Bananas are well known for its sugar content. Ripe bananas that are high in sugar is even used as a natural sweetener for cakes and breads. Compared to added sugar, the naturally-occurring sugar in bananas is far healthier and thus, give significant benefits to the digestive system and our overall health. Furthermore, bananas are also loaded with other beneficial nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and soluble fiber that works together to improve body functions as well as immune system.
Calcium in bananas
While bananas are high in potassium, the fruits are not loaded with high level of calcium. However, 80-gram banana contains approximately 4 mg calcium. Although bananas do not contain much calcium, the fruit is enriched with other powerful minerals and vitamins that are beneficial for the body. Those are potassium, folate, choline, iron, magnesium, vitamins, and soluble fibers. This makes either green or yellow bananas a recommended source of nutrients you can take in daily basis.
Bananas and calcium absorption
Although the fruit itself does not contain much calcium, bananas do boost calcium absorption, which improves your overall health. Calcium deficiency might be cause by two main risk factors, food intakes that do not provide any calcium as well as the body’s inability to absorb calcium. If your body can’t absorb the calcium, your bones will experience calcium deficiency and thereby, do not get enough benefits from this nutrient.
Although the fruit itself does not contain much calcium, bananas do boost calcium absorption, which improves your overall health
Fortunately, bananas aid calcium absorption in two major ways. First, bananas are enriched with fructooligosaccharide (FOS), a type of fiber that has prebiotic functions and benefits. When FOS interacts with good bacteria in your colon, your gut acidity increases, allowing your body to absorb higher amount of calcium.
Next, FOS also becomes the food source for friendly bacteria in the colon. When these good bacteria are well-fed, they consequently improve your digestive ability, allowing your body to absorb more nutrients from your food. This includes the nutrient good for your bones, the calcium. This also boosts your immune ability to prevent various health issues.
Unripe or green bananas also helps the body absorbing calcium as they contain indigestible short-chain fatty acids. These acids act on the stomach’s lining, enhancing its ability to absorb more calcium from digested foods.
Bananas improves constipation and diarrhea
If you are suffering from either constipation or diarrhea, your body will not be able to absorb sufficient vitamins and minerals from foods you are taking. Therefore, in order to restore the body’s ability to absorb necessary nutrients, you need to first taking care of these digestive issues. Fortunately, bananas have a significant role in aiding both constipation and diarrhea.
Bananas reduce stomach acidity by stimulating cells of the stomach lining to improve the condition. Once diarrhea is solved and your digestion is back to its normal function, your body will be able to absorb more calcium and other nutrients.
Calcium in banana and milk
Bananas are often added to both yogurt and milk shakes, as the fruit gives delicious taste. In fact, adding the fruit does not only improve both the appearance and taste of the shake, but also its nutrient content. Bananas itself have some calcium for your body and milk gives a quite significant amount. Hence, banana milk shake is a perfect combination of both that will help you maintain your bone density and health.
However, try not to add sugar and other high-fat ingredients to your banana milk shakes to preserve its naturally-occurring nutrients for your body to absorb. Incorporating bananas with other calcium sources is also recommended to fulfil your daily recommendation of calcium intake to promote proper digestion.
