In addition to consuming fruits in their fresh form, it is possible to find them in dehydrated or dried form, a fruit that has had practically all of its water content removed, through a process that results in the fruit shrinking. One of the fruits that can be dehydrated is the banana. It is precisely about it that we will talk about below, trying to understand if the dehydrated banana is fattening or if this is just another myth.
Does Dehydrating Bananas Make You Fat?
A relevant aspect of understanding if the dehydrated banana is fattening is to know the number of calories that the food can carry.
According to what the master in human nutrition Adda Bjarnadottir indicated, we can expect that the amount of calories in the dehydrated banana is not low. That’s because the dehydration process of fruit also results in an energy-dense (calorie) food.
To know the number of calories that a portion of dehydrated banana can present, we decided to consult some portals that provide nutritional data about a series of foods and beverages (we do not submit dried bananas for analysis, we only reproduce the information).
A serving with 18 pieces or 55 g of dehydrated banana from the Presea brand carries 190 calories. In contrast, a package of 55 g of dehydrated banana from the Taek brand has 98 calories, and a cup or 50 g of dehydrated banana from the Crokan brand is composed of 89 calories.
The Sugar Issue
Another problem with dried fruits to understand if dehydrated bananas are fattening and require their consumption to be moderate is that they can contain a significant amount of sugar.
Once the water has been removed from the fruit, this concentrates all the sugar and calories in a much smaller space (volume and weight). For this reason, dried fruit is high in calories and sugar.
Also, to make dried fruit sweeter and more appealing, some manufacturers coat the fruit with added sugar before drying it.
Added sugar has shown harmful health effects, increasing the risk of obesity, heart disease, and even cancer. One way to avoid fruits that contain added sugar is to read the ingredients and nutritional information found on the packaging.
When you consume a lot of sugar, all that sugar needs to be stored somewhere, ending up inside your fat cells.
More Important Than Knowing If The Dehydrated Banana Makes You Fat
To lose weight or avoid gaining weight, it is essential to be concerned with the entire diet, not just a single food, making sure that it is healthy, nutritious, controlled, and balanced.
Even though a single food cannot be considered the culprit of weight gain or the solution to a weight loss process, the natural way is to know how to include each food in the diet so that it doesn’t harm the weight issue.
To find out how to maintain a balanced, healthy, controlled, and nutritious diet and understand if dehydrated bananas are fattening, among many other foods, count on the help of a nutritionist.
What Are The Benefits Of Dehydrated Bananas?
One of the advantages of dried fruits, such as dehydrated bananas, is rich in antioxidants, fiber, and other nutrients.
“A piece of dried fruit contains about the same nutrients as fresh fruit, but it is condensed into a much smaller space. By weight, dried fruit contains up to 3.5 times more fiber, vitamins, and minerals than fresh fruit. However, there are some exceptions. For example, the vitamin C content is significantly reduced when the fruit is dehydrated,” explained Master of Human Nutrition Adda Bjarnadottir.
Bjarnadottir further stated that dried fruit is often a good source of polyphenol antioxidants associated with health benefits such as improved blood flow, improved digestive health, decreased oxidative damage, and reduced risk of disease.
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