What you think of banana?
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Is in title, what you think of banana? Is banana good? More specifically, should I be concerned with the starch or soluble fiber in bananas, or any other element? It's one of the only foods I can eat kilos of and still feel and perform relatively well (smooth digestion, high bowel movement frequency, similar energy and mood improvement to straight sugar etc).
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Bananas have a relatively high tryptophan content, which would be a problem if you’re concerned about serotonin since the calcium in bananas is not enough to negate it unlike in milk. I’d be wary of consuming them.
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@Seam Ultra ripe banana frozen for smoothies after lifting with plenty of vanilla is wonderful. Combined with whey isolate you could certainly say that’s too much tryptophan but overall I feel fine considering other things I take to lower it (not that it “cancels out” that way or anything either).
They really need to be ripe though, imo - as much as possible before they reach the point they might start molding. Really a very different fruit at that point and far less starchy.
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@Svet Ah, that recontextualises the last week of heavy banana eating. I've been aggressive, dismissive, morose; generally anti-social. I thought it was the Aryan spirit reacting to a suffocating career change, but it's probably just serotonin. Such a shame though! I've been enjoying this fruit a lot.
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@saturnmissiles Sounds delicious. I've been cutting them up, bathing them in maple syrup then cooking them in the air fryer; actual ambrosia, food of the gods.
I was reading if they're ripe the starch content is reduced to 1g/100g, very safe on the starch front. -
Serotonin + high starch
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I like to cook with them but I never liked them raw. I imagine in that sense they're like potatoes, where you generally want to make sure they're well cooked. You could probably make something like banana pudding with gelatin since that would counterbalance the high tryptophan content in them
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If you feel good eating it, it means you're taking well to it and it does you good. Continue to eat and don't deprive yourself of a food source of sugar and potassium just because others don't take to it well because their own experience rightly says so because they have a different context. They may have problems metabolizing sugar and you don't.
When I couldn't metabolize sugar well, I would take a teaspoon of white sugar on an empty stomach and my blood sugar would drop shortly after, and I would then start shivering and then I would start having a runny nose and then I would have a sore throat and develop a fever. Knowing that, I would avoid doing that again. But it would be natural, not knowing any better, to say that white sugar is bad- based on my experience.
But I would see others doing well eating a piece of candy, which is like taking that teaspoon of sugar, and the candy would have no effect on them and that would make me think whether there is something wrong with me. That led me to realize that what really is going on is that my body can not process sugar well.
I had to go through hoops (ie read books like Sugarbusters that also say bananas are bad as well as white sugar, as well as doctors that says so) to question the idea that sugar is bad, and to realize that sugar isn't necessarily bad, and that maybe, just maybe look inwardly and consider something is wrong in me.
That is the starting point for me to discover a different narrative, and begin for me a different journey. It would lead me to the right set of doctors to begin my healing.
Healed, I would be enjoying white sugar and bananas and other fruits as well, and not deprive myself of nutrients that come in fruits such as potassium.
I enjoy drinking real sugary Coke as I know when to avoid drinking Coke - when I am sick and my acid-base balance is off to the very acidic side as my body is vulnerable to the very acidic nature of Coke, and it would worsen my acidemia and that would only keep my body from healing.
When I am well, my body can handle the acidity as it is able to excrete out the acidity of Coke, especially when A+ for acid base balance with my reliable but cheap DIY test for acid-base balance.I also have a diy test for blood sugar regulation that tells me more accurately how well my body processes simple sugars, in case I am not sure. Sure, the medical establishment has the HbA1c test, but it's a flawed albeit more convenient way to test and I agree with the thumbs down Ray Peat has given on it.
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If you don't mind my asking, what did these doctors do, or advise, to fix the issue?
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@Inzil there is a wide variety.
as general as saying white sugar is bad so avoid it. some would say honey is better because it is not processed. some would say all kinds of sugar is bad and so go carnivore or ketogenic. but some would a little sugar/carbs is okay but not much. some would say go on intermittent fasting.
what they won't tell you is to test you correctly for problems in blood sugar regulation so as to know whether there is something in you that needs to be fixed as far the ability to optimally metabolize sugar goes. some would do a test and give you a false negative ( that you don't have a blood sugar regulation problem when you actually do) and this would reinforce your thinking that carbs are really bad and that yo should avoid it at all cost.
a lot of hoops to go through as I said. and you are none the better for it.
believe it or not, I benefited from doing my research reading old books I borrowed in the public library and found the answers. this was pre-1994 which meant Netscape wasn't yet around to have the internet to mislead me thoroughly. Nowadays if I started my research off the internet, I wouldn't know to sort out fact from fiction. Lots of gaslighting going on to add to add to the level of confusion in media. Social media is no help either as it adds more noise and distracts me from focus.
