These are the benefits of bananas for your health
KONTAN.CO.ID – JAKARTA. Bananas are not only delicious but also have many health benefits when consumed regularly.
Bananas are one of those unseasonable fruits that are easy to find all the time. This sweet-tasting fruit is often used as a snack, a mixture of ingredients for making bread or cakes, to a complement to healthy porridge.
Behind the delicious green when raw and yellow when ripe, bananas have a myriad of nutrients that are beneficial to health.
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Launching Live Science, bananas contain vitamins C, B6, the mineral magnesium, and potassium or potassium. In addition, bananas are also rich in anti-oxidants, copper, manganese and other nutrients.
Armed with a series of nutrients, here are some of the benefits of bananas for health:
1 Maintain heart health
The potassium or potassium content in bananas can help to maintain a healthy heart. These electrolyte minerals make electricity flow throughout the body, so that the heart keeps beating.
High intake of potassium and low sodium such as bananas can also prevent high blood pressure, the source of heart disease. Laboratory tests in 2017 by researchers from the University of Alabama US found that the potassium in bananas can prevent arteries from hardening.
Stiff or hardened arteries in humans can cause heart disease.
2. Helps overcome depression
Bananas can also help overcome mental health problems with depression. The tryptophan in bananas can be converted by the body into serotonin. This substance is important for improving mood.
Tryptophan is also known to treat insomnia. As is well known, insomnia can worsen depression. In addition, the vitamin B6 in bananas can help you sleep better, and the magnesium helps relax muscle tension.
3. Helps lose weight
Banana is a fruit that is often used to maintain ideal body weight. The taste is sweet and long lasting can resist unhealthy snacking cravings.
This fruit is also rich in fiber, so it can help keep bowel movements smooth and regular. Eating one banana can provide 10% of fiber needs per day. Vitamin B6 can also help with weight loss.
4. Maintain blood sugar levels
Launching Healthline, bananas are rich in pectin, a type of fiber whose flesh looks like a sponge. Raw bananas also contain resistant starch, which acts like soluble fiber and is good for digestion and controlling blood sugar.
Pectin and resistant starch can prevent blood sugar from spiking after meals. Bananas can also reduce appetite by slowing down gastric emptying.
In addition, bananas also have a low glycemic index. This means bananas do not cause a healthy person’s blood sugar. However, be careful with type 2 diabetes sufferers. The sugar level of ripe bananas is quite high.
5. Restores energy drained
Bananas have been shown to recharge energy and electrolytes after strenuous physical activity. From the results of studies involving athletes, this fruit is said to be more effective at restoring energy lost after exercise than energy drinks.
According to experts, the serotonin and dopamine in bananas increase antioxidant capacity, cope with oxidative stress, and improve physical performance.
6. Maintain eye health
So far, carrots have a reputation for helping to maintain eye health. But, it turns out that bananas also have similar benefits.
The content of vitamin A in carrots can protect eye health. Vitamin A is a compound that can protect the membranes around the eyes and a protein that can bring light to the cornea of the eye.
Like other fruits, bananas can also help prevent macular degeneration, a condition that causes blurred vision due to aging.
7. Helps bones stay strong
The calcium content in bananas can help keep bones strong. Additionally, according to a study published in the Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry, bananas are high in fructooligosaccharides.
These substances are non-digestive carbohydrates that boost probiotics and increase the body’s ability to absorb calcium.
8. Prevent kidney cancer
Some evidence shows that regularly eating bananas can prevent kidney cancer. A 2005 study from Sweden found that women who ate four to six bananas a week had a reduced risk of developing kidney cancer.
Bananas can prevent kidney cancer because of their high levels of antioxidant phenolic compounds.
9. Maintain the health of pregnant women
The benefits of bananas for pregnant women can help prevent diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes). Lack of sleep during pregnancy can lead to gestational diabetes.
The magnesium and tryptophan in bananas can help you sleep better. In addition, consumption of potassium-rich intake such as bananas can also help pregnant boys.
With a myriad of health benefits of bananas, don’t hesitate to add this healthy fruit to your daily menu (Mahardini Nur Afifah)
Also Read: Do you have diabetes? This fruit is safe for consumption