Banana Diet and Resistant Starch for Weight Loss

Ever heard of the banana diet, which, I hear became a fad in Japan? And it's supposed to reduce weight and make you slimmer. Although bananas are starchy foods and has sugar (starchy when unripe and sugary when ripe), they are also rich in vitamins, minerals and fibers. And fibers help a lot in weight loss. 

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash.

So, what do bananas really do, reduce weight or add weight? Well, again, as No-Diet Slim Plus has been saying, it all depends on how your eating habits. Too much or too little is both bad. So you have to eat everything in right proportions. So, the banana diet should more aptly be banana diet plus. Meaning, yeah, you try the banana diet but you must not rigidly stick to it. You got to eat other foods.

So I say, "Banana (to) Diet" or add banana to your diet, rather than purely banana diet which limits you to banana meals 3 times a day. Remember, too much of anything is bad. So you have to have balance in everything. But bananas are good to add to one's diet, contrary to what some weight loss experts say about it.

My Simple Secrets to Fitness. Click here.

They say that bananas are only carbs and fruit sugar so you'd gain more weight eating them. I used to subscribe to that idea, so I was shocked when I read somewhere that bananas only gave you more pot belly tummy. I cut out on my bananas since then. But I was scammed, it turned out. I immediately went back to my former doctrine upon learning that I was scammed and re-declared that bananas are super foods even for weight watchers. 

I mean, how can anything so natural (and created by God at that) be wrong for health, even for weight loss? God saw everything he created and he said everything was good. And I'm sure that included bananas. And how could I have been so stupid to believe any hint that bananas were unhealthy? Just look at the nutrition table below:

Source

This is not to mention the Vitamin B6 in banana and Vitamin A. For a while, bananas were thought to be a poor source of Vitamin A, until a study was done in 2000 by Lois Englberger (a nutritionist) and her team. They discovered that "orange-fleshed cultivars" were Vitamin A rich. I think eating bright yellow banana flesh does the trick instead of those colored almost white or pale yellow. In general, fruits with bright colors have more nutrition.

How to Lose Weight with God's Word and Medical Science. 

Click here.

Moreover, bananas with small black spots on the peel has more nutrition than those with smooth peels, say some experts. And they are sweeter. We are also tempted to get rid of the over-ripe marks on the banana flesh (banana peels with black spots are sure to have them) thinking it to be dirty, unhealthy or infected. But aside from being sweet, those over-ripe marked bananas are healthier. And color changes in bananas also mean more nutrition percentage added.

Research has shown that bananas with black spots are actually healthier than those without. The more dark spots a banana has, the riper it is. It is also scientifically proven that the nutrient content in a banana changes as it ripens. As it becomes increasingly yellow in colour, the amount of vitamins, nutrients and anti-cancer properties also increases. Researchers in Japan have actually proven that ripe bananas do aid in fighting cancer. Source

For Weight Loss

As long as we eat unripe (or semi ripe) bananas, we consume "resistant starch" which some experts claim is a carbohydrate that does not induce weight gain. It helps make you feel full so that you lessen your food intake, gives you energy for workouts, supplies vitamins and minerals, and provides fibers for weight loss. 

Unripe green bananas contain resistant starch. Resistant starch is a carbohydrate that does not break down easily in the small intestine.

Instead, it passes through to the large intestine, which means that it does not increase blood sugar levels. It then ferments in the large intestine, stimulating the growth of good bacteria in the gut.

Eating more resistant starch may help people lose weight, as it acts in a similar way to dietary fiber. It may reduce a person’s appetite by making them feeling fuller for longer.

Research suggests that resistant starch could also help improve insulin sensitivity. The benefits that it provides for gut health can help with constipation and reduce the risk of colon cancer. Source

 So here's the thing. We can replace half the amount of rice we eat with bananas. As we cut out on rice (eating less and less of it) for weight loss, we partly substitute it with bananas, like half a fruit or a whole fruit per half cup of rice. With bananas, we get carbs plus vitamins and minerals, compared to eating only rice. That should reduce our weight and belly pot tummy as well--of course, with exercise. 

Ripe or Unripe?

Again, we apply No-Diet Slim Plus principle here. We eat enough of both. We cannot eliminate anything that is naturally created by God. Everything he made is good. So we eat a balance of ripe and unripe (or semi-ripe) bananas. Just use your imagination for this.