p. 10 | BANANAS AS FOOD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1896

BANANAS AS FOOD.

THE banana having become such a popular article of diet in this country, the following from the Youth’s Companion in regard to its comparative value as a food will be read with interest:—

“A chemical examination of a ripe banana shows that it contains of tissue-forming food nearly 5 per cent, of fat about 1 per cent, of sugar 20 per cent, of water 74 per cent; while the indigestible substances and starch are present to the extent of about 1 per cent. Such an analysis seems to prove that the banana may well be classed among foods.

“Properly to interpret such an analysis we should compare it with that of some well-known article of diet, as, for instance, milk, which contains approximately 4 per cent of tissue-forming substances, 4 per cent of fat, 5 per cent of sugar, and 88 per cent of water. In other words, a banana contains about twice as much of solid digestible matter as milk.

“We must remember, however, that it is not always the amount of solid matter present in a given article which renders it of value as a food, but rather the relative proportion in which the different nutrients appear. Milk establishes its priority over the banana, inasmuch as the different digestible substances present are in more nearly the proportion required by the human economy. The excess of solids in the banana is entirely due to the extra amount of sugar.

“Of itself, an extra amount of sugar is by no means a detriment, since it is used in supplying to the body the heat necessary to its work. The invariable law of hygiene, however, is that the relative proportion between the different solids must not be changed.

“Compared with other fruits, like the apple, the banana will be found to contain nearly 10 per cent less water, a deficiency which is more than made up by the increased amount of solids. The examination of the banana which gave us the above figures was that of the ripe fruit, the difference between it and the green fruit being that the large percentage of sugar in the ripe fruit appears as starch in the green fruit.

“When we remember that starch has to be changed to sugar before it can be used, we shall readily understand the importance of offering only the perfectly ripe fruit to a young or weakened stomach, which is unable to take care of a large amount of starch.

“We may sum up our study of the banana, then, by saying that if eaten green and too rapidly by a young child, or a person of limited digestive powers, it is distinctly a pernicious food, otherwise a decidedly good one.”