Banana fruit nutrition facts
Enjoy banana fruit; nature's own energy-rich food that comes with a safety envelope! Fresh, creamy, and delicious dessert bananas are one of the cheapest and readily available fruits year around.Botanically, it belongs to the family of Musaceae. Commercially, it is one of the widely cultivated crops in the tropical and subtropical zones. Scientific name: Musa acuminata colla.
Banana is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows from the underground rhizome. It flourishes well under tropical, moisture-rich, humid, low-lying farmlands.
Banana has unique growth characteristics. In fact, the whole plant is a false stem (pseudostem). This pseudostem is consisting of broad leaves, together with their long petioles, overlapping each other in a disc-like fashion. The whole plant may reach upto 2 to 6 meters tall from the ground surface depending upon the cultivar types. At maturity, the rhizome gives rise to a flower (inflorescence) which is carried up along true core stem (smooth un-branched stem) which pass through the centre of pseudostem. The flower finally emerges out at the top in-between leaf clusters. The inflorescence subsequently develops to a huge hanging bunch, consisting of 3 to 20 hands (tiers), with each hand carrying at least 5-10 fingers (fruits).
Health benefits of banana fruit
-
Banana is one of the high calorie,
tropical fruits. 100 grams of fruit carry 90 calories. Besides, it
contains good amount of health benefiting anti-oxidants, minerals, and
vitamins.
-
Banana fruit is composed of soft, easily digestible flesh made up of
simple sugars like fructose and
sucrose that upon consumption instantly replenishes energy and
revitalizes the body. Thus, for these qualities, bananas are being used
by
athletes to get instant energy and as supplement food in the treatment
plan for underweight children.
-
The fruit holds a good amount of soluble dietary fiber (7% of DRA per 100 g) that helps normal bowel
movements; thereby reducing constipation problems.
-
It contains health promoting flavonoid
poly-phenolic antioxidants such as
lutein, zea-xanthin, ß and a-carotenes, albeit, in small amounts.
These compounds help act as protective scavengers against
oxygen-derived free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) that
play a role in aging and various disease processes.
-
Banana is good source of vitamin-B6
(pyridoxine); provides about 28% of daily-recommended allowance.
Pyridoxine is an important B-complex vitamin that has beneficial role
for the treatment of neuritis, and anemia. Further, it helps decrease homocystine (one
of the triggering factor in coronary artery disease (CHD) and stroke
- episodes) levels within the human body.
-
The fruit is also a moderate source of vitamin-C (about 8.7
mg per 100g). Consumption of foods rich in vitamin-C helps the body
develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful
oxygen-free radicals.
-
Fresh bananas provide
adequate levels of minerals like copper, magnesium,
and manganese. Magnesium is essential for bone
strengthening and has a cardiac-protective role as well. Manganese is utilized as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide
dismutase.
Copper is required in the production of red blood cells.
-
Fresh banana is a very rich
source of potassium. 100 g fruit provides 358 mg potassium. Potassium
is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps control heart rate and blood pressure,
countering bad effects of sodium.
- episodes) levels within the human body.
No comments:
Post a Comment