No bananas due to sugar content?

Tacklewasher

The only thing I notice is bananas are fairly low in fiber compared to other fruit (looking at apples in my diary). I do usually have one banana at lunch, but I munch on a couple apples a day as well as that gets me about half the fiber I need.

ekim2016

banana a day is my way... 105 calories for meadium

psychod787

janejellyroll wrote: »

psychod787 wrote: »

I would think it may have more to do with caloric density. A large banana has 120 cals I believe with 30grams of carbs. Only 3 grams of fiber. A carb is just a sugar wrapped in a polysaccharide chain I believe. Bananas are just carb dense.

So are lots of foods. What's the point?

Only a reason I think that their trainers might have told them to avoid bananas. Nothing wrong with carbs at all, or fat, or protein. just a guess. If these ladies are on really low calories such as dieting down for a show or photo shoot and have low carbs, then I could see how a trainer might tell then to avoid them.

cwolfman13

Bananas make the roof of my mouth itch...

jgnatca

janisseshirley wrote: »

lemurcat 12, you said all fruits are carb dense. I also saw where someone wrote that carbs are sugar. Since I am diabetic I have been told to avoid carbs. So what carbs are good for me that I shouldn't avoid? Fruits and vegetables? Being the case should I avoid certain ones in order not to go over my suggested carb allowance?

Hi, my diabetes is in remission from significant weight loss. I see that @lemurcat12 and @rheddmobile provided comprehensive responses.

"Avoid carbs" is such generic advice, and decidedly unhelpful. When I was diagnosed insulin resistant, I asked for referral to a dietitian and I started my long journey to education. I tested my blood sugar after meals and pretty quick learned what would spike me.

I am pretty sure you haven't managed to avoid ALL carbs. So some will be necessary. It's really not about eliminating carbs but monitoring how much and eating them as part of the overall diet. Eating on a schedule is almost as important as what you are eating.

I didn't eat bananas very often but when I did I'd be sure to have some protein as well.

psychod787

Aaron_K123 wrote: »

psychod787 wrote: »

I would think it may have more to do with caloric density. A large banana has 120 cals I believe with 30grams of carbs. Only 3 grams of fiber. A carb is just a sugar wrapped in a polysaccharide chain I believe. Bananas are just carb dense.

Sugars and carbohydrates are essentially the same thing. A polysaccharide is just a chain of linked sugars. Starch is an example of a polysaccharide. So pasta is sugar, a potato is sugar etc etc. Carbs are sugar in the sense that they are comprised of sugar units and when digested essentially are just sugar.

The only semantic difference between them is that carbohydrates refer to anything that is hydrated carbon (ie the formula CxH2xOx where x can be any number) while the term sugar tends to be reserved for small molecular hydrocarbons like monosaccharides (glucose, fructose) or disaccharides (sucrose, maltose etc). But all of them are the same in terms of energy content per gram.

The real issue is that a lot of modern foods used heavily refined sugar as an additive which adds to the overall sugar content of foods that normally would not have a lot of sugar. As sugar tends to be low satiation per calorie that has aided in the growing problem of obesity for sure. Things like high-fructose corn syrup for example. Problem is the general public just waaaay oversimplified that into "sugar is bad" which it most certainly is not. Too much sugar can lead to caloric excess, like with too much of anything.

Foods that tend to be high sugar and low nutrients tend to be the "bad" foods in terms of diet only in the sense that they have a lot of calories for the amount of satiation you get out of them. Banannas are fairly high sugar but they also have a lot of nutrients...high in potassium for example. I'd say you'd be better off having a bannana than a bowl of pasta or a piece of white bread.

Agreed, healthy food is always better than refined. As a flexible diet follower, I know no food is bad or good.

J72FIT

ldscott716 wrote: »

The fruit quiets the beast. Celery does not.

Indeed...

jgnatca

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Bananas make the roof of my mouth itch...

Allergic response. Avoid.

143tobe

There really should be an 11th commandment. "Thou shalt not hate on bananas." And this is being said by someone who does Keto.

janisseshirley

As a general rule, you should not be going over your carb allowance, whether foods are "good for you" or not, because hyperglycemia is not good for anybody. But your carb allowance is only a starting point until you learn what you can and can't tolerate. Aim for never higher than 180 (the ADA recommendation) after meals, with no higher than 140 (about the highest non-diabetic people reach after eating) after most meals, and preferably even lower than that.[/quote]

I do monitor my glucose levels and I stay within the 180 range after meals. As for my carbs, I had been adding lots of fiber to my diet which seemed to make up most of my carb allowance. I don't seem to have spikes, but I think my sugar is more controled by my medicine right now than my diet. So should I lower my carb intake? It is mostly made up of fruits and vegetables and grains. I do not eat pastas or potatoes or white breads or buiscuits, or gravies anymore.

gboybama

I fear this may be a thread where we're all talking to ourselves. That seems to happen sometimes when an OP doesn't get the answer they wanted or expected.

jgnatca

I do monitor my glucose levels and I stay within the 180 range after meals. As for my carbs, I had been adding lots of fiber to my diet which seemed to make up most of my carb allowance. I don't seem to have spikes, but I think my sugar is more controled by my medicine right now than my diet. So should I lower my carb intake? It is mostly made up of fruits and vegetables and grains. I do not eat pastas or potatoes or white breads or buiscuits, or gravies anymore.

It sounds like you are well controlled. If you want to lower carbs more you will have to take care that your blood sugar does not go too low. You might need medical assistance to figure out if you want to lower your carb intake further (might include lowering medication as well).

Momepro

That reminds me of a time last year when my 3 year old's preschool snack was taken away for having too much sugar. It was 100% organic apple sauce, no sweetner added. She pitched a fit and they ended up firing the dietician and getting a new one

Aaron_K123

rheddmobile wrote: »

janisseshirley wrote: »

lemurcat 12, you said all fruits are carb dense. I also saw where someone wrote that carbs are sugar. Since I am diabetic I have been told to avoid carbs. So what carbs are good for me that I shouldn't avoid? Fruits and vegetables? Being the case should I avoid certain ones in order not to go over my suggested carb allowance?

Carbs are not sugar, sugar is one type of carb. It's like squares and rectangles. All sugars are carbs but not all carbs are sugar. Carbs also include starches and fiber. Fiber is indigestible and doesn't matter to you as a diabetic. But other non-sugary carbs will also spike your blood glucose so you need to pay attention to those too.

If you are diabetic you should be testing your blood glucose using a meter after eating new foods until you learn how much of each kind you can tolerate. For example, I can eat about half a banana without problems, but a whole one will spike me.

Carb tolerance of particular foods is very individual to each diabetic and you really NEED to test, whatever your doctor may have told you. For example, most nutritionists will advise that diabetics can eat legumes because those are "slow" carbs, but legumes spike me. Most nutritionists will advise to avoid potatoes, but I can eat quite a large serving of potatoes with no problems. I can eat lots of fruit without issues, but for some weird reason I have problems with cabbage. Other people are the exact opposite. Test at one hour and two hours after meals until you learn your own body. Your body knows best.

As a general rule, you should not be going over your carb allowance, whether foods are "good for you" or not, because hyperglycemia is not good for anybody. But your carb allowance is only a starting point until you learn what you can and can't tolerate. Aim for never higher than 180 (the ADA recommendation) after meals, with no higher than 140 (about the highest non-diabetic people reach after eating) after most meals, and preferably even lower than that.

Can you name a digestible carbohydrate that is not broken down into its constituent sugars upon digestion?

Momepro

Momepro wrote: »

That reminds me of a time last year when my 3 year old's preschool snack was taken away for having too much sugar. It was 100% organic apple sauce, no sweetner added. She pitched a fit and they ended up firing the dietician and getting a new one

My 3 year old nephew, not my three year old. His mother pitched the fit. And I probably shouldn't type with a headache.

DragonHasTheSapphire

What's next? People eliminating fruit from their diet entirely?

bbell1985

I don't eat bananas. Not because of the sugar, but because the carbs do make it more calorie dense than I'd really like for fruit...as it won't fill me up, so I'd rather get my sugar from a cookie lol.

kimny72

Sauleeh wrote: »

Heya everyone. I'm trying to educate myself a little more so I want to hear about your knowledge on the subject.
I have two girls I work with both have had personal trainers set up food plans for them. Both have said that their personal trainers don't recommend eating bananas because of the sugar content. But isn't the sugar in a banana different? I don't eat bananas every day but I'd eat them pretty often as a little snack to fill me and I would never be worried of the sugar content. Is there a reason why they'd be advised not to eat a banana over the sugar in them? Is there a reason? I just got pretty annoyed at them for speaking about bananas being so bad because nobody has ever complained about gaining weight from too many bananas...

If their personal trainers do not also have nutrition certification, they shouldn't be telling clients what to eat, and this story is a perfect example of why. Bananas are yummy.

Momepro

bbell1985 wrote: »

I don't eat bananas. Not because of the sugar, but because the carbs do make it more calorie dense than I'd really like for fruit...as it won't fill me up, so I'd rather get my sugar from a cookie lol.

I don't eat them because they taste totally disgusting to me.

apullum

There are a lot of fad diets and pop culture diet "advice" that demonize sugar. This isn't really new. People have been trying to sell sugar-free things for weight loss since at least the 1990s. (You may or may not be old enough to remember the sugar free craze back then, but I certainly do!) More recently, folks seem to have extended this idea to also include not eating fruit.

However, sugar (as was so nicely explained earlier in the thread) has important functions in the body, and unless you're diabetic or have other medical reasons to restrict sugar, there's no reason to see it as the enemy. The fact remains that sugar, just like any other food, does not in itself lead to weight gain. You gain weight by eating more calories than you burn, and you lose weight by burning more calories than you eat. You can eat sugar and still lose weight. Unless you are diabetic or have other medical conditions, you can eat sugar in moderation and still be healthy if it's part of a well-rounded diet.

Fun fact: in the 1930s, there was a fad diet that consisted of bananas and skim milk. http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-diet-timeline-20150228-story.html If you google it, you can find people who still advocate following this diet. People have always had weird and nutritionally dubious ideas about weight loss.