I can go months without a banana. What could my body be missing which it believes is in a bananas? According to wikipedia, they have vitamin B6, vitamin C, and potassium. Could I possibly be suffering a shortage of any of these nutrients?
Vitamin B6 is aI hope that two are enough.
water-soluble vitamin and is part of
the vitamin B complex group. Pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) is the active form and is a cofactor
in many reactions of amino acid metabolism,
including transamination, deamination, and decarboxylation. PLP also is
necessary for the enzymatic reaction governing the release of glucose
from glycogen.
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient for humans, a large number
of higher primate species, a small number of other mammalian species
(notably guinea pigs and bats), a
few species of birds, and some fish.[1]
Ascorbate (an ion of ascorbic acid) is required for a range of essential metabolic reactions in
all animals and plants...
Potassium
Overview:
Potassium is a mineral that helps the kidneys function normally. It is also
an electrolyte, a substance that conducts electricity in the body, along with
sodium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium. Potassium is crucial to heart function
and plays a key role in skeletal and smooth muscle contraction, making it
important for normal digestive and muscular function, too. A heart-healthy diet
includes potassium from fruits, vegetables, and legumes....
...The most important use of potassium is to
treat the symptoms of hypokalemia (low potassium), which include weakness, lack
of energy, muscle cramps, stomach disturbances, an irregular heartbeat, and an
abnormal EKG (electrocardiogram, a test that measures heart function).
4 comments:
Enjoy the bananas. I try to have some in the house at all times, because when someone is in a rush and hasn't eat breakfast I can say: eat a banana. They do get eaten, mostly.
Thanks! I think I'll have one soon with yogurt as a snack. Recently I had a couple of bouts of muscle cramps and bananas are supposed to help prevent them. So I guess I ought to have one a day.
Both hypokalemia and hyperkalemia can cause muscle cramps. If someone is taking a diuretic (water pill) it can result in low blood potassium levels.
However, certain other diuretics are "potassium sparing" and you need to be careful with that because it can cause potassium to go too high.
One particularly dangerous food regarding potassium is natural licorce; not the red Twizzlers candy but real black licorce. That can cause potassium levels to go really high.
Some salt substitutes have potassium and can raise potassium levels.
But generally, if a person is healthy the main problems with potassium would be it being too low. Normal should be between about 4.0-5.5.
Bananas are great and high in potassium. So are tomatoes, but who wants to eat a tomatoe on the go? A little messy.
Bananas are sweet tasting, too. A natural snack. Frozen bananas....YUMMY!! My mom used to put a popsicle stick in a banana, freeze it and we loved it.
(I don't know the potassium content of grapes but it was an Italian American tradition--at least in my family--to freeze green, seedless grapes. They're really good like that.It's a real treat.)
Thanks, keli, for the info. B"H, I'm not on medication. Everyone's bodies fluctuate. It's nice to think of a banana as medicinal!
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