A Doctor told me that bananas are not so good food for you because of the HIGH glycemic index. does this mean that you shouldn't eat bananas on empty stomach? (e.g. for breakfast before you eat anything else because your blood sugar will surge which is not good for you and thus you may get type-2 diabetes?)
I always thought that any fruit from nature cant be harmful for you...
If you don't currently have diabetes, either you or your doctor is a troll.
I dont have diabetes. I run 90mpw and my BMI is 19. I think this guy is kind of BSing me to be honest but I'd like some arguments to throw back. Thanks for any help you can provide
The Glycemic Index table in "Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes" lists bananas in the "low glycemic foods" section. According to Wikipedia (which, as we all know, is the most reliable data source in the history of the universe) most fruits and vegetables are low glycemic foods.
yes but bananas are supposed to be high glycemic, does that mean they're bad? i wanna eat a lot of bananas...should i watch out?
If you have a BMI of 19 and run 90 miles a week you shouldn't waste time with bananas. Too low calorie. 500 calories every two hours will only make you recover. You wan to keep those miles at your weight and still get faster you'll have to eat from this meni
bacon wrapped brownies
pizza with mayo
liver and eggs
1/2gallon of ice cream
bucket of pasta
washed down by 40 GUINESS drafts per week
Bananas are low on the Glycemic Index because they are high in fructose (as are all fruits), not glucose. Your body produces a lot of insulin in response to glucose, not fructose, though they are both monosaccharides. You can store glucose as glycogen, but you cannot store fructose as carbohydrate, so excess fructose is converted into fatty acids. This is why HFCS is so bad. People essentially eat way more calories than they need at the moment, and since these calories can't be stored as anything but fat, they ARE stored as fat and you feel hungry again soon. You also get some hyperglycemia problems if you eat a lot of it, which can lead to Type II diabetes, and your liver gets kind of f***ed up.
Really, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Fruits are mostly just sugar and water. They are also an essential part of the diet, but you also shouldn't eat a ton of them either for optimum nutrition (you generally aren't going to get any "extra" nutrition from eating more than a few servings a day). In general, try to eat some fruit each day, and try to limit other sources of sugar in your diet, especially HFCS.
awesome, but if i eat bananas for breakfast on an EMPTY stomach, will that shoot my blood sugar way up and put me at risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes (even though im thin and fit)????
The thing I don't get on these boards are all the people who decry any type of "bad for you" food. I run enough where I really don't care what I eat as long as it's reasonably healthy, with considerations for good tasting food that are awful for me. I think if more people on these boards didn't eat like anorexic girls we would all be in a much better place.
Just my two cents.
I am in medicine and the doctor is wrong...Bananas are good for you.Are you sure he is a doctor?
So hang on...All these years i've been eating bannannas/oranges/Grapes/Fruits/Watermelons and you tell me that bannannas aren't good for me? .....
The greener a banana is the less sugar it has in it. As it turns yellow then brown the sugars inside are multiplying rapidly. So, eat greener bananas to assist.
Watching professional tennis players munching bananas between sets of matches lasting for hours, this year we had one at Wimbledon lasting over 11 hours - I assume they’ve taken the best possible expert advice on diet.
The day that I avoid eating a banana because of its glycemic index is the day I shoot myself in the head. Life is too short for that bullshit.
The Party's Crashing Us wrote:
The day that I avoid eating a banana because of its glycemic index is the day I shoot myself in the head. Life is too short for that bullshit.
AMEN!!
How many nutrition courses do doctors take?
A few friends who are doctors answered that question with "usually zero, and in some cases one." "In general, we doctors don't know any more about nutrition than a person off the street."
Donkey Kong wrote:
awesome, but if i eat bananas for breakfast on an EMPTY stomach, will that shoot my blood sugar way up and put me at risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes (even though im thin and fit)????
What will put you at risk for type 2 diabetes is not exercising, (which will diminish the activity/sensitivity of the insulin receptor and GLUT-4 glucose transporter in muscle cells), being fat (which will cause a chronic inflammatory state, producing cytokines that will damage the insulin receptor), and genetics (inheriting genes that will give you insensitive insulin receptors). All of these will make your insulin much less effective, causing high blood glucose levels.
You, being thin and active, are not going to develop type 2 diabetes by eating a banana on an empty stomach.
Rod Munch wrote:
You, being thin and active, are not going to develop type 2 diabetes by eating a banana on an empty stomach.
sounds good
Rod Munch wrote:
What will put you at risk for type 2 diabetes is not exercising, (which will diminish the activity/sensitivity of the insulin receptor and GLUT-4 glucose transporter in muscle cells), being fat (which will cause a chronic inflammatory state, producing cytokines that will damage the insulin receptor), and genetics (inheriting genes that will give you insensitive insulin receptors). All of these will make your insulin much less effective, causing high blood glucose levels.
You, being thin and active, are not going to develop type 2 diabetes by eating a banana on an empty stomach.
Very good. I was going to mention some of that. If you exercise, you produce less insulin than someone who doesn't; however, you're actually more sensitive to insulin (and thus regulate blood sugar levels more tightly) than a sedentary individual due to an upregulation of insulin receptors. This means that people who exercise are much less likely to get diabetes type II than those who don't.
As far as doctors not knowing about nutrition, any doctor who knows the same or less than Joe Public is a terrible doctor. Anyone who takes a few physiology classes should understand nutrition better than most nutritionists.
Tennis players eat bananas for the potassium to avoid hypokalemia.
Anyway, like I said in my first post, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Like Mr. Munch said, you're not going to get diabetes from eating bananas. If you're exercising, eating fruit and vegetables regularly and avoiding junk food like candy and soda, you're likely doing very well.
What does your Doctor think of eating 30-50 bananas at a sitting for lunch?