Health Benefits of Bananas

| Modified on Apr 24, 2017
Health Benefits of Bananas

Bananas are not just for monkeys or children. Bananas are a perfect snack full of beneficial nutrients; they even come with their own packaging! Bananas are a home remedy for warts, muscle cramps, and diarrhea.

Bananas are convenient, inexpensive and portable. A single banana is rather filling, contains only 100 calories or so, and is highly nutritious. A banana contains about 10% of your daily need for potassium and magnesium. It also contains vitamin A and C, folic acid, calcium and phosphorus in addition to trace amounts of B vitamins, selenium and manganese.

Bananas are a great way to "let your food be your medicine."

Electrolyte Replacement

After a work out, a banana and a glass of water will replace your electrolytes better than a sports drink. A banana is all natural and contains none of the added sugars, colors, and preservatives that a sports drink has.

Diarrhea

Bananas are part of the classic “BRAT” diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) which is recommended to treat diarrhea. Bananas have a binding effect while providing lost nutrients and electrolytes.

Ulcers

Bananas are gentle to a delicate stomach and can even be healing to ulcers and colitis.

Warts

Have you ever heard about using the peel of a banana to get rid of a wart? Simply scrape the inside of a banana peel and apply the scrapings to a wart and cover with a bandage. Change the bandage and banana scraping twice daily until your wart has resolved.

Muscle Cramps

Muscle cramps are often caused by a lack of potassium and magnesium. A banana can quickly restore the needed balance.

Restless Leg Syndrome

Again, potassium and magnesium are needed for muscles to relax. If you suffer from restless leg syndrome, a banana before bed may help you to sleep.

Heart Health

Potassium and magnesium are needed for the heart to function properly. Bananas are an excellent part of a heart healthy diet. Eaten regularly they may help to lower cholesterol.

How to Eat Bananas

If you get tired eating just a plain banana, get creative with your banana consumption.

  • Add to cereal or oatmeal for breakfast.
  • Freeze ripe bananas and use them in smoothies.
  • Make banana bread.
  • Have a banana sandwich with mayonnaise on whole wheat.
  • Slice your banana and eat it with peanut butter or almond butter.

Bananas for Beauty

Mashed ripe banana can be used as a face mask! The banana is a gentle exfoliant and helps to tighten skin. Use the banana plain or add a teaspoon of honey to it. (1/2 a banana will be plenty.) Gently massage the banana onto your clean face and allow it to sit for 10 minutes. Rinse your face and pat dry.

Do you eat bananas for your health? Please send us some feedback!




Celiac

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Posted by Md (Toronto) on 03/28/2016
★★★★★

My mother, who lives in India, had severe Celiac disease for three years. Lost her health and looked very weak. Nothing worked for her. One day she took juice and pulp of inside of a banana tree (i.e soft white part of stem) a cup for 3-4 times a day and next day blood in poop and pee totally stopped. We eat and cook stem of banana tree as vegetable, it's very common there. Since she suffered so long with this terrible disease, now she has burning / sensitive tongue and mouth. Which I believe is Vitamin B12 deficiency. So she just started taking Vitamin B complex tablet. At her place she could not find to buy only B12 tablets.


Cramps

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Posted by Mary (Euclid, Oh) on 08/07/2012
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I have sciatica/back pain and had an epidural shot right before my son's wedding which made a huge difference and I enjoyed my son's wedding although afterwards my calves were cramping horribly from all the dancing and a friend recommended eating a banana that it may help.....

recently I noticed that my sciatica was beginning to become more bothersome and some days I worried that it was going to go back to the way it was before the shot. Well I started eating bananas daily and I felt wonderful. Then one week I was unable to go to the grocery store and had to go with out bananas...... By the next weekend my pain was almost severe.... I was able to get to the store and started eating the bananas again.... In 2 days the pain was almost totally gone! I am hoping this will work always...... Will post back in about a month to give an update!


Plantars Warts

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Posted by K Ryker (West Virginia, US) on 05/08/2014
★★★★★

I've had a plantar wart on my right heel for over 4 years now. It stayed relatively small for about 2 years until it started irritating me, growing larger, and making it uncomfortable to run far distances (I'm a runner). I went to the doctor to have it, and several other smaller plantar's warts he noticed removed off the heels of both of my feet, but within weeks they returned back to how they were before. I bought at-home wart removal kits, which also resulted in a slight decrease in size, only to come back bigger and worse than before the treatment. I found this website and thought "what the heck" and within a single week all of my plantar's warts have vanished aside from the initial one that showed up years ago, which is dead and I predict will fall off within the next week.
Here is what I did:
I read a lot of reviews about applying only scrapes of banana peel to the warts, but because within the last few months the amount of plantar's warts increased dramatically (anywhere from 30-50, gross I know, small ones on both feet), as well as migrating to the sides of my feet, I decided to duct tape the peel itself to my feet.
I would shower, use a pumice stone to scrape away at my feet until they were nearly raw (because of how many plantar's warts there were and the callouses were getting worse), and then apply the banana peel. I ended up duct-taping almost the entirety of both of my feet. I would put socks on to keep the tape from falling off. I'm a waitress and a runner so I'm on my feet almost all day every day, and I would wear the banana peel and duct tape on my feet until the next time I showered, usually the next night. I would repeat this process, not letting my feet "breathe" aside from when I was showering. I've let my feet breathe for the last few days just to let the dead plantar's warts fall out and such, but I plan to repeat this process again starting today until this last plantar's wart has also disappeared. I will swear by the banana peel method to my grave, I never thought I would be plantar wart free without surgery.


Warts

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Posted by Sravanthi (India) on 07/31/2013
★★★★★

I can't still believe that my three year old wart on my leg finger is vanishing. I applied acid on it , later painful laser surgery and again acid application. I found that it is not working and the wart is spreading to another finger.

i read all you comments and It gave a boost up to start using the banana peel. It really worked. It has been a week that I put a banana peel with the inside of the peel touching the wart and used a band aid to hold it through out the day. I changed it every day. The new ones disappeared in four days. the bigger one (around half an inch dia) is almost gone and I can feel the soft flesh now.

I thank all of those who contributed by giving their valuable feedback. Banana peel really works. And it is painless, no chemicals and cheapest cure ever. Kudos to the Mother Nature...