Yes, we have a new super-fruit

When I was a kid, I mainly thought of bananas as something to eat when I had leg cramps, and as the subject of one of my father’s favorite silly songs (“Yes, we have no bananas!â€).  A friend recently e-mailed me a long list of reasons why bananas are a kind of super-fruit (the mind boggles at the thought of pairing them with a big bowl of blueberries, which are another reputed super-fruit).

Since I’m always a little skeptical of any information that gets passed around  on the Internet, I decided to do a little research on my own.

And in fact, bananas are impressive. First, they taste good and they are moderately more amusing than are other fruits (you rarely see other fruits appear as props in comedy skits).

They are packed with potassium, which is apparently one reason why they help teenagers fight leg cramps and other growing pains. In addition to being good for your muscles, potassium also strengthens your heart (which, in fact, is also a muscle) and it regulates your blood pressure and keeps your arteries clean.

It also keeps your digestive tract clean, thanks to a large amount of pectin (apples also have pectin, which you will know if you’ve ever tossed an apple in a pot full of fruit preserves, to help it “gelâ€).  Pectin is a soluble fiber and it keeps things moving along through your system and aids in, um, elimination.

Bananas act as an antacid, not just because they’re so soft and inoffensive but also because for some reason they stimulate the production of the cells that line and protect your stomach; and because they contain protease inhibitors, which clear away the bacteria that can irritate your stomach and create ulcers.

Best of all, from my point of view (which is increasingly myopic), bananas apparently can help you ward off macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in Americans today. Actually, this is true of all fruits; a study was done that showed that people who ate three servings of fruit a day were 36 percent less likely to develop macular degeneration than people who ate one-and-a-half servings or less a day.

On the negative side (possibly): Bananas are sweet and delicious because they have a lot of sugar in them. I’ve been reading up on fitness and nutrition lately, and a key thing to consider is whether a food has a high or low glycemic index.

At the risk of grossly oversimplifying, foods that get a 50 or more on the glycemic index are more likely to run very quickly through your system and then leave you feeling depleted. Foods that get less than 50 on the glycemic index tend to release their energy-providing sugars at a slower more controlled rate. Bananas aren’t exactly up there with, say, chocolate but they do rate a score of 60.

Which means, on the positive side, that if you need a quick energy boost, you can grab a banana instead of a candy bar.

            Or a banana smoothie. This serves two and is adapted from a recipe on cooks.com:

Place 2 ripe bananas, 1 cup plain yogurt, 1/4 cup blueberry yogurt, 1 cup orange juice and 3-4 teaspoons

honey, depending on your sweet tooth, and blend until smooth. It’s best to chill this drink for 30 minutes before downing it. Of course if you want a smoothie for breakfast, just make it the night before.