Bananas, citrus, cilantro making a perfect salsa

It’s been a couple weeks now, so any lingering heartbreak caused by the Super Bowl should have abated. In case it hasn’t, I have a suggestion: bananas.

Those are the same bananas that were trucked in large quantities into the stadium in Glendale, Ariz., to help the players ward off cramps from all that heat and humidity.

Bananas offer many health and nutrition benefits but (who knew) they are also supposed to help ward off depression.

I guess that makes sense. Their color is sunny, their shape is a perfect imitation of a smile. They are the main ingredient in the banana split, a dessert that always makes me happy.

They also have a lot of tryptophan, which converts to seratonin in the body and uplifts one’s mood.

They also are high in B vitamins, which help your nerves work at optimum capacity (those B vitamins can also, reportedly, help you quit smoking; they reduce the impacts of nicotine withdrawal).

Still stressed?

Bananas can help protect you from ulcers; they reduce the acid in your stomach and have protease inhibitors that get rid of ulcer-causing bacteria.

Bananas are also a natural antacid and can reduce heartburn.

Most of us, I believe, think of bananas mainly as a source of potassium.

Anyone who had leg cramps as a child was probably told to eat plenty of bananas.

Potassium helps rebalance the body’s water supply, and helps regulate your heartbeat, according to the Web site bananasweb.com.

Bananas can also (according to the New England Journal of Medicine) reduce your risk of having a stroke by up to 40 percent.

Bananas are also known to help lower your blood pressure.

Pregnant women should look to the banana as an especially good friend. They are starchy and full of natural sugars, and can help reduce morning sickness.

Bananas also encourage the growth of friendly probiotic bacteria in the body, which help you to absorb calcium. They also (amazingly) have a lot of iron in them, which is something that most mothers-to-be can use more of (without nausea-inducing iron pills).

Bananas also help relieve constipation. If, on the other hand, you have diarrhea, bananas can help replenish the lost electrolytes (especially potassium).

This next cure might be just an old wive’s tale; but, if it’s true that bat populations are being reduced and that mosquito populations are going to increase because of it, this might be the best reason of all for buying bananas. Some people claim that rubbing the inside of a banana peel on a mosquito bite can reduce the itching and swelling. I hope (very much) that I won’t have an opportunity to test this theory myself.

Another wonderful quality of bananas: They are available all year. However, at this time of year, they are not always perfectly yellow and unbruised, the way I like them. If you, too, find that a greenish or brownish banana is unappealing, try this banana-orange salsa.

It tastes very, very good and is very, very easy to make (always a plus).

It is a little bit like eating fruit salad with dinner, but it has more bite and complexity.