Food Focus: Bananas

As you probably already know, the fruit named banana is a high calorie tropical fruit. A serving of 100g of bananas (approx. 2/5 cup smashed bananas) contains around 90 calories. It is easy to digest and provides almost immediate energy due to its simple sugars like fructose and sucrose. It also contains soluble fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Bananas contain health promoting flavonoids and is a very good source of vitamin B6 (about 28% of the RDA) and provides minerals like copper, magnesium, manganese, and is a very rich source of potassium, which helps control heart rate and blood pressure. In terms of percentage of RDA, bananas contains:

Vitamins
- Folates – 5%
- Niacin – 4%
- Pantothenic acid – 7%
- Pyridoxine (Vitamin B-6) – 28%
- Riboflavin –5%
- Thiamin – 2%
- Vitamin A – 2%
- Vitamin C – 15%
- Vitamin E – 1%
- Vitamin K – 1%
Electrolytes
- Potassium – 8%
Minerals
- Calcium – 0.5%
- Copper – 8%
- Iron – 2%
- Magnesium – 7%
- Manganese – 13%
- Phosphorous – 3%
- Selenium – 2%
- Zinc – 1%