Bananas (You might not want to read this if you plan on eating bananas ever again)

Here are the reasons bananas are the worst fruits you can put in you body:

They are very dampening in the body and unless you are outside in hot climates they will make your body retain water. Their glycemic index is so high that raises your blood sugar way to fast. I tend to want the juicer foods. They are almost always picked green. When picked green it doesn't allow the phytochemicals and nutrients to mature. This can only happen when picked tree-ripened. The trees are also injected with steroids. They are a genetically man-mad fruit. Bananas are highly hybridized. They have lost their ability to reproduce. They are actually a hybrid from a plantain. They are very addictive. 1/6 of total produce sales in North America is from bananas. Go to a grocery store and you will see bananas in almost everyones cart. They are the starchiest fruit in nature. They are mucous forming and if someone has asthma I would hope they know not to eat them. I only eat fruits that have not lost their ability to reproduce. I do not eat hybrid fruit. Do research on hybrids and you won't want to eat them either. It's just best to avoid bananas if possible.


[sitekreator.com]

Do you agree with this person, is it true?

I love bananas!

I have been eating quite a few since trying to go raw and, being a diabetic, I have noticed that it has been very difficult to control them with insulin. I have been wrong with my insuin every time, usually too little and ended up with much higher blood sugar than I am used to...I had been really well controlled until bananas came back into my diet!

I have also noticed that I am a bit mucousy in my throat after bananas.

So maybe there is some truth to this.

Claire

It's a bit of an extreme comment to say the least. I don't think bananas are the best fruit in the world, but not as bad as this guy makes out. They are not the highest fruit on the GI index, there are other fruits higher such as watermelon, kiwi, mango, papaya, pineapple. (GI Table: [www.mendosa.com] )

And while they are hybridised, they are not quite "a genetically man-mad fruit"!

(I wouldn't trust anything on that site!)

cheers, Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

The GI index means nothing to me as I'm living proof that you can eat sugary (never really thought of them as that - they are natural, far from processed cane sugar!) fruits and lose weight. Almost everything is hybridized according to unnamed sources in articles like these, and yes, bananas are, but I also agree, I don't think they're that bad. They're really cheap and if you're hungry, they're better than eating a lot of things that are also considered raw. What this guy should really be ragging on is raw nut butter or chocolate or any of those other raw junk foods.

This is too much.

I buy organically grown bananas and use them all the time. There are alot more things/foods to be concerned about than whether or not bananas are BAD....geez...

What else do I need to avoid? Orgnaic blueberries? Are Strawberries going to cause me to grow excessive facial hair? What about celery? or cauliflower? Oh my gosh, and all that kale and romaine that I use for green juice! Could too much of that stuff give me a high cholestoerol, or a stroke?!

See how ridiculous this can get? Whoever wrote that banana-rant needs to CHILL....

After a few years of being raw my body just stopped being able to eat bananas. Maybe it picked up of this, because I did not start to dislike bananas on purpose because I read they are bad or anything, it just happened!

Also, I have "excessive dampness" in my Chinese medicine diagnosis so makes sense given this too that bananas wouldn't appeal to me. Sometimes I wish I could like them as they are so cheap and versatile!

Wow, if that guy is so against bananas, I'd sure hate to hear what he thinks about a hamburger or a slice of pizza.

There a good, widely found, affordable fruit. Winters here are easier with them actually, considering what we are left with . . . practically nothing.

I used to be pre-diabetic and plan my meals around the glycemic index. I barely ate fruit at all for several years. That was a miserable, unsweet time for me! I've since tossed all that out the window. I eat sweet fruit every day, all day and the GI means nothing to me anymore. I found out my fat intake affected my blood sugar more than my sugar intake. There is a life outside the glycemic index and all that intellectual stuff, it just requires getting outside of your known and being willing to let a new experience show up.

Love,
Uma

I eat about 20 banannas a day all day, and a big salad for dinner, greens only, about a pound of greens for dinner, no more avacado or seeds just plain greens. but yea banannas, for real about 20 to probabably 30 a day! No added fat. the 80/10/10 is pretty balanced, and i feel great!
Rob

Oh yea I forgot to mention I am 160 lbs and maintain this weight daily so I dont gain weight from eating banannas like this either since some think banannas are "fattening".I love banannas period!
Rob

Haha. Over the last two days me and my friend dumpstered about 70-80 bananas. The only reason I haven't eaten them all is because I am trying to control my calorie/sugar intake at the moment, but I have been eating about 7 a day. Can't say I notice any ill effects.

lol @ "addictive"

I hate bananas. I only buy them because they're cheap and I have to blend them with other fruit. Easy calories and they definitely boost nutrients up for me.

Organic bananas are definitely not injected with steroids (good thing!).

I'm fortunate to eat wonderful apple bananas that we grow ourselves. I notice that when I don't eat bananas (because we've been too lazy to get them down), I start to really miss them after a few days. Whatever starchiness they may have doesn't seem to have any negative effect for me. Bananas give me lots of energy.

Bananas are one of the few fruits that can be harvested year-round. I suspect that characteristic may have made bananas one of the earliest cultivated foods. Humans and bananas may have actually evolved together, an indication that the human body would be well-tuned for digesting bananas and utilizing their nutrition. The long history of the human-banana connection may also in part explain why bananas have been so highly hybridized, and I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2008 06:28AM by suncloud.

I enjoy bananas. In the past, I've eaten 20 bananas in a day. Nowadays I might eat 12. But I do like other fruit more, including watermelons, honeydew, mangos, papaya, mangosteen, durian, persimmons, tangerines, figs. I suppose that of the sweet fruits, bananas are one of my least favorites. But I have made my peace with bananas, as they are cheap and abundant and available all year round.

I have Type 1 Diabetes and eat 2 to 3 bananas most days. They require 2 units of insulin each. So, if I take my insulin (which I even have to take with greens) my blood sugar is good after eating them. Everything in moderation and they are better than some alternatives. As Victoria Boutenko said in one of her books (I think it was The Raw Family), if we listened to what not to eat from everyone - there would be nothing left to eat.

Karen DeVeaux
[healingtype1diabetes.typepad.com]

wow
some people eat LOTS of bananas.

i heard somewhere that too much potasium isn't good for you?
can anyone comment?

tanks
dc

ps i love bananas :O)

Put me on the yes list for bananas but like Bryan said there are many fruits that are sweet that can take its place .
This time of year where I am I have to wait for the bananas to ripen so i may not eat them but once a week or every other week so I will eat other sweet fruits like papayas and sapodillas and if I am lucky lucama.

Cherimoya

Love Peace and Happiness,

You can do a lot worse than bananas.

I still have horrible flashbacks to a steak and cheese sandwich I had at about 3 AM... over twenty-five years ago.

I'm not too worried about the bananas yet. I'm just not that advanced on this path.


Lee

Dr. Graham had this too say about too much Potassium:

"No, unless you suffer from some for of kidney problem, in which case
the problem is your kidneys and not the potassium, it is not likely that
anyone will suffer from overdose of potassium. The human body is
extremely efficient at eliminating excess potassium through the urine.

No special dietary considerations need be taken.

Dr D"

I used to only be able to eat bananas in a smoothie or with dates or something. But within the last year I've started enjoying them on their own. There is something soothing about them to me. I think they have some happy nutrient in them or something. Most of the year if other stuff is available I will do that. But there are a couple months in Winter after persimmons and before mangos, where they become a major staple (along with citrus). Last year I did 9 days of bananas only and it was fun. And yeah, the price doesn't hurt either.

Love,
Uma

The beauty of bananas is that you can get a quick raw meal in just about any grocery store in the U.S.

The downside is that it's hard to find natural varieties of this wonderful fruit, except in major markets and we're relegated to Mr. Cavendish's clones. I wonder how many generations the clones are at now? Has anyone on this board studied this?

Bananas sure tasted good in Costa Rica on my vacation last winter.

I am not going to worry, I feel great when I eat bananas. Eating something that came directly from a tree will always be better than anything you could eat from the world of cooking, heating and processing (hybridized or not).

Yet another attempt by someone to demonize some type of fruit.

Listen to what your body tells you to eat.

Mmmmm tasty ripe bananas!

Phil.

--------------------------------------------------

"Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it" (Chinese Proverb)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2008 01:54PM by jadedshade.

If you stick around the raw/vegan world long enough, you will find that for every single possible thing you can eat, there is at least one person who will testify to a given item being incredibly healing and at least one person who will warn you that that very same item is toxic.

There are some things some of us agree on. But very little most of us agree on.

Gotta find my own way in the wilderness... We got people swearing green, leafy stuff is a fruit. We got people who eat mostly greens. Mostly fruit. Mostly smoothies. Mostly processed looking raw/vegan/gourmet. People who say the "master cleanse" is anything but and people who swear by it.

Don't believe anything I or the Buddha tell you:

Ma anussavena.
Do not believe something just because it has been passed along and retold for many generations. [Simpler: Do not be led by what you are told.]

Ma paramparaya.
Do not believe something merely because it has become a traditional practice. [Do not be led by whatever has been handed down from past generations.]

Ma itikiraya.
Do not believe something simply because it is well-known everywhere. [Do not be led by hearsay or common opinion.]

Ma Pitakasampadanena.
Do not believe something just because it is cited in a text. [Do not be led by what the scriptures say]

Ma takkahetu.
Do not believe something solely on the grounds of logical reasoning. [Do not be led by mere logic.]

Ma nayahetu.
Do not believe something merely because it accords with your philosophy. [Do not be led by mere deduction or inference.]

Ma akaraparivitakkena.
Do not believe something because it appeals to "common sense". [Do not be led by considering only outward appearance.]

Ma ditthinijjhanakkhantiya.
Do not believe something just because you like the idea. [Do not be led by preconceived notions (and the theory reflected as an approval)]

Ma bhabbarupataya.
Do not believe something because the speaker seems trustworthy. [Do not be led by what seems acceptable; do not be led by what some seeming believable one says.]

Ma samano no garu ti.
Do not believe something thinking, "This is what our teacher says". [Do not be led by what your teacher tells you is so.]

When you yourselves directly know, "This is [these things are] unwholesome, this is blameworthy, this is condemned or censured by the wise, these things when accepted and practised lead to poverty and harm and suffering," then you should give them up.

When you yourselves directly know, "These things are wholesome, blameless, praised by the wise; when adopted and carried out they lead to well-being, prosperity and happiness," then you should accept and practise them."

Gautama Buddha, Kesaputti Sutta, 5th sutta (sutra) in the Book of Threes (Mahavagga) in the Gradual Sayings (Tika Nipata).

[oaks.nvg.org]

I don't know, I think it's pretty safe to assume that the raw gourmet stuff is completely unhealthy. Frederic Patenaude pointed it out best (excerpted from Raw Secrets):

"To avoid the pitfall of cooked food, raw foodists have created an array of raw recipes that resemble their favorite cooked dishes. Let's take a look at a popular raw food recipe called the "Nut Loaf", which is supposed to imitate a meat loaf and which contains, among other things:

- 1 1/3 cups cashews
- 1 1/3 cups sunflower seeds
- 1 1/3 cups almonds
- 1/2 cup oil

This serves two. Let's take a closer look. The fat content of the nuts and oil used in the recipe is as follows:

- cashews; 150 grams = 69.5 grams of fat
- sunflower seeds; 190 grams = 94.2 grams of fat
- almonds; 200 grams = 104.4 grams of fat
- olive oil; 125 grams = 125 grams of fat.

Total: 393.1 grams of fat.
For each person: 196.55 grams fat! So each person consumes almost an entire cup of oil in this recipe! And I have seen people eat more! But what would be the consequences of sitting down and drinking a cup of oil?"


Thanks to Alissa Cohen, we have the invention of raw fried chicken - which sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Granted, not every recipe is as extreme. But I think it's safe to say that fresh fruits, vegetables, roots and herbs - and in the rare instance that you can find fresh seeds/nuts/other raw delicacies - are more beneficial to one's diet than anything that isn't. I will occasionally eat dried herbs or fruits when I don't have enough money to buy a plethora of fresh foods, such as now, in the scarce assortment of winter produce.

I looked through the Blind Guru's website for quite some time, and while there is a lot of sound advice, there are some things that are just completely questionable. The Blind Guru is trying to sell their merchandise just like David Wolfe or Shazzie or anyone else. I think one of their tactics is using extremism to garner fear and get a following for their particular breed of beliefs. It is true that the Cavendish banana is hybridized, but the likelihood of them being "injected with steroids" is completely ridiculous. Another thing that is suspicious that the Blind Guru says is that bananas are highly addictive. It sounds like the Blind Guru was once addicted to them, for the person/people to be so spiteful towards them.

One of the most peculiar things about the Blind Guru's website was their vocalization of the belief that they have some sort of raw super powers (not literally written, mind you) - they mentioned being able to eat an entire pizza, raw or not, if they wanted to, because their bodies are so strong.

I think, as Lee_123 said, it is best to form your own opinions about things, haha.

Rawfrancois,

I appreciate what you said about the "raw" fried chicken. Maybe I'm lazy, but I'd rather eat something that looks like a live, raw plant product. Minimal preparation, minimal clean up and I feel good.

Give me a hybridized banana over that fried faux meat any day! I have NO fried chicken cravings. Is that stuff better than Kentucky Fried? Maybe. But I don't want it. I want fruits and veggies.

Lee,
not selling anything, not promoting a website, no blog with google ads, not trolling for consultant fees, not marketing any events, not even asking for a dollar for my two cents!

PS: I'm happy because I went to the grocery store and stocked up on ... bananas, apples, a couple different varieties of oranges and something red and funky that I have yet to identify -- some kind of exotic fruit. (I go to a supermarket that is frequented mostly by (immigrant and ethnic) Hispanics, Jamaicans, Indians, Chinese, and Koreans. The dirt washes right off the produce. LOL. This place has the cheapest, widest variety of produce around. Whole Foods got nothing on this place. It's awesome for produce.)

Good night and good luck!

I only buy organic bananas and when this one kind (free trade) comes in from Ecuador, they are so sweet and lovely! Most of the ones from Dole, even if they are labeled as Ecuador, are too starchy and not filled with flavor like the first ones I mentioned.

For me, I love the convenience of bananas and their price compared to other organic fruits. I used to only be able to eat one banana and I'd be too full. Now I can eat up to six, or more, in one sitting! I love what raw foods has done for my digestion! :-)

Love,

Gypsy
XOXO

"Come Mr. Tally Man, tally me bananas..."

I love the simplicity of bananas, and the fact that they're very user-friendly. They're affordable, portable, pretty and tasty. Plus, I always feel good after eating them.

xoxo,
Lita

[paintedrenderings.blogspot.com]

I just recently started buying organic bananas and the taste is completely different. My parents tell me all the time that all the fruit I eat is bad for me but when i look at five months ago when I was eating SAD and how I felt then, I know the only person I will listen to when it comes to eating habits and whats good and bad is myself. My body will tell me exactly whats bad and what works, and bananas are something that my body thrives on.

Wow Corizza,
It's so sad that your parents still tell you that all that fruit is bad for you...you have made an amazing transformation, hopefully they will see it soon and become more supportive. My parents behaved similarly for a very short time in my transformation. I think that they may have felt like I was being critical of the way they raised me because I was rejecting the diet that they had established for me. Once they realized that I didn't blame them for my previous state of health the dialog became much more supportive. Keep doing what you're doing!

Aloha nui loa, Greg

Oh yeah...this post is about bananas.... I love them, especially the local apple bananas we get here. I've found several varieties of Polynesian heirloom bananas while hiking in the forests here.... some with short fruit with a rich purplish skin... some with an orange-pink flesh, really dense with fairly large seeds (like kiwi seed size) running up the core, as filling as 2-3 "normal" bananas, but still sweet... some were too starchy, pasty or bitter to eat raw, they were probably cooking bananas. Anyway, bananas are a staple for me, in the 1-3 per day range (including frozen ones added to smoothies).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2008 10:23PM by MauiGreg.

oh, ugh, i LoAtHe the banana. the taste, the smell, the texture, gross. i can detect them in any combination, the flavor dominates and ruins everything for me.
once, years ago, on a date with a Hott dude he offered me a sip of the smoothy he was obviously greatly enjoying. it looked so yummy and tasty and good, imagine my surprise when my mouth was suddenly filled with this intolerably nasty flavour, AAAHHH! i spit it out onto the sidewalk next to us and went to find a sink to rinse out my mouth. not my sexiest move ever, lemme tell ya.
thankfully he was amused more than anything and still talked to me afterwards, in fact we're still friends. only that though and never more, do you think nearly puking from his smoothy might have ruined it for me?

ha ha ha ha ha!

i can barely stand to give those slimy, stinky little tree slugs to the kids but they seem to like them so... i've gotten used to having them in the kitchen. they make my son more attractive to mosquitos in the summer time though so we avoid them for a couple of months then.

oh, and everything is "hybridized" apparently. that's what farmers/breeders do, it's not a big evil.