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Thoughts on bananas


gboyum

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Working through me second day, I went to the grocery store and bought avocados, coconut milk, and bananas. Reading through some of the Whole 30 stuff I think they mentioned that stevia was alright but the goal of the project should be to overcome cravings for sweet, and stevia would play into those cravings. I have the same feelings about bananas. I bought them thinking they would fulfill my afternoon sweet craving, but that made me think that I should maybe skip them. Bananas were on the grocery list, but not in green. Thoughts?

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Thanks slw600, I think I heard them discuss stevia in a podcast, but I could be mistaken. Bananas usually give me a ton of energy, and my family eats a lot of them. But they are a lot of natural sugar, I just didn't know if I should dry the line somewhere if I really want to kick my sugar cravings.

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Thanks slw600, I think I heard them discuss stevia in a podcast, but I could be mistaken. Bananas usually give me a ton of energy, and my family eats a lot of them. But they are a lot of natural sugar, I just didn't know if I should dry the line somewhere if I really want to kick my sugar cravings.

Possibly a moderator will chime in and answer you in a more knowledgeable way, but for me, I rarely eat fruit. It just defeats the purpose of taming the sugar dragon just as artificial sweetener would. They certainly aren't bad for you, so it's probably a personal call.

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NO stevia during a Whole30. Stevia functions like granulated sugar, but is more processed. There are lots of podcasts in the blogosphere, but I don't think you've heard Dallas or Melissa Hartwig tell you stevia was okay.

Any fruit is okay during a Whole30, but we offer two notes. One, fruit should be limited to two servings per day. Two, you should avoid fruit completely if you have trouble with sugar cravings.

I used to eat one bunch of bananas per week. It was part of my basic diet. Then I decided to go light on fruit for a while and lost interest in bananas completely. Now, when I eat fruit, it tends to be navel oranges or apples. I prefer to get my potassium from avocados instead of bananas.

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Thanks for the great feedback! This is the first time I have done the Whole 30 and would like to try to make it as beneficial as I can. I think I will skip bananas because I really think I was craving them for the sugar.

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Thanks for the great feedback! This is the first time I have done the Whole 30 and would like to try to make it as beneficial as I can. I think I will skip bananas because I really think I was craving them for the sugar.

Agreed. Day 24 here, and feeling great.

During the first week or two, my wife made a "treat" with frozen berries drenched in coconut milk, sprinkled with almond flour. I ate it, but was having cravings within the half hour. If you can avoid them and you know they're a weakness, I recommend doing so. But that's just based on my experience. Good luck!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love bananas and save them for more random instances, like when I need a snack and it's pretty much my only option at a gas station!

I didn't have a quick lunch option the other day while I was in Target, so I grabbed a jar of olives, a banana, a huge bottle of water, and it held me over until dinner :)

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i haven't had bananas in over a month but i bought a bunch last time i was at the supermarket. i bought them because they're about only about 2 - 3 inches long and I couldn't resist how cute they looked, like playfood :) I haven't actually felt any desire to eat them yet though. :mellow:

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Great insight gboyum!

Everybody has specific triggers... Why torture yourself??? I avoid hazelnut butter like the plague.... Just can't do it...almond/ cashew butters I'm fine with but I try to use them as condiments..... " mashed butternut squash with grated nutmeg and a touch of almond butter is the bomb!"

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  • 5 months later...

I know this thread is a little old but I saw something on Dr. Oz today about eating unripe, green bananas? Apparently if you eat them when they are green they have a lot more nutrients (including fiber), and a lot less sugar! Any thoughts on eating them this way: boil the unripe bananas in the skin, peel them, put the boiled bananas in a bowl & mash with butter/ghee, salt, etc. It described them as a mashed potato substitute - would they be Whole30 approved if made with coconut milk?

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There's nothing inherently anti W30 in either a green banana, ghee or coconut milkbut it still seems a lot of trouble to go to. I still don't believe they're going to provide anything unique, that you won't already be getting from a wide variety of veg. Personally I even feel that a plantain cooked like this might be tastier but that's just me :)

White potatoes, including mashed, are out on a W30 because, for so many people, they're eaten so much they restrict the amount and variety of other veg we can eat. Anything that substitutes for that, if used the same way, wouldn't be a great idea. There's also the danger of keeping the 'potato' habit alive. However if it's simply used occasionally to add a bit of variety it I wouldn't see it as a W30 breaker.

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I have been eating an occasional banana on W30 without any incident. But with a meal, not just by itself. My dog LOVES bananas---she will follow you around if you have one in your hand. Her obsession with hard boiled eggs has become unhealthy, I'm afraid! My 18 year old puts hard boiled eggs in her lunch every day, but hates the yolks, so she peels them and cuts up the white, then feeds the yolk to the dog every.single.morning. Now if anyone else eats a hard boiled egg, the dog stares us down like a vulture!

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My dog LOVES bananas---she will follow you around if you have one in your hand.

Mine too! She is ridiculous. She won't come to me if I call her name from 10 feet away, but peel a banana from another floor in the house and she's RIGHT THERE.

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I LOVE bananas. I don't do a whole lot of fruit when I'm W30ing, but I have come to reallllly enjoy a nice, ripe, yellow banana with my salad a few days a week (especially on days when I do a metcon at CrossFit) in my riding-my-own-bike life. Do I need them? No. Are they as healthy as veggies? No again. Do I have enough self-control to eat one with my three-cups-of-raw-veggies and pulled pork and not go off the deep end on a sugar binge? Yes.

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I used to be addicted to bananas before I did a couple of Whole30's. Now I'm neutral about them. We buy bananas and apples because they are cheaper than most organic fruit, and I like to have a serving of fruit per day. If I had an unlimited budget, I'd eat organic berries every day.

BTW, my dog adores bananas too!

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I like bananas as an option because they are so low on fructose. I try to eat very little fruit overall, but if I do, it's going to be low fructose (berries, bananas, kiwi, oranges). I used to overeat fruit like crazy before I went paleo. I learned to trust my body though. 2 weeks ago, I went a whole week without fruit. I almost had an aversion to it for a while. Then as a certain time of the month approached, I wanted bananas, very specifically, no other fruit, so I ate them with meals. The banana thing came and went, so I'm not worried about it - my body needed it, I guess. Just make sure you eat them as part of a complete meal to make sure they don't wreak havoc on your blood sugar.

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I have been eating an occasional banana on W30 without any incident. But with a meal, not just by itself. My dog LOVES bananas---she will follow you around if you have one in your hand. Her obsession with hard boiled eggs has become unhealthy, I'm afraid! My 18 year old puts hard boiled eggs in her lunch every day, but hates the yolks, so she peels them and cuts up the white, then feeds the yolk to the dog every.single.morning. Now if anyone else eats a hard boiled egg, the dog stares us down like a vulture!

Is this the same dog that is in your photo?

We have three dogs, but only one of them is obsessed with both bananas and hard boiled eggs...and she happens to look a whole lot like your photo (or she did as a puppy). Funny!

She can be outside running around with the other dogs but if I open a banana, she bombs in the dog door and is by my side in an instant. It's freaky.

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