HEALTH NOTES

Hutt News, Volume 15, Issue 36, 25 February 1942, Page 8

HEALTH NOTES

Many people are fearful about eating bananas and in some cases this fear is quite understandable. Bananas upset them. , Jyjany.pepple are subject to digestive and other far more obscure functional .upsets following the eating of some particular fruit or other food. They I possess an idiosyncrasy to certain foods which goes to prove the truth i of the old saying "What is one man's food is another man's poison." But bananas have been indicated for many offences against their consumers through no fault of their own. In many cases the culprit has really been the consumer for eating unripe fruit. There are bananas and bananas and whereas a properly ripened banana is a very nutritious food which can be > tolerated by almost everyone, children included, an unripe or a poorly ripened banana is quite unfit for human consumption.) Of course this applies to all fruit but particularly to bananas. The unripe banana contains more than 12 per cent of crude starch arid as it "is most*"difficult to digest in this state the starch escapes the action of the saliva "ahd therefore is liable to cause a lot of digestive trouble in the intestines. Another serious objection is the fact that bananas contain a large percentage of tannin. There is practically no crude starch in ripe bananas and the amount of tannin is reduced to a negligible quantity. A well ripened banana is easily digested; an unripe one the reverse, and as so many of the bananas in the local market are eaten in an unripe state it is not difficult to understand why this fruit has fallen in the esteem of so many people. "Commercial expediency" is responsible for the condition in which most of this fruit finds its way into the NewZealand market. The shipments from the islands are infrequent and consequently the fruit is "green as grass" when picked in order to stand up to transportation and to enable it to be ripened as required by the retailer. Such fruit bears little resemblance to the tree ripened fruit or indeed to the fruit which, has reached some degree of maturity before being picked. The following analysis of ripe and unripe bananas give a/fair' i'ridicatioh of the nutritional disparity between them; — . . ' Starch- ..... Cane sugar Fruit sugar Fat Nitrogenous elements Cellulose Tannin , As 'will be seen from the above analysis there is a considerable difference in the nutritive properties of a ripe banana and a green or unripe one. In the former tlierfe "is practically no crude starch, whereas in the unripe state starch exists''to the' extent of more than 12 'per cent. This crude starch in the green banana,' which makes the fruit so indigestible in the unripe state, is transformed into fruit sugar during the ripening process. Fruit sugar is the most available form of energy food and passes into the blood stream without undergoing chemical change in the. digestive organs.

BANANAS

By H. K. & D. W. Adamson, (Osteopaths).

As an energy food, bananas compare favourably with potatoes. Ai. told, the carbohydrate content of ripe bananas amounts to nearly 25 per cent as against about 20 per cent for potatoes,-"and about 60 per cent for bread. But, whereas the carbohydrate content of both potatoes and bread consists of starch Which to be transformed into a sugar of the fruit sugar group by the digestive organs; that of bananas is already in the form of a fruit sugar and therefore more readily digested and available as human energy. Bananas are unique amongst fruits pwing to the fact that they possess a not; inconsiderable amount of protein. Not nearly as much as .meat .or . other flesh. . proteins, of course, nevertheless they contain more than.. milK possesses, or about half the amount found in eggs. "\Then they contain traces of most of. the vitamins. There is some vitamin "A" Not much certainly, but as much as apples, oranges or ieffi&ns. They' contain' "as much 13/1 vitamin as potatoes or meat and they rank with oranges, tomatoes or onions in their content of B/2. Vitamin "C" is present also and to a greater extent than in grapes or apples. This gives some indication of the all-round value of the banana. It is almost a complete food and is capable" of providing a high standard of nutrition in an adult without the addition of any other food whatever. Now there are one or two points about selecting bananas which it may be well to mention. If they have been well ripened, the skin ranges from a deep yellow to almost black and covered with dark coloured freckles. The texture of the fruit presents a mellow softness and quite devoid of hard lumps or core. Many people are apt to discard them when the skin is darkened, but so long as the flesh remains firm and mellow and there are no signs of decay, they are then at their best. When the flesh begins to decay before the.skin becomes a deep yellow it is a sure indication that the fruit was too green when picked. Some people like the flavour of a cooked banana. We do not recommend the cooking of any fruit because of the destruction of , the vitaRipe Uiiripe . traces only 12.06% . 40.50% • 1-35% . 20.50% 0.80% .. 0.59% 0.21% , . 4.75% 3. % .. 0.17% 0.35% . . 0.35%... 6.55% mins, but it is worth noting that an unripe banana can be made more wholesome or rather more easily digested by roasting. The heat transforms the crude starch into sugar.