Mocktail Minutes

Should You Be Eating Bananas?

• Mocktail Minutes • Episode 144

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0:00 | 15:57

Should bananas be avoided for weight loss? Are bananas okay for blood sugar? Are bananas healthy? This week we are talking about some common myths when it comes to this specific fruit.

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/bayleethedietitian/ or https://www.instagram.com/brianna.dietitian/ and send us a DM! You can also follow the podcast https://www.instagram.com/mocktailminutes/


Featured Mocktails: 

Spindrift 

Ardor 

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Baylee:

Hello everyone Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes This is Bailey

Brianna :

this is Brianna.

Baylee:

This I gave the spin of sodas another chance This one is much better It's the orange cream float I always forget when they have like these natural juices like you are supposed to do the flip the juice settles So maybe

Brianna :

Yeah.

Baylee:

why. we'll see

Brianna :

I am doing a, we had a sprouts open up, so I went and I was perusing. It's called like a, our door, I don't know. But it's like a sparkling water energy drink with just some green tea for the energy. So it's like lightly caffeinated. But it's good. It's carbonated water, L-theanine, green tea, a little bit of sea salt. It's pretty good. Very mild. Yeah, very mild taste.

Baylee:

Well we are diving into the topic of bananas Bananas are hated on all the time I I mean I literally just got the question yesterday as to like should I be eating bananas Am I allowed to eat bananas when I'm working on weight loss The answer always eat bananas unless you're allergic Then I would say no don't do that

Brianna :

Yes. Yeah.

Baylee:

You

Brianna :

You can eat them even. Yeah. And we're done. Even if you have diabetes. Yeah. Even if you have diabetes, even if you have insulin resistance, even if you're trying to lose weight. I, anytime I ask someone, have you had any previous like diabetes education, they're always like, I know I'm not supposed to eat bananas. Who told you that? Who told you that? I'm like, well, I'm here to tell you you can eat bananas. So yeah, we're gonna like break down Why? Like the common myths, I think that people think they can't eat bananas or like bananas make them fat. That sort of thing. Mm-hmm.

Baylee:

of came from cause I think that there's some logic behind it But again we take things too far we make them weird But I

Brianna :

Yeah.

Baylee:

will say so monitoring my blood sugar before with the CGMI have tested my smoothies and there's a lot of them that contain bananas And I don't have a blood sugar spike with them So that's like a lot of the things it's like oh they spike your blood sugar I think it's more like the context of it you're eating a banana by itself like yeah it's probably gonna spike your blood sugar but like that's any carb by itself is gonna

Brianna :

Yeah. Or if you're doing the typical like, I'm running outta the house, I didn't eat breakfast, I'm drinking coffee, and I grabbed a banana. Like there's multiple reasons why your blood sugar is already kind of high. And then yes, putting a banana on top of it by itself probably isn't best, but bananas, like a medium banana is like less than 30 grams of carbs. It's not like this crazy, like super high carb food. I don't know who started demonizing them.

Baylee:

Yeah

Brianna :

When I think of like other foods, I'm like, oh, there are some other foods that are probably a lot worse to eat on their own. But yeah.

Baylee:

yeah. I feel

Brianna :

But I think,

Baylee:

are never the and

Brianna :

no.

Baylee:

get stuck on those things So we're like oh maybe Maybe that is something

Brianna :

Yes.

Baylee:

I mean it's of it stemmed from the idea of the blood sugar and its carbs and I mean they are like a little bit higher carbs than like your typical serving of berries and

Brianna :

Yeah.

Baylee:

are gonna have more fiber so they probably A little bit different than berries will

Brianna :

Mm-hmm.

Baylee:

mean they're bad And videos this actually wasn't with the banana it was actually with the blueberry where they're comparing like a blueberry to a sour patch Kids they're like it's the same thing I'm like let let's be so for real right now

Brianna :

Let's be real right now. No, it is not. I've seen those two where it's like this bowl of fruit is basically this and it's like a bowl of Skittles. I'm like, what are you talking about right now? you for real? And it's rage bait. They're making so much money. It like drives me bonkers. But I think that's one of the common myths too, is like it's sweet. So people assume like if it tastes sweet, it means it's.

Baylee:

you.

Brianna :

Yeah, that means it's bad for you. It's probably high in sugar. Like yes, we do know it is a little bit higher in carbs, but it's a whole fruit, a whole food carb. It has a lot of potassium, which is really important for like insulin signaling. It does have fiber. There's also like, you know, the more green bananas have higher fiber resistant starch, so even better for your blood sugar, like.

Baylee:

I'm one of those weirdos like I like it when it's got some brown to it so I eat them very ripe But I will say so the glycemic index So glycemic index if you don't know it's a measure of how much foods raise your blood sugar level So if a food scores what's it lower than 55 It's considered to be lower glycemic Index

Brianna :

Yeah.

Baylee:

to like 69 is Over 70 is considered high glycemic index now Foods more slowly absorbed carbs are gonna have a lower glycemic index and keep your blood sugars more stable Since bananas are like 90 carbs are sometimes considered a high sugar fruit that could spike your blood sugar However glycemic index score of a banana it ranges depending on the ripeness So it can be between like 42 and 62 is kind of the range there So it could kind of be low or it could be on the low side of medium Obviously the more ripe banana is the higher that glycemic index is I mean they taste sweeter The more yellow or the more brown get And that's why

Brianna :

Yeah.

Baylee:

you make

Brianna :

Yellow too.

Baylee:

bread or they're they're gonna be a lot better when they're more ripe because they're sweeter Again doesn't mean it's bad to eat or break banana it's just on how you

Brianna :

Yeah, and I think that's probably another, I think thing that we go into is like we say, okay, don't have bananas by themselves. Like usually pair it with like a fat, and then people are thinking like, okay, well now I'm combining it with like. dense, you know, food like, yeah. So like, oh, if I eat peanut butter, like obviously peanut butter is a fat, you know, if I have nuts, it's a fat, anything fat is gonna be higher in calories. So then it's like, oh, well now like I'm eating a lot of calories'cause I'm eating banana with something, so that must be bad for me.

Baylee:

so trained to fear normal things in life Calories aren't bad They're how your body survives Fat is not bad like you You can probably drink whole milk Now do I have people that drink skim milk and 2 Yes but like if you're drinking skim milk I don't care As long as you're getting fat from somewhere else If you're like I wanna just get like all in one spot do some whole milk that's gonna give you some extra fat and that is totally fine It's when it comes to anything there is no one specific habit or one specific food that is going to make or break your progress and that includes bananas That includes an Oreo after dinner that one or I mean maybe if you're eating like a package of Oreos every night like you're probably not gonna feel good that and that could kind of derail you but it's also derailing your sleep Like it's affecting a lot of things there But like having a banana that is the least of your worries when it comes to

Brianna :

Yes, because in terms of weight loss, a lot of reasons why people struggle with weight loss or why people are at a high weight is because they're not eating fruits and vegetables. They're not having healthy snacks. I'm never gonna demonize a banana like we need merch. That's like, fruit doesn't make you fat. It's not the banana. No one was ever like, I got morbidly obese because I ate a banana every day. You also didn't get diabetes because you had a banana every day. You're not, and it's not the same as sugar, like as in like candy, like sour patch, kid to blueberry. There's fiber in it, there's minerals in it. It's a whole food. It's also relatively low calorie. Even if you do add on the peanut butter, it's still. A relatively low calorie snack, depending on your peanut butter amount, you know?

Baylee:

I think another area where this can come from is like The smoothie bowl era

Brianna :

Mm-hmm.

Baylee:

a smoothie bowl like em have like three bananas in it

Brianna :

Yeah.

Baylee:

the

Brianna :

Along with other, other carbs. Yeah.

Baylee:

And then they're topping in a granola and then we have the honey So we're like oh smoothie bowls aren't great for weight loss Bananas Bananas don't have problems Get the banana not necessarily the banana again It's

Brianna :

not.

Baylee:

overabundance and especially when you're adding those simple carbs from things like your granola or your honey And so like one thing when I get a smoothie bowl I take off a lot of the toppings Like I don't ever put honey on it I usually do like half of the granola If I want a little bit of crunch or some of the places I go to they have like Ca Cow So I'll just do those and that that's fine with me And then really mess with the base because when you mess with that too much at a smoothie shop like it gets weird So I really

Brianna :

Yeah.

Baylee:

adjust the toppings and that's

Brianna :

Mm-hmm.

Baylee:

times like I'll just eat half of it they're definitely doing usually more than like two cups of fruit Like it's a lot in there

Brianna :

It's a lot at once. Yeah. And the bases usually have sugar in them, depending.

Baylee:

a place around here there They're completely vegan They don't do like all the added sugars Like they have the cocoa ribs they do the honey They do syrup Maple syrup like they don't use juice any of their smoothies which I really like that So that's like the main thing I adjust there But if I do go there I bring my own protein and I that first I mean that's what's gonna actually you full and not be on a Blood sugar rollercoaster That's what's I'm not I don't wanna say like that's what's actually making you fat Like no what's leading to being like stuck in fat storage mode That's one of the

Brianna :

Hmm. Yeah. Well, simply, I mean, and I think we've done episodes on this too, but thinking like certain health foods are like healthy no matter what, so like. All Oay bowls or smoothie bowls must be healthy. And like, it doesn't matter how much I eat of it. Like yes, you can eat healthy things in excess. And so really knowing what you're eating is important, but it's not, it's not just the banana, you know? And then the other thing is thinking like, oh, you know, I ate a banana and like I noticed like I was gaining weight. You know, usually this is. This is when people are trying to increase carbs back into their diet. I think fruit feels a little bit more safe than telling them to do other stuff. So they'll do like a banana or they'll do whatever, and it's like, oh, the scale went up. But that is just water weight, especially if you have been eating really low carb for a while, carbohydrates hold on to water so it retains water. You're gonna ski. See the scale jump up simply because of that water. It's not. Fat gain or weight gain because of the banana, if that makes sense.

Baylee:

your eating those

Brianna :

Yeah,

Baylee:

that goes Um, Cause yeah that's not true especially if it's super quickly You can't gain that much You can't gain a pound of fat overnight Like it's literally impossible

Brianna :

Like you have to work for it, like you're working for it and you probably feel on the verge of death. You would know. Yeah. So I mean, I think moral of the story is it's not the fruit that is making you fat or keeping you stuck or you know, not helping your blood sugar. It's all the other stuff that we're doing. Yeah. It's like making sure, are we having our, are we pairing our fruit? Are we eating more whole foods? Are we making sure like what we're having the banana in is balanced? And I would say, you know, for me. Because people are like, oh, so I can never just have a banana by itself. Like I like to recommend it before you work out. Like when you need a little bit of like a blood sugar phrase. Have a banana. Yeah.

Baylee:

teach with the blood sugar balancing meals people kind of get stuck in like when have to eat peanut butter every time I have a banana I mean like yes you kind of you always wanna balance your blood sugar And I think at first it's just it's new and it's different It gets easier and it becomes more nonchalant Like you just have your pairings But I think it's also okay like we don't have to again be weird about it and it's like oh we want a piece of cake I must grab almonds if you're not like actually hungry if it's not like an intentional snack because at that point we're just adding random calories just so we can eat a piece of cake like if you're like I just wanna enjoy a banana and I don't wanna be sick and I don't want eggs I don't want something with it Like Brianna said like have it as your pre workout And it doesn't even have to be like I can only eat this now if I work out Literally like have it and then just get some movement in We don't have to

Brianna :

Yeah.

Baylee:

just add food to balance it out There are other ways to balance your blood sugar movement is fantastic

Brianna :

Water, making sure you're not pairing it with caffeine as you're stressed out driving to work. Like there's ways to be strategic about it, but I, I wonder if we should do a whole episode on what you just talked about, because I actually had to have a conversation with a client the other day when I was like, I think you're doing, you're managing your blood. You're like balancing your blood sugar so well that I think you're overeating now. Because you're like wanting to pair everything perfectly and it's like, oh, I was gonna like go out and have like a snack. So like I had a protein shake before, like, or I added almonds to this. So I did that and it's like, well now we're like adding on a ton of calories simply to balance your blood sugar. It's like we're swinging in the other direction. So I think we're gonna do an episode on that. I like it.

Baylee:

a good idea eat the banana eat the fruit There are other there are other bigger fish to fry That is not the issue we talk about lots of issues that we see pop up with clients all the time in our episodes

Brianna :

It's what I would call majoring in the minor. I did not come up with that. I just heard it the other day and I am obsessed with it. So I've used it like 15 times in two weeks. Let's not major in the minor. It's not the banana. Yeah.

Baylee:

We hope this episode gave you clarifying answers when it comes to fruit cause we know some of you have this question cause we've been asked it several times so we hope this was helpful and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Bye.

Contributor

Baylee

Host
Contributor

Brianna

Host