Sometimes I hate the internet. If you do enough reading you are sure to find exactly the right tidbit of information to destroy your enjoyment of just about anything.
I came across these facts recently [fair warning: close your browser now if you do not want your love affair with fruit to end on an ugly note]:
One orange has 17g of sugar.
One apple has 13g of sugar.
One cup of strawberries has 7g of sugar.
One banana has 28g of sugar.
I have long viewed bananas as the perfect snack. They’re easily transportable, don’t have to be washed and/or peeled and they’re delicious. Especially in oatmeal. And now this. Twenty-eight grams of sugar.Considering that one teaspoon of table sugar is 4 grams, this makes eating a banana roughly the equivalent of pouring 7 teaspoons of sugar down your throat. Just thinking about it is bringing on a hypoglycemic episode.
The author of the above article (whom I now despise, by the way) didn’t say how big or in what stage of ripeness the banana must be in to achieve this 28-gram ranking. So, in keeping with my long-standing tradition of self-delusion, I have decided it must only apply to blackened bananas, 10 to 12 inches in length that have been fermenting for days and are now mere moments from being tossed into the trash (or baked in banana bread).
I am all about the research (hah!) so just for comparison’s sake, I decided to find out how many grams of sugar are in a Pixie Stick and learned that a one-ounce “giant straw” contains 26 grams of sugar, 2 full grams less than a banana. This can’t be good.
Dammit.
PS - I was reading a book on the Glycemic Index and it said that bananas are actually low on the GI when they are still slightly green. They only place higher as they get riper. So if we eat them slightly green (which is how I prefer them anyway), it's all good.
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6 comments:
It's DIFFERENT sugar. Healthy sugar that's good for you. I love bananas too and I probably average one a day. Now I will have to view them as a guilty pleasure. Next you're going to tell me wine is not a vegetable, aren't you?
I'll let you recover from the banana news first...
Eh. Don't overlook all the good things they have to offer.
Besides, enjoy them while you can. I just read an article that said there is only one genetic strain of bananas (cheap labor in awful conditions, one type of crop). As soon as the next virus hits, yes, we will have no bananas.
FYI, Nutrisystem allows 1/2 of a medium banana as a fruit serving at meals.
Yes, I read the same article about the Cavendish banana. It will be a sad world without bananas.
(And I really DO know that it's not the same as refined sugar.)
When you have your 1/2 banana, what do you do with the other half? :)
Wow. I am way impressed that you remembered that. I just remembered that they really needed a union, and that if we have bananas in the future, they will likely be expensive.
In answer to your question, put some wrap on it and stick it in the fridge; have the rest with your next meal. Or give it to your daughter (if you're me). Either way works! (It only turns slightly brown where it's been cut -- nothing gross.)
Greenish bananas YUM.
I'm with you; for years thinking they were God's wondersnack. Come on; our babies ate 'em before Cheerios!
Bananas; the antichrist of Atkins.
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