much about botany. I could walk out in my yard right now and pick at least three things off of plants that would be fatal if ingested. Plants are not universally benevolent.
aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/landscape/poisonous-plants-resources/common-poisonous-plants-and-plant-parts/
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »PeachyCarol wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »A large banana is not very different from a cupcake in terms of macros. They are very high in carbs/sugar, so they always need to be weighed carefully.
If you are not sensitive to carbs, they are probably just fine. If you are...they are probably a no-go or an occasional treat food.
Personally, I prefer plantains if I am going to stray that far from my goals. I just enjoy them more.
There are tons of foods that have more potassium with fewer carbs and calories if that is what you are after. Try a cup of spinach--only 8 calories!
Please. Our carb intakes are not that far apart for all you say you eat low carb and... yet I have room in my day for a banana.
No different than a cupcake? Hyperbole.
And you would know what my carb intake is per day...how?
If a banana is 60 grams and I need to be around 75G/day, that is going to seriously limit what I can eat for the rest of my day. It's not a terribly brilliant way to spend your carbs if you need to be on a moderate or low-carb diet.
I am not talking about an enormous Panera cupcake...I am talking about a small one with minimal frosting.
Your diary is public. 100 grams of banana is 23 grams of carbs, and unlike the cupcake will provide vitamin B-6, vitamin C, and magnesium in addition to the potassium.
It's also a pretty brilliant way to sweeten up a bowl of plain Greek yogurt.
You seem to eat around 100 g of carbs a day. Your choice, of course whether to eat bananas or not as part of that allowance -- but as is your usual pattern, you seem to think what rules you decide to apply to yourself should apply to everyone else.
Why do you do that?
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Hmm... I wonder how they keep the bananas from going bad or over ripe through 2+ weeks of transportation?
Ah, refrigerated container ships, missed that part
Well. Just by being alive in certain parts of the world, we're probably using more energy than an entire small village in other parts. Perhaps quitting bananas and selling my SUV will be the first step towards equalizing that imbalance. Just kidding. I don't drive an SUV0 -
100 grams of banana has less sugar than 100 grams of grapes.0
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I have lost all my 25/26 pounds, and am maintaining, while eating around one banana a day, at breakfast, with cereal or with a peanut butter sandwich. My blood work report last December reported low potassium, and a banana a day was a nice, painless way to help build that mineral up. I like them, too, a great deal.0
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PeachyCarol wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »PeachyCarol wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »A large banana is not very different from a cupcake in terms of macros. They are very high in carbs/sugar, so they always need to be weighed carefully.
If you are not sensitive to carbs, they are probably just fine. If you are...they are probably a no-go or an occasional treat food.
Personally, I prefer plantains if I am going to stray that far from my goals. I just enjoy them more.
There are tons of foods that have more potassium with fewer carbs and calories if that is what you are after. Try a cup of spinach--only 8 calories!
Please. Our carb intakes are not that far apart for all you say you eat low carb and... yet I have room in my day for a banana.
No different than a cupcake? Hyperbole.
And you would know what my carb intake is per day...how?
If a banana is 60 grams and I need to be around 75G/day, that is going to seriously limit what I can eat for the rest of my day. It's not a terribly brilliant way to spend your carbs if you need to be on a moderate or low-carb diet.
I am not talking about an enormous Panera cupcake...I am talking about a small one with minimal frosting.
Your diary is public. 100 grams of banana is 23 grams of carbs, and unlike the cupcake will provide vitamin B-6, vitamin C, and magnesium in addition to the potassium.
It's also a pretty brilliant way to sweeten up a bowl of plain Greek yogurt.
You seem to eat around 100 g of carbs a day. Your choice, of course whether to eat bananas or not as part of that allowance -- but as is your usual pattern, you seem to think what rules you decide to apply to yourself should apply to everyone else.
Why do you do that?
Sweetens up my bowl of oatmeal every weekday morning too......0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »Yes, us knuckleheads who actually LOOK at the nutritional details. Bananas have many, many times the sugar of carrots or beets. Most tropical fruits are quite a bit higher in sugar than other fruits.
The other thing to consider in eating bananas is that they aren't an environmentally or socially sustainable product. A few reasons why:
1. They are monocropped and grown with extraordinarily high levels of pesticide, in countries where there are no limitations on the kinds of pesticides that can be used. Cavendish is pretty much the only variety grown commercially these days, which is horrible for the food web. Worker conditions on banana plantations are atrocious.
2. Bananas have a huge carbon footprint. For example, bananas grown inland in Ecuador are trucked from the southern part of the country to Machala or Guayaquil, then put on refrigerated container ships, where they spend 2+ weeks in transit getting to the US. Then they have to be trucked inland--bananas are not moved by train, which would be somewhat more energy efficient. Most bananas come into the US via San Francisco, New Orleans or New York. If you live a long ways from one of those ports, your banana had to be driven to you, burning gas and contributing to global warming. An apple that you can buy locally? Much more responsible in terms of carbon burned to get the fruit into your hand.
3. Bananas have huge social and political impacts. The history of bananas in Latin America is not pretty--see United Fruit and Guatemala for one of many examples. Currently, in Ecuador, banana production is controlled by several families that are basically a mafia. If you've ever heard of the Lebanese mafia in South America...well, they are funded by bananas. In Europe, most bananas are imported from Africa, were there are similar horror stories. Export crops like bananas prop up dictatorships.
Food is all about choice--nutrition is just one aspect of the choice that we are making.
I guess I'm lucky where I am, as our bananas come from Queensland, but a few hours away. I can eat them guilt free
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Apples, bananas, oranges - I've got all three in my kitchen
Apples - took me a while to be able to consistently buy apples that weren't mush when I bit into them. They actually tend to leave me ... Not necessarily hungry but something like it shortly after eating them, but I love slicing them up and taking them to the gym. Unlike bananas, they travel nicely and won't turn to mush while sliced up in a sandwich bag, and I can eat a quarter of an apple right in the middle of a class if I feel I'm running low on energy
Oranges - awesome. But outside of winter, they're just not as sweet (in my experience)0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »PeachyCarol wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »A large banana is not very different from a cupcake in terms of macros. They are very high in carbs/sugar, so they always need to be weighed carefully.
If you are not sensitive to carbs, they are probably just fine. If you are...they are probably a no-go or an occasional treat food.
Personally, I prefer plantains if I am going to stray that far from my goals. I just enjoy them more.
There are tons of foods that have more potassium with fewer carbs and calories if that is what you are after. Try a cup of spinach--only 8 calories!
Please. Our carb intakes are not that far apart for all you say you eat low carb and... yet I have room in my day for a banana.
No different than a cupcake? Hyperbole.
And you would know what my carb intake is per day...how?
If a banana is 60 grams and I need to be around 75G/day, that is going to seriously limit what I can eat for the rest of my day. It's not a terribly brilliant way to spend your carbs if you need to be on a moderate or low-carb diet.
I am not talking about an enormous Panera cupcake...I am talking about a small one with minimal frosting.
I am not sure I follow you. Do you mean a banana with 60 grams of carbs? That would be one heck of a banana!
One day I had a 145 gram (total weight) banana, and it was 138 calories and about 33 or so grams of carbs. I just figured out to get 60 carb grams, your banana would have to be about 262 grams (total weight) and 249 calories.
There is nothing wrong with bananas, even if you choose a low carb diet. If you like bananas, you just work it into your carb total for the day. Have a half banana or something.
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I honestly do not understand the need to moralize what essentially comes down to personal preference. This seems to happen a lot when it comes to food choice.0
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