Bananas

[gixxerlvr]

I have read the paleo diet book as well as the paleo diet for athletes.  Am I allowed to eat bananas?

Thanks.

[goodsamaritan]

Try getting paleo bananas.
I can tell you that the cavendish bananas my country exports are freaks and full of chemicals.
Filipinos do not eat cavendish bananas, they are not sold in our local markets.

[bharminder]

What about plantains? They are banana-like.

[TylerDurden]

What about plantains? They are banana-like.

They taste revolting, though.

[Iguana]

Oh no, not when they are really ripe and overripe. Ripe when their skin starts to have black spot, and overripe when it gets completely black and soft all over. One of the most delicious and nourishing fruit!

[gixxerlvr]

I Am referring to the sugar content in bananas.  I understand folks that are trying to lose weight should stay away from these, but what about the rest of us?  One book says it is ok and the other doesn't even mention it.

[Iguana]

One book says it is ok and the other doesn't even mention it.

That's all bullshit! Sugar embedded in plants remaining unprocessed in their original state will never make anyone obese. On the contrary,  obese people loose weight the fastest as they eat the largest amount of paleo raw unprocessed food, be it bananas or whatever. Eating a lot of raw paleo food accelerates the elimination of the improper molecules previously eaten and stored in the body.    

[goodsamaritan]

I Am referring to the sugar content in bananas.  I understand folks that are trying to lose weight should stay away from these, but what about the rest of us?  One book says it is ok and the other doesn't even mention it.

I agree with Iguana and call BS on that concept of "sugar in bananas" makes you fat. If that were true then the fruitarians at 30bananasaday.com would be obese.

How come I ate a lot of bananas when I did my fruitarian thing and I still lost too much weight I was malnourished?

Experience is different from assumption.  wrong assumption about bananas making people fat.

[magnetic]

Bananas were a staple for me for about a month for eating raw paleo.  I ate bananas in the morning and meat in the evening.  I lost a lot of weight (from 135 lbs. to 117 lbs.) and I am 5' 9".

[Techydude]

Try getting paleo bananas.
I can tell you that the cavendish bananas my country exports are freaks and full of chemicals.
Filipinos do not eat cavendish bananas, they are not sold in our local markets.

These? Cause i'd love to try them! After watching a vid I see most fruits today as mutant fruits , I try going after seeds less sweet with more seeds in them like berries, papayas, etc.

[eveheart]

I understand folks that are trying to lose weight should stay away from these...

I'm losing tons of weight on raw paleo food, including 1-2 bananas a day, also nuts, avocados, fatty meats. I'm never hungry, never low on energy, look great, feeling strong. I'm in my grandmotherly years, work full-time, play with granddaughter every evening. No other exercise. Four weeks ago, I contemplated how long it would be until I needed a wheelchair for morbid obesity. In four weeks, I've lost over 40 pounds.

Forget what the experts say. When in doubt, I ask my inner caveperson.

[riy freeman]

can someone direct me to the source that claims bananas make you fat? I don't believe anyone makes that claim.

[eveheart]

can someone direct me to the source that claims bananas make you fat? I don't believe anyone makes that claim.

As I recall, this thread started because there was no direct reference to bananas, yea or nay, in some specific RPD literature.

The banana=fat myth is part of some western medical and dietetic fad beliefs about weight-loss dieting. Depending on the decade, foods like bananas fall in and out of favor depending on which diet deity is selling the fad at the moment.

JMHO

[raw-al]

I agree with the statements about sugar in fruits.

The thing is that sugar is only one component and it cannot be isolated from the other components. The other components in the bananas serve to move it through your system quickly and modify the effect of the sugars.

That's the problem with reductionist reasoning about foods. The whole food is greater than the sum of it's parts.

That's why modern medicines have such side effects, they have no inherent buffers built in like a natural food.

I dislike the aftertaste of bananas, but that may be related to the fact that any bananas that I have eaten were picked green and God only knows what they did to them before they hit my palate.

(according to Ayurveda) Bananas are one of the very few foods that their post-digestive properties don't change from their pre-digestive properties.

I have a friend who was convinced that you should eat lots of bananas every day. He had very high levels of Potassium (I think that was what he said) and other serious issues but he was determined to eat them.

[cherimoya_kid]

Bananas with low mineral/nutrient content (like monoculture mass-grown Cavendish bananas) can be eaten in very large quantities, and they can make you gain weight, if you are using them for that purpose.

Heirloom bananas grown on good soil will give you a taste change long before you can eat enough of them daily to cause weight gain.

I used to be a fruitarian, and eat up to 50 bananas as day, the Cavendish type.  I was never able to eat nearly as many of the heirloom bananas grown on better soil.

[goodsamaritan]

50 bananas a day?  Unimaginable.
When I did my fruitarian thing the most I ate was 3 to 5 bananas a day.
Now I understand why 30bananasaday.com can make such a claim.

[PaleoPhil]

Bananas with low mineral/nutrient content (like monoculture mass-grown Cavendish bananas) can be eaten in very large quantities, and they can make you gain weight, if you are using them for that purpose.

Yeah, Jimmy Carter claims he gained weight on Cavendish bananas to get into the Navy.

50 bananas a day?  Unimaginable.

Believe it or not, the last I saw, DurianRider was reporting that he was eating over 70 bananas a day. Why he expects people to want to do that I don't know.

[goodsamaritan]

Now I know durianrider eats low quality bananas.
That's why he has to eat that much.
He should try coming over to my country and try to eat tree ripened bananas on good soil.

I just had 1 fat tree ripened saba banana this morning.

[Löwenherz]

..
Believe it or not, the last I saw, DurianRider was reporting that he was eating over 70 bananas a day. Why he expects people to want to do that I don't know.

... and he still looks malnourished.

His videos are actually cries for help.

He is 100% brainwashed by low fat vegan demons. Poor guy.

Löwenherz

[cherimoya_kid]

70 bananas a day...that's clinically insane.  Meaning, if you keep eating that way, your brain will deteriorate to the point where you become clinically insane.

Your brain needs more fat than that.  Believe me, I tried the low-fat fruitarian diet, and it was slowly killing my brain.  Panic attacks and crippling social anxiety suddenly became a daily problem when I ate that way.

The interesting this is that the more heavy/dry fruits (like banana, durian, mamey sapote) are much slower to cause these problems.  Wetter and more cleansing fruits (like apples/citrus) will bring it on much faster. That's a broad brush, but it's generally true.

Yeah, it took me years to recover from low-fat fruitarianism.  Now I can actually eat nothing but fruit on a given day, if I want, without a panic attack. I never do it, but it's nice to know that I can.

[Löwenherz]

The interesting this is that the more heavy/dry fruits (like banana, durian, mamey sapote) are much slower to cause these problems.  Wetter and more cleansing fruits (like apples/citrus) will bring it on much faster. That's a broad brush, but it's generally true.
...

Maybe it's the higher acidity in such fruits?
These acids suck out minerals and fats out of your body and brain...

Löwenherz

[cherimoya_kid]

Maybe it's the higher acidity in such fruits?
These acids suck out minerals and fats out of your body and brain...

Löwenherz

That's part of it.  I think also it's the pectin content, as well.  I've read that pectin tends to bind to minerals/metals.

[veronica5000]

That's all bullshit! Sugar embedded in plants remaining unprocessed in their original state will never make anyone obese. On the contrary,  obese people loose weight the fastest as they eat the largest amount of paleo raw unprocessed food, be it bananas or whatever. Eating a lot of raw paleo food accelerates the elimination of the improper molecules previously eaten and stored in the body.    

Agreed!!!  Never gained weight when i was eating bowls of fruit...BANANA, apples, pears, berries......

))

[Hannibal]

I think also it's the pectin content, as well.  I've read that pectin tends to bind to minerals/metals.

Pectin is a soluable fiber.
It's true that it impairs nutrient absorbtion, but it's only 3-5%.
On the other hand pectins have got lots of beneficial properties.

[PaleoPhil]

Agreed!!!  Never gained weight when i was eating bowls of fruit...BANANA, apples, pears, berries......

))

So are you guys saying that goody two-shoes Jimmy Carter is a liar?    I was surprised at his report myself when I first heard about it and since then I've seen more problems with underweight in people like 80-10-10ers who consumed raw fruit than overweight, though I have seen some of the fruit-heavy dieters report lack of success with weight loss while eating lots of raw fruit.

Correction, DurianRider says he eats up to 70 bananas a day:
  "i told em about the banana bible (811) and about this banana cult website and how i eat up to 70 bananas a day." (http://www.30bananasaday.com/profiles/blogs/should-we-say-something)

That's still pretty shocking. It sounds like he was eating 30 bananas a day relatively early on in his diet (he eats other foods too, but it sounds like he mostly mono-eats and eats only bananas on days he eats them) and now has to eat many more to meet his needs (and if anything he looks a little more thin now than in the past (correct me if I'm wrong on any of this). That suggests to me that he is absorbing less and less nutrients from the bananas over time, perhaps due to damage to his systems (such as the GI tract). The fact that he brags about it like it were a good sign suggests a high level of self delusion, unless he's exercising WAY more than he used to or something.