Calorie content of a banana

Banana - one of the oldest plants cultivated by man, some researchers even suggest that it could be the first culture that people began to grow consciously. His homeland is considered to be southeast Asia, in particular the Malay Archipelago, from where the banana reached other countries of the Old World. It is not surprising that today in the world there are many varieties of this plant, and not all of them go to food: some species have a purely decorative function, others - produce oil, and others go for the manufacture of fiber. And the food varieties of this giant herb are very different from each other: there are hundreds of varieties of this amazing berry, and not all of them have a familiar yellow color and a pleasant sugar taste. There are so-called vegetable bananas , or plane trees, which in the tropics are the equivalent of the potatoes we know. Of these, soup is cooked, mashed potatoes, slightly reminiscent of potato, are fried. Well known to us yellow sweet guests from exotic countries - this is mainly representatives of two types - "Gro-Michelle" and varieties of the group "Cavendish".

The number of calories in a banana

The calorie content of a banana depends on the grade and degree of maturity of this fruit. The most nutritious are as it is not strange ripe vegetable bananas - the caloric content of this banana is 115-150 kilocalories per 100 grams. However, outside the equatorial zone, these exotic "vegetables" are extremely rare, and you can hardly see them on the shelves of stores. More habitual dessert varieties, will pull the calories by 90-100, for the same 100 grams of the product. By the way, unripe bananas are more nutritious: they contain about 110-115 kcal.

This is about the energy value of 100 grams, but it's much more interesting how many calories are contained in 1 banana, after all, you see, we do not always have the opportunity to weigh the product we need.

Calorie content of 1 banana

The average weight of one banana of the Gros-Michel variety is 125-150 g, although sometimes specimens weighing up to 200 g are found. Bananas of the Cavendish range are slightly smaller, their average weight is 70-100 g. Consequently, the calorie content of the average banana will be to make 117 kilocalories in the first, and 81 kilocalories in the second case. By the way, here's how to distinguish between these two varieties:

• "Gro-Michel" - large, slightly pointed fruit, 17-25 cm in length and up to 5 cm in diameter. The rind of ripe fruits is bright, golden in color. Pulp is creamy, gently sugary, easily separates from peel;
• "Cavendish" - smaller 10-15 cm fruit with a thin skin, which in a mature banana is covered with small brown specks. The flesh is white, not inferior to the previous representative of the species.

Caloric content of dried bananas

Dried bananas can be of 2 varieties:

• Dried bananas without additional cooking, or "banana figs";
• fried banana slices, or banana chips.

Since these two varieties of dried bananas are prepared in different ways, the calories in them will be different amounts: the greatest amount of energy can boast of banana chips - they contain as much as 500 kilocalories per 100 g. This is not surprising, because the process of making such a crunchy treat usually involves roasting on palm oil, and then slices of a banana are still dipped in sugar syrup or honey. Therefore, banana chips, of course, can be a good alternative to sweets, but they are often not safe for the figure.

Where more healthy food are "banana figs": they contain about 350 kilocalories per 100 grams, besides there is not the most useful palm oil. Prepare such dried bananas very simply - cleaned of peel, spread on baking sheets and dried on charcoal.