Bananas are a sweet, creamy, delicious fruit that have firmly found their way into our everyday diet.
Although they are a fruit, meaning that they are completely natural, bananas have a bit of a bad reputation as a health food and many people steer clear of bananas when they are following a post pregnancy weight loss plan.
But bananas are a delicious food, packed with health benefits that can actually help you to lose weight when eaten in the right quantities and are great for adding into your Lose Baby Weight healthy eating plan.
Bananas are fairly low in calories – they contain 108 calories for a medium banana, making them a great choice for a healthy eating snack food.
The healthy eating benefits of bananas
They are also packed with dietary fibre, containing 11% of your recommended daily allowance in one serving. Dietary fibre helps to keep your bowel movements regular, as you cannot digest it and so your body needs to get rid of it.
Regular bowel movements ensure the health of your bowel, lowering your risk of bowel cancer. Dietary fibre is also a great weight loss tool, as it fills you up, but as you cannot digest it, you don’t take in any calories from it.
One banana contains 13% of your daily recommended allowance of potassium, making them a great fruit to include in your diet if your potassium levels are low.
Eating enough potassium will help to lower your blood pressure which reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke. Potassium also helps to neutralise sodium levels in a person’s diet, protecting against brittle bones and enabling proper blood clotting and function of the nervous system. High levels of sodium could cause you to retain water weight, so eating bananas could help you to shed excess water weight.
Bananas also contact a nutrient known as FOS which helps to promote absorption of certain nutrients, such as calcium. Including bananas in your diet could help you to absorb more nutrients from the rest of your food – which has to be a bonus!
The FOS in bananas also helps the healthy bacteria in your stomach and colon to flourish, giving you a stronger dietary tract, enabling you to take in more goodness from your food.
Bananas are also rich in vitamin B6 – one banana contains around 34% of your daily recommended allowance. Vitamin B6 is a very important vitamin and eating foods that are rich in it could reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. Vitamin B6 is anti-inflammatory, so it could also help to reduce any acute inflammatory conditions you may be experiencing.
Rich in an insoluble carbohydrate known as resistant starch, which is thought to promote fat burning, some people believe that eating a banana for breakfast could help you to take in less calories during the day, boosting your weight loss – and for this reason they are great for adding into your Healthy Mummy Smoothies.
Keep an eye on your portions. Include a wide range of fruit and non-starchy vegetables in your diet, along with a daily banana, and you could see your weight loss boosted.
Whiz bananas into your favourite Healthy Mummy smoothie, slice them on top of your favourite cereal or yoghurt or freeze them into bite-sized sweet snacks.
If you are ready to lose weight then the Lose Baby Weight plans offer a healthy and safe exercise and diet routine.
And don’t forget to check out our current promotions and discounts page to see what specials we have on this week on our Healthy Mummy product range
