You may have heard that glucose is the body’s primary energy source. When you eat, your body gets glucose by metabolizing the carbs in your foods. One food that has plenty of carbs is a banana. On average, a large banana contains about 31g of carbs. This means that eating a banana will most likely raise your blood sugar levels. How much it will increase depends on a few factors. 

One factor is your individual metabolism. (We won’t go into detail here)

The other factor, and that’s probably more surprising, is the ripeness. 

Bananas, like all fruits, are a source of carbs that can cause your blood glucose to increase rapidly. 

The greener the banana, the more resistant starch. Resistant starch is a type of carbohydrate that cannot be adequately digested and, therefore, won’t cause your blood glucose levels to increase. 

So if you can choose between two bananas, choose the greener one because it won’t cause as severe of a glucose spike as eating the riper one. 

Besides carbohydrates and thus energy, bananas also have other effects on your body. They’re a great source of micronutrients such as potassium, magnesium, Vitamin B12, and C. 

In case you missed the point at which you want to eat your banana as a snack (if the banana is too brown and sweet already) we have some tips for you to make sure the fruit doesn’t go to waste.

You can use a very ripe or overripe banana as a sweetener for your baked goods. You can use them in pancakes, make banana bread or mix them into a cream filling. It’s delicious and you can go easy on (or even leave out) added refined sugars. Enjoy! 🍌

Source: Johns Hopkins University.