Banana, A Powerful Food To Keep An Active Brain

Something that we must be clear about is that the brain is an organ that does not only need adequate nutrition to maintain optimal health. It is important that we take these aspects into account:

• Brain health is multidimensional, that is, in addition to adequate nutrients, it requires daily stimuli with which to exercise its cognitive and emotional processes.
• It is important that we manage stress and anxiety appropriately. A brain subjected to emotional overstimulation results in biochemical alterations where structures such as the hippocampus, related to memory, can be affected. In this regard, it may be essential to maintain a healthy microbiota, since its alteration is related to stress according to the latest clinical trials.
• In addition to eating a healthy diet, an active brain needs small challenges every day. It is important that we enhance our interest in knowing new things, in learning.
• As you can see, the brain needs an adequate balance between internal and external energy , that is, a healthy and adequate diet is not enough, but we must provide it with positive emotions, stimuli, data, as well as adequate rest.

Always remember that if there is a time when the brain is active it is at night, when we sleep. It is then when it organizes the information, when it establishes and integrates the learning and reorganizes data.

So remember:  a good rest, an active life and a correct diet  are the three pillars to achieve an active and healthy brain that copes healthily with the passage of time and daily pressures.

Bananas for an active brain

It is clear that it is not about consuming only bananas throughout the day. The brain needs a large amount of nutrients and obtains them through a diet that is as varied as possible.

Now, introducing the consumption of bananas into our routine can be very healthy. It is enough to eat between 3 and 5 bananas per week. Something easy and inexpensive since, if you wish, bananas can also bring you the same benefits.

1. Bananas and tyrosine

You may have already heard of tyrosine. It is a type of amino acid. Keep these interesting aspects in mind:

• The tyrosine present in bananas allows us to produce new neurotransmitters such as dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. They are substances that regulate our mood. In fact, the depletion of this amino acid is related to the decrease in transmitters according to clinical trials.
• In turn, these neurotransmitters help us to enhance communication between brain cells, thus offering us greater agility to remember things, to execute actions, arrive at certain solutions, reason and, in short, enhance our basic cognitive processes.
• Tyrosine also offers us energy and mental alertness, helping us to enjoy an active brain.

2. Banana is rich in potassium and folic acid, essential for an active brain

Surely on some occasion you have seen how athletes usually recover part of their energy by consuming a banana. In fact, many nutritionists tell us that these fruits have many benefits in terms of mineral replacement. Sometimes the most natural is the most effective.

• Bananas contain a high level of potassium. In a 150 gram banana there are, more or less, about 600 milligrams of potassium, an interesting and healthy level to consume once a day.
• They are also very rich in vitamin B6 and folic acid, essential to promote the nervous impulse and help us improve cerebral blood circulation. In fact, experts recommend folic acid supplementation before and during pregnancy to prevent problems related to the formation of the neural tube.
• Bananas tend to digest well, but remember to eat them little by little to promote salivation. Sometimes certain foods take a long time to be transformed into nutrients in our intestines, which translates into stomach pain, fatigue and apathy.
• The banana contains soluble fiber (pectin) which is a kind of gelatin very suitable to help us in the intestinal transit. Fiber is also related to a decrease in intestinal pathologies according to the latest clinical trials.

• It also has little sodium, which prevents fluid retention and thus offers us long-lasting energy to maintain an active brain.

Aspects that we must take into account about bananas

• You should be careful with very green and unripe bananas : not everyone digests them well this way and they can cause bloating. Choose them at their right point of maturity. If you consume them excessively ripe, their simple sugar content will be higher. For this reason it will produce a rapid increase in the level of glucose in the blood.
• They do not usually sit very well if we take them as dessert  after meals. Consume them when you are away from home, on a break at work, or two hours after your breakfast.

• Bananas are not very good to combine with other fruits, and they can be a bit heavy if we make a bowl, for example, of bananas and pears, or bananas and kiwis.  Better alone!
• Always chew the bananas, very little by little so that they can be digested much better. That is when it brings us the greatest benefits.

To keep in mind!

Bananas are fruits that have many positive health properties. Regular consumption of these foods can help you maintain a healthy brain. In addition, their energy content is high, so they are interesting to consume in the middle of a sports event.

As a final curiosity we will tell you that its scientific name is Musa Sapientum  or fruit of the wise. It was so called because in India, the consumption of bananas was very common to offer “wisdom” to the population. So… why not do it too?