Bananas are a quick and easy snack or breakfast option, but a doctor has said we’ve been eating them all wrong and it’s actually not good for our health
In the mad dash of the morning, it seems like a smart move to snag a banana as an on-the-go snack – but grabbing this yellow fruit as a solo breakfast could be a mistake.
Many of us know that breakfast is touted as the most important meal of the day, and trying to sneak in one of our five-a-day with a banana sounds like a no-brainer because of its health credentials: packed with potassium, vitamin B6 – and without any cholesterol or sodium to worry about.
Yet, not everything is as it appears, according to nutritionist Dr Daryl Gioffre. In a chat with Byrdie in 2019, Dr Gioffre shed light on why bananas may not really crack it as the best start to your day.
He said: “Bananas seem like the perfect option to grab and go in the morning, but with a closer look, you’ll find that bananas eaten alone aren’t the best option because they’re 25 per cent sugar and moderately acidic. They’ll give you a quick boost, but you’ll soon be tired and feeling hungry.”
It turns out that though noshing on a banana for brekkie isn’t the worst thing, doing so without combining it with a healthy fat robs you of some benefits and instead gets you a spike in blood sugar and acidity.
So next time you reach for that banana, remember Dr Gioffre’s words: “Without balancing this banana breakfast with a healthy fat, many of banana’s benefits are lost, while spikes in blood sugar and acid are gained.”
To combat this, he advises combining bananas with ingredients that counteract the acid and slow down the digestion of sugar, thereby avoiding the blood sugar spike and subsequent crash. He suggests pairing the fruit with healthy fats or spices.
He said: “Because bananas are acidic, you’ll have to neutralise the acid to get the benefits of potassium, fibre, and magnesium without the sugar rush”.