Should You Eat Banana in Empty Stomach?

Bananas seem to be the easiest option when choosing a healthy breakfast. You don’t even have to rinse it before eating. But breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and you should not choose something just because it is easy. Now, of course, a banana has health benefits, but still, eating a banana on empty stomach is questionable. It may be because of:

After a few hours, the high amount of natural sugar can make one feel energy-deprived.
It can make you feel sleepy and tired. Bananas have elements like Magnesium that makes you sleepy.
It can cause bowel problems.

However, you can incorporate bananas as a part of your balanced breakfast and other food items.

Here’s What Eating Bananas Will Do to You!

Bananas are a great source of Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, potassium and magnesium. As per the U.S Department of Agriculture, a medium-sized banana has around 3gms of dietary fibres. It has high nutritional and low caloric value. Here are the benefits of eating a banana for breakfast. It:

Helps in gaining weight
Keeps you energetic
Helps your muscles to recover after an intense workout session
Strengthens immune system
Enhances gut health
Relieves constipation
Relieves stress and nervousness

As for the benefits of eating banana on empty stomach, though bananas have many health benefits, consuming bananas on an empty stomach can have harmful effects. Bananas have a high sugar content of around 25%. It has three different types of natural sugar, namely fructose, sucrose and glucose. It provides instant energy and can quickly spike up your sugar levels. This instant energy will last for a few hours and soon result in a sugar crash. It can make you feel sluggish and cause more harm than good. People with diabetes should not consume bananas on an empty stomach.

Bananas are acidic; eating them on an empty stomach can raise your body’s acidity level. It will first give your energy a quick boost but later make you feel drained and dull. It can also disturb bowel movements.

The high magnesium content in bananas can disrupt the balance between magnesium and calcium in the blood. This imbalance can harm heart health. Also, it can affect metabolism and negatively affects our digestive system. Therefore, one should not take a banana in morning empty stomach.

Wondering What You Should do?

It can help if you complement it with healthy fats and essential nutrients to maintain your energy level throughout the day. It can also bring back the body’s acid level to normal and regulate the sugar metabolism.

A banana on its own is not a healthy breakfast option, but you can include it as a part of a well-balanced breakfast.

You need to consume it correctly to have its optimum benefits. Foods like a glass of milk, apple, peanut butter or boiled eggs go well with bananas. It is best to mix it up with soaked dry fruits as they help reduce the acid in our body.

You should eat a healthy breakfast meal to kick-start your day. Here is a list of a few healthy breakfasts, including bananas:

Frozen banana with yoghurt and peanut butter
Smoothie with banana, berries and other fruits
Muesli with seeds, nuts and sliced bananas
Banana with oats, walnuts and nut bars
Yoghurt with banana and chia seeds

Instead of having an empty stomach banana, eating it any time of day is completely fine and healthy. You can consult a well-qualified professional dietician for better guidance and secure the best health benefits for yourself.

Also Read: Banana Shake Benefits: 14 Reasons to Include Banana Shake in Your Diet!

References

Yingting Cao, Shiqi Zhen, Anne W. Taylor, Sarah Appleton, October 2018; Magnesium Intake and Sleep Disorder Symptoms: Findings from the Jiangsu Nutrition Study of Chinese Adults at Five-Year Follow-Up - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6212970/
Bananas, raw -https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173944/nutrients
Siti A Zaman, Shahrul R Sarbini, January 2013; The potential of resistant starch as a prebiotic - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25582732/