Everyone knows the importance of vegetables and fruits. For the elderly, these kinds of foods are also highly recommended because they have many health benefits. It is very good to consume them every day. Things like benefits of starfruit, grapes, or other fruits are also highly refreshing.
From these, we can get the sufficient intake of vitamins, minerals and fiber that our body needs. Some of the content contained in vegetables and fruits such as vitamin A, vitamin C, beetamine E, zinc, magnesium, potassium phosphorus, and folic acid.
For example, bananas. As explained in the benefits of bananas, this fruit contains potassium which is useful to lower blood pressure, prevent kidney stones and reduce the risk of bone mass loss.
In addition, various diseases such as stroke, heart disease and diabetes can be prevented by regularly eating vegetables and fruits. Bananas also contain fiber that plays a role to control blood sugar levels, make the digestive system more smooth and lower bad cholesterol.
Why Bananas Are So Good
Ripe bananas are very delicious to eat. Behind its sweet taste, bananas also contain nutrients that are good for health. The benefits of bananas can be easily obtained by consuming them regularly.
So much goodness contained in a banana, the nutrients contained in bananas include :
- Carbohydrates
- Proteins
- Manganese
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B
- vitamin C
- Fiber
- Potassium
- Magnesium
With its various nutrients, there are also many benefits of bananas that can be obtained by the body.
It may provide wonderful health benefits of banana for elderly, such as:
Health Benefits of Banana for Elderly
- Ultimate Energy Source
Bananas can easily be digested, the sugar contained in bananas is converted into a source of energy quickly, and it is good in body formation, for muscle work, and is great for relieving fatigue.
Bananas also act as prebiotics, stimulating the growth of friendly bacteria in the gut. Not only prebiotics, but they also produce digestive enzymes that play an important role to absorb needed nutrients. If you don’t have bananas, have some benefits of omelette for your breakfast.
- Relieves Stomach Problems
Elderlies are often experiencing stomach problems. This could be annoying at some point, and dangerous at the other.
Bananas mixed with milk (or included in a glass of milk) can be served as medicine in case of intestinal diseases. It can also be recommended for patients with abdominal pain to neutralize the acidity of the stomach.
Bananas can also help you with inflammation, since they have Vitamin C that can quickly overcome them. It transforms dangerous bacillus into friendly bacillus. Thus, both will be helped.
Whole bananas or banana cream (such in baby’s food), can be consumed by patients suffering from diarrhea.
- Best Way to Control Troubling Weight
Overweight can be a huge problem for seniors, since it can bring other dangerous health problems, including the deadly diabetes. It has been proven in a method that a person can approach.
It’s to lose weight by dieting four bananas and four glasses of non-fat milk per day for at least three days a week. With all of those in total, the calories counted is only 1,250, which can be considered quite enough for a day.
On the other hand, eating one glass of banana milk-shake mixed with honey, fruits, nuts, and mangoes after meals, can also be a good way to increase weight.
While approaching the banana method, seniors can also try another refreshing thing, like having the benefits of earl grey tea.
- Helps to Relieves Depressing and Increases Mood
Seniors are often exposed to anxiety and depression due to several aspect of their lives. Other than consulting a psychiatrist, they can also have the benefit of bananas.
They help overcome depression due to high levels of tryptophan, converted into serotonin – the brain’s neurotransmitter of happy atmosphere.
Improve your mood and reduce depression symptoms by eating bananas. It’s possible because bananas can help to regular blood sugar while also producing stress-relieving enzymes at the same time which really important for elderly.
- Treats Hypertension
Did you know? It turns out that bananas are high in potassium and low in salt. They are officially mentioned by FDA to be a tasty medicine against blood pressure, strokes, and even heart attacks.
But, even though they can be beneficial, you still need a certain medication to treat this. Use bananas as a healthy snack instead, since it’s much better than biscuits or fried stuff.
- Rich of Antioxidants
Bananas are rich in antioxidants so as to eliminate the effects of free radicals in the body. It also means that bananas are able to prevent cancer. It’s a great alternative to the benefits of taro root which is rarely found.
With consuming the recommended amount of antioxidants, elderly can be more healthy and fit. Just by eating healthily and adopting a healthy habit, they can be more protected from dangerous diseases.
Tips to Consume Bananas
Ripe bananas can be eaten or processed into various types of snack foods. Well, according to many research studies, bananas can be considered way healthier than sweet snacks.
But remember to avoid eating it by frying it, such as making it fried banana. Frying can turn the benefits of bananas into harm, because it’s eliminating its nutritional content and increasing saturated fat levels, which can cause you to get high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
So What Do You Need to Do?
How to process bananas so that the goodness contained in them can survive?
- You can easily use them as juice or smoothies. You can also add low-fat milk, honey, and other fruits.
- Mix the banana slices with oatmeal. To make it more nutritious, you can add other fruits or almonds.
- Bananas that have been mashed can also be mixed into sponge cake dough. In addition to adding flavor, a sponge cake made by you can also be more nutritious.
- Applying peanut butter on bananas can also be a healthy option.