Eat banana peels? YES!
My son Adrian brought this Business Insider article to my attention – an article that includes several uses for bananas in food and cooking.
In particular the article states that:
“ The sweet flesh of a medium-sized banana contains significant percentages of your daily recommended intake of various nutrients, such as:
- 12% of your daily fiber, which helps with digestion and may help lower your risk of diabetes
- 17% of your vitamin C, which is important for your immune system as well as growth and development
- 20% of your vitamin B-6, which aids the body’s ability to convert food into energy
- 12% of your potassium, which helps in development of cells, tissues, and organs throughout the body
- 8% of your magnesium, which is important for the body’s energy productions and regulating glucose and blood pressure levels
If you then eat the skin along with the flesh you get an even bigger boost in these same nutrients . . .[The skin] contains high amounts of vitamin B6 and B12, as well as magnesium and potassium. It also contains some fiber and protein . . .”
I have a green smoothie almost every day of the week and, almost always, I have a banana in my smoothie. When I learned of the nutrients that I was throwing in the compost, I immediately changed my banana preparation from peeling to washing and then taking the ends off for the compost and slicing the rest of the banana into small pieces (about a half to an inch long) and putting them in the blender with the other ingredients. The blender chops the banana feel very finely so you are not even aware that it is there and your smoothie packs that much more nutritional punch!
