The Banana – Friend or Foe?

going bananas

With the recent flurry of paleo-related discussions that have taken place at Fourth Power Fitness, it seems necessary for me to organize my opposition to a deceptively high-glycmeic fruit, the banana.

The vast majority of our ancestors did not inhabit tropical areas; therefore, these bright and colorful, yet saddeningly sugary fruits like mangoes, pineapples, and bananas should not be a part of the paleolithic diet.

The average banana has about 30 grams of carbohydrates. To compare this glycemic index with a few other fruits, it would take 3 cups of strawberries or 1 and a half cups of blueberries or 21 cherries to equal the amount of sugar in what amounts to roughly 1/2 cup of banana. The banana and its tropical friends have slipped into the category of “healthy foods” when their actual macronutrient compositon will reveal their nutirional proximity to such insulin spikers as bread or potatoes. While I haven’t ever heard about any studies that linking banana consumption to the cancers and autoimmune diseases associated with starches, nightshades, or legumes, it seems that the high-glycemic load which serves as the common bond between these non-paleo foods is shared by tropical fruits.

These days everyone seems to know that if you are having muscle spasms, then you need bananas in order to get some potassium into your system to fix the problem. Well, there happen to be two problems with this line of logic. First, bananas typically contain the same amount of potassium as the other most popular fruits do. And some fruits, like kiwis, contain nearly twice as much. The second problem with thinking that bananas will cure cramping lies in the fact that muscle spasms are more related to sodium, magnesium, and the usage of protein for energy during excercise. The “common knowledge” that bananas are a miracle cure for cramping is an unfortunate example of how the general public can be misled about which foods are healthy.

Post thoughts to comments.

Paleo: Beyond Athletic Performance

While many CrossFitters turn to the Paleolithic or Zone styles of eating in order to increase performance in workouts, the importance of eating well extends into the much broader issue of disease prevention.

When I initially began to incorporate the Zone and the Paleo nutrition principles into my diet, it was in order to be able to recover faster, workout harder, and make greater gains that I would be able to see. With these intentions, my adherence to the nutrition plan was sporadic and I was always looking forward to the next “cheat day” when I could eat 3 Chipotle burritos or a whole apple pie with a half-gallon of ice cream (as you may have noticed, I really took advantage of my cheat days).

I viewed diet as a way of boosting my performance with good nutrients rather than as a way of saving it from bad food products. With this mindset, it was easy to eat cheat foods because I didn’t think that it would weaken my body; instead, I thought I was giving up something extra, a nutritional enhancement.

Once I had learned about the negative effects of grains, starches, syrups, legumes, dairy, and nightshades, I began to fully appreciate the paleo diet. The human body was finely tuned through evolution during pre-agricultural times; the introduction of domesticated livestock, dairy, grains, starches, legumes, and nightshades has led to the rise of the diseases which now control the average life expectancy. After learning more about the way that non-paleo foods trigger the illnesses that plague modern civilization (namely cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, acne, arthritis, and many cancers), I find it much easier to eat paleo foods 100% of the time. In fact, after becoming aware of the actual processes by which agricultural foods make the human body susceptible to damage, it is much harder to eat cheat foods than it is to continue eating like a caveman.

The videos below explain how compounds within agricultural food items are critical components of the process by which multiple sclerosis attacks the central nervous system. Since I watched them, my diet has been completely paleolithic. Enjoy.

Links to parts 2 – 7 will come up after each segment has finished playing.