They Promote Heart Health
The vitamins and minerals abundant in bananas also protect ones heart. With nearly 120 grams of potassium per serving , bananas are the perfect snack to help control high blood pressure.
Studies have shown that people who have potassium-rich diets can lower their risk for heart disease by up to 27%!
Additionally, the high amount of magnesium found in bananas is also protective of heart health, with studies showing that magnesium deficiency is correlated with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and hyperlipidemia .
The Best Fruits For People With Diabetes
Two to three servings of fruit a day is recommended, and that can is true for people with diabetes, too.
“If you combine fruit with a fat or protein, it will help you feel fuller and help with that portion control,” Fienman says.
Here are some beneficial fruits that are not only lower on the glycemic index, but also pack a punch with other vitamins and minerals:
- berries Both citrus and berries are recommended as superfoods by the American Diabetes Association.
- cherries
Juices And Smoothies Can Be Tricky
Many store-bought juices orange, apple, even green juices sneakily add extra sugars, so you’ll want to avoid those, too. Even juices or smoothies you make at home can require a lot of fruit for one glass , so it isn’t always the best option for people with diabetes. If you want to have a smoothie, try adding in mostly vegetables and something like a half of a banana for sweetness.
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Portion Size Is Important
Ripeness isnt the only factor when it comes to the amount of sugar in your banana size also matters. The bigger the banana, the more carbs you will be getting.
This means a larger banana will have a greater effect on your blood sugar level. This portion-size effect is called the glycemic load.
Glycemic load is calculated by multiplying the GI of a food by the number of carbs in a serving and then dividing that number by 100.
A score of less than 10 is considered low, 1119 is medium, and 20 or more is high.
Bananas vary in size, from about 18.535 grams.
If a banana is fully ripe , then its glycemic load could range from 11 for a very small banana to 22 for a very large banana.
To ensure that your blood sugar doesnt rise too much, its important to be aware of the size of the banana youre eating.
Summary
The size of the banana you eat determines its effect on your blood sugar level. The larger the banana, the more carbs youll consume and the greater the rise in your blood sugar will be.
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Unlike refined sugar products such as candy and cake, the carbs in fruits like bananas come with fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
More specifically, bananas provide fiber, potassium, vitamin B6, and vitamin C. They also contain some antioxidants and beneficial plant compounds .
For most people with diabetes, fruits including bananas are a healthy choice.
How Does Fruit Impact Blood Sugar
Fruit is a carbohydrate. Sugar and carbohydrates are broken down into glucose by enzymes in the stomach and small intestine when we consume them. Glucose is released into the bloodstream, where it is carried and turned into energy by tissue cells in our muscles and organs.
As a result, fruit can cause an increase in blood glucose levels. Fructose and glucose are the two forms of sugar found in fruits. Although the quantities of both differ, most fruits contain approximately half glucose and half fructose.
Fruits hold diverging quantities of fructose, glucose, and fiber, so the type of fruit you eat will have different affects on your blood sugar.
Fruit contains a different type of sugar than the simple sugars that are added to processed foods such as soda, candy, or ice cream.
Postprandial BG results will not have dramatic spikes due to the mineral, vitamin, and fiber content of the fruit, compared to eating foods with added sugars.
When your blood sugar increases and then drops rapidly and unexpectedly after eating, this is a blood sugar spike. Spikes can produce lethargy and increased appetite in the short term. They often occur if someone consumes a lot of simple sugars at once, such as a large regular soda or candy.
Bananas have 3 g fiber and other nutrients, so I dont expect a drastic spike in blood glucose after a banana is consumed. However, eating your banana with a protein source, such as nuts, will likely prevent an undesired blood sugar spike.
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Are Bananas Okay For Type 2 Diabetes
Bananas have a high resistant starch content.
Starches, fruits, milk, starchy vegetables, and sweets are all examples of carbohydrates. If you have diabetes, starch , will cause your blood sugar levels to rise. However, starches should not be regarded as the enemy.
Greener bananas have a higher resistant starch content than the ripe ones. Resistant starch cannot be broken down in the small intestine while being passed onto the large intestine.
The GI of a banana ranges from 30-89, depending on how ripe the banana is.
Green bananas have a GI of 30-50. They have less sugar and more resistant starch. The resistant starch is more likely to help type 2 diabetics, as it can increase insulin sensitivity and reduce inflammation.
There is not much research on green bananas and type 1 diabetes.
The Worst Fruits For People With Diabetes
Serving size is important for all fruits, especially those high on the glycemic index. Fienman recommends thinking about the serving size of a whole fruit to the size of a tennis ball and cut up fruit to a ½ cup. Even in these small servings, some fruits have more natural sugars and may spike blood sugar longer.
These fruits contain a high amount of natural sugars:
- mango
- watermelon
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They May Cause Cavities
All that sweetness can have a downside. Even though the sugars in bananas are completely natural, they can still be damaging to your teeth and gums.
Be careful about eating bananas right before bedtime, and make sure to always brush and floss your teeth properly to prevent cavities and gum disease!
Also, the natural acids found in bananas can wear away at tooth enamel, further damaging your teeth over time. Ask your dentist about maintaining your dental health if you love to indulge in bananas and other sweet fruits often.
Consider Eating An Under
Unripe bananas might release glucose at a slower rate than ripe bananas.
In 1992, an older study of ten subjects with diabetes looked at banana ripeness in regards to blood sugar. The researchers found that green or unripe bananas tended to have a slower effect on blood sugar than ripe bananas.
Unripe bananas contain more starch when compared to ripe bananas. The body cannot break down starches as easily as less complex sugars. This leads to a slower, more controllable increase in blood sugar.
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Skip The Canned Fruit
Canned fruits and those cute little fruit cocktail cups may be convenient and inexpensive, but they aren’t so good for you.
“Those canned in heavy or light syrup are not an ideal choice for persons with diabetes,” says Kim Rose, RD and a certified diabetes care and education specialist. “This is because syrup-laden fruits contain added sugar that may be too much for the body to handle.”
Diabetes Diet: Should I Avoid Sweet Fruits
I’ve heard that you shouldn’t eat sweet fruits such as strawberries or blueberries if you have diabetes. Is this true? Answers from M. Regina Castro, M.D. It’s a common myth that if you have diabetes you shouldn’t eat certain foods because they’re “too sweet.” Some fruits do contain more sugar than others, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat them if you have diabetes. The total amount of carbohydrates in a food affects blood sugar levels more than does the source of carbohydrates or whether the source is a starch or sugar. One serving of fruit should contain 15 grams of carbohydrates. The size of the serving depends on the carbohydrate content of the fruit. The advantage of eating a low-carbohydrate fruit is that you can consume a larger portion. But whether you eat a low-carb or high-carb fruit, as long as the serving size contains 15 grams of carbohydrates, the effect on your blood sugar is the same. The following fruit servings contain about 15 grams of carbohydrates: 1/2 medium apple or banana 1 cup blackberries 3/4 cup blueberries 1 cup raspberries 1 1/4 cup whole strawberries 1 cup cubed cantaloupe or honeydew melonContinue reading > >
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They Can Treat Muscle Aches And Soreness
Eating bananas before and/or after exercise may help prevent and treat muscle soreness and cramps. This is due to the high water and vitamin content of the fruit.
Even if you dont suffer from muscle cramps or soreness, eating bananas before, during, or after exercise is a great, all-natural way to refuel from or prepare for your workout!
Bananas can also serve as an excellent pre-workout snack to boost your blood sugar up or can work well as an on-the-go low snack for post-workout hypoglycemic episodes.
Ways To Eat Bananas With Diabetes
If you like eating bananas, here are some ways to fit them into your eating plan without seeing a surge in blood sugar two hours later:
If a ripe banana is too sweet for you, try one that is still slightly green. It will have the same amount of carbs as a ripe banana, but the carb will be more of the resistant starch variety, which is less likely to spike your blood sugar.
Slow the rise in blood sugar from any carb food by adding a fat or protein source.
The American Diabetes Association suggests that people with diabetes should incorporate fruit into a controlled diet, such as eating a small piece of whole fruit or a half-serving large fruit with each meal as a dessert.
So, depending on your carb goal, you can easily fit a banana into your eating plan you just need to decide how to spend your carb allowance and balance the banana with other carb foods.
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Calculating Your Daily Allowance
If you don’t have diabetes, the AHA recommends limiting calories from sugar to 10% of your total calories. One gram of sugar equals 4 calories.
For a 2,000-calorie diet, that means you can have up to 50 grams of sugar from all sources per day. It’s worth noting that the World Health Organization recommends an even lower percentage: no more than 5% of total calories from sugar.
If you have diabetes, it’s important to work with your healthcare provider to figure out what’s right for you. Ask what percentage of your total daily calories should come from sugar. This will help you to make adjustments if you are obese and need to cut calories or if you are underweight and need to increase calories.
How Much Sugar Can We Eat
The government recommends that free sugars sugars added to food or drinks, and sugars found naturally in honey, syrups, and unsweetened fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies and purées should not make up more than 5% of the energy you get from food and drink each day.
This means:
- Adults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day, .
- Children aged 7 to 10 should have no more than 24g of free sugars a day .
- Children aged 4 to 6 should have no more than 19g of free sugars a day .
- There’s no guideline limit for children under the age of 4, but it’s recommended they avoid sugar-sweetened drinks and food with sugar added to it. Find out more about what to feed young children.
Free sugars are found in foods such as sweets, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, and some fizzy drinks and juice drinks. These are the sugary foods we should cut down on.
For example, a can of cola can have as much as 9 cubes of sugar more than the recommended daily limit for adults.
Find out what the top sources of free sugars are.
Sugars also occur naturally in foods such as fruit, vegetables and milk, but we do not need to cut down on these types of sugars.
Be aware that these are included along with free sugars in the “total sugars” figure that you’ll see on food labels.
Find out more about nutrition labels and sugar for help on how to tell the difference.
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They May Cause Digestive Issues
While pectin and resistant starch are excellent ways to bulk up your diet with fiber and keep you regular, eating too many bananas, or having too much fiber in your diet, has the potential to cause digestive problems, including upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, bloating, and gas.
In excessive consumption, too much fiber can cause absorption issues for other much-needed vitamins like calcium and iron.
Are Green Bananas Healthier Than Ripe Ones
Green bananas often come up in conversations about fruit intake and blood sugar because green bananas contain resistant starch.
Unlike regular starchy foods , resistant starch moves through the gastrointestinal track undigested.
Because resistant starch remains mostly undigested, it has a lower impact on blood sugar than other starches do.
But does that mean that diabetics can eat endless amounts of green bananas without any negative side effects?
Unfortunately, no.
Green bananas dont automatically get a free pass just because they dont raise your blood sugar as much as a ripe banana would.
You still have to take the total number of carbohydrates into account when deciding which foods to snack on and which ones to toss. And overall, green bananas still contain the high levels of carbs that a ripe banana does .
A few studies have found that banana starch may decrease glucose and insulin level after a meal. But, keep in mind that these studies often use isolated starch that is separated from the actual fruit, and therefore, does not contain any of the carbohydrates and sugars.
The key point: green or ripe, whole bananas are packed with carbohydrates and will result in an increase in blood glucose levels compared to other lower carb options.
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Green Bananas Contain Resistant Starch
The amount of this type of carbs in a banana varies depending on the ripeness. greens, or green, banana hold less carbohydrate and more tolerant starch . insubordinate starches are long chains of glucose that are resistant to digestion in the amphetamine part of your digestive arrangement . This means they function similarly to fiber and won triiodothyronine cause a rebel in blood sugar levels. They besides may help feed the friendly bacteria in your gut, which has been linked to improved metabolic health and better blood sugar management . In fact, a 2015 study on blood sugar management in women with type 2 diabetes found some interesting results. In an 8-week period, those supplementing with insubordinate starch had better blood boodle management than those who didn metric ton supplement . other studies have indicated that repellent starch may have beneficial effects for people with type 2 diabetes, such as improving insulin sensitivity and reducing ignition . The role of tolerant starch in character 1 diabetes is less acquit .
What You Eat And Drink
The calories in, calories out philosophy is being drowned out with research on other factors that may be just as important. Don’t get me wrong, limiting calories, carbohydrates or fat can certainly help you lose weight but that’s simply not the only factor for long-term weight loss and maximum energy .
I do, however, support calorie labelling as a tool to help people make informed decisions – the amount and type of calories matter.
Ideally, you need a varied diet full of minimally-processed foods . This simple concept is paramount for diabetes and weight management, energy, and overall health and wellness.
Every day this is what you should strive for:
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When It Comes To Bananas Size Matters
If the ripeness of a banana matters, then you guessed it so does portion size!
As with any food, bigger portions mean higher sugar content. So watch out for those mondo bananas you sometimes see and instead opt for a more reasonably sized fruit.
Glycemic load is a measurement tool that accounts for carb content as it relates to portion size and how quickly it raises blood sugar. Larger bananas have a higher glycemic load and a greater effect on blood sugar level.
What Happens If A Diabetic Doesn’t Eat Sugar
If you don’t eat, your blood sugar levels are lower and medication may drop them even more, which can lead to hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia can cause you to feel shaky, pass out, or even go into a coma. When you break your fast by eating, you may also be more likely to develop too-high blood sugar levels.
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