how many bananas in a day?

ss_explor3r
ss_explor3r Posts: 7 Member
Hi All!

I'm working on my nutrition plan to include as many quality calories in my diet as possible.

1 organic banana (150 grams) has 135 calories

30.5g carbs (out of which 27.2 g is sugar)
0.2g fat
1.8g protein

Questions:

1. Is eating 2 bananas in a day safe?
2. High sugar content of bananas. I believe that the quality of sugar obtained from banana is healthy, however due to the high sugar content in an organic banana, is it safe to eat 2 or more in a day?

The reason I would like to add more bananas in my diet plan is because it allows to add more calories in an easy way.
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Replies

  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
    Why would it not be safe to eat 2 bananas in a day? Eat has many as you like, and can fit into your nutritional needs.
  • Mithridites
    Mithridites Posts: 595 Member
    Perfectly safe. If trying to gain also look at avocados, peanut butter and other nut butters, and nuts of all kinds.
  • savageriderTX
    savageriderTX Posts: 2 Member
    You set percentages you want for all of your macros. If two bananas fit in a day, then eat them. I limit bananas because I can't do high sugars. I find kiwi fruit higher in potassium, lower in sugar and it has lots of calcium and Vitamin C. The beauty of MFP is that you set your daily goals and any food can fit in there. I find low sodium works best for me.
  • ss_explor3r
    ss_explor3r Posts: 7 Member
    Perfectly safe. If trying to gain also look at avocados, peanut butter and other nut butters, and nuts of all kinds.

    thanks, yes, I love avocados too. And I eat peanut butter straight from the jar, a couple of table spoons, it seems like an easy to way to add more calories.

    About nuts, do you think its okay to eat only one type of nuts or should I go for mixed nuts?

    I eat around 50g of cashew nuts in a day. With mixed nuts, its a bit more tedious to do the calorie calculations
  • ss_explor3r
    ss_explor3r Posts: 7 Member
    harper16 wrote: »
    Why would it not be safe to eat 2 bananas in a day? Eat has many as you like, and can fit into your nutritional needs.

    Yes, good to know. It was just the high sugar content of bananas which kind of concerned me.

    I've set my goals in MyFitnessPal application and it shows that for one day, my sugar intake should be a maximum of 106g. With 2 bananas, I get 54g of sugar and that is more than 50% of my daily sugar intake limit set by the MFP app.
  • alexmose
    alexmose Posts: 792 Member
    I read somewhere once that a person had to eat upwards of 17 bananas to get adverse health effects
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    edited June 2020
    As long as the bananas aren't crowding out other important macros or nutrition, have at it.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,365 Member
    JBanx256 wrote: »
    alexmose wrote: »
    I read somewhere once that a person had to eat upwards of 17 bananas to get adverse health effects

    17 is if they aren't organic. If you go organic, 19 is the safety cutoff.

    I just eat regular bananas since you don't (at least I don't) eat the peel and any pesticides that you are trying to avoid would be concentrated in the peel. They are also about half the price where I'm at.

    As to the original question, OP enjoy your bananas - no harm, no foul with 2 or more a day.
  • KayakerJoe
    KayakerJoe Posts: 80 Member
    Old bananas are mostly sugar and not worth eating.

    Bananas with a very slight tinge of green are perfect
  • GeneralSTpower
    GeneralSTpower Posts: 25 Member
    Doesnt matter as long as it fits into your daily calorie goals!
  • jtechmart
    jtechmart Posts: 67 Member
    I eat plenty of Bananas, sometimes 2-3 per day. I wouldn't worry about eating them. Although I used to work for the government where they did nuclear research, and during training I was told the radiation I was exposed to just being there wasn't any worse than eating 1 Banana per day. So, Bananas are radioactive. But, I don't think it's anything to worry about.
  • Sawjer
    Sawjer Posts: 229 Member
    Sugar is sugar but sugar from fruit is the not so bad sugars. Eat as my any banana's as you want up to 10 banana's I would say (Reason; A large banana provides 487 mg, x10 goes over your reccomended allowance of Pottasium (4700mg))
  • durhammfp
    durhammfp Posts: 493 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    That's because MFP has no way to track added sugar, since that's not reliably listed separately on packages, so can't be accurate in a crowd-sourced database. Health authorities like WHO, USDA, etc., suggest we limit added sugars, but are not concerned about inherent sugars in fruits, veggies, or dairy products, as long as we don't consume so much of those that we can't get enough of other essential nutrients. Your bananas, plus any other fruits/veggies/no-sugar-added dairy, aren't a worry, as long as you're getting the overall nutrition you need at proper calories.

    This is exactly why I break out fruit as its own category in my food diary. Sure there is inherent sugar in a lot of foods (like dairy) but I'm a big fruit eater so most of my sugar comes from fruit. When I'm checking my sugar for the day/week it is easy to disregard all the noise in the fruit category.

  • mullanphylane
    mullanphylane Posts: 172 Member
    Sugar is sugar, so that can be problematic - quick energy but not so good if there are any underlying medical
    conditions, and too much can be a contributing factor for many problems.

    High in potassium which can pose serious risk for anyone with heart problems.

    Bananas can be a good choice as PART OF A HEALTHY BALANCED DIET, but too much of anything is bad.

    Maybe consider a more balanced approach. Instead of looking for foods that permit you to eat more, build a meal plan that satisfies your wants as well as your needs. All too often I would plan my meals around as low a calorie count as possible so I could eat more (and worse-for-me foods). I always gained pounds that way. No I have a budget and do my best to stay within it to build a habit for a lifetime. It's working - down 30 pounds in six months.
    EAT LESS
    EAT BETTER
    MOVE MORE