Going bananas on a raw foods diet!

I use bananas as a safe sweetener for me as I do not react adversely to them.

When I first started out on my raw foods diet, bananas were an absolute lifesaver as they were one of the few foods I could safely eat. I had severe Histamine Intolerance and I could not find anything much, that I could eat, that did not give me severe adverse symptoms. My “Histamine Bucket” was overflowing and my body was reacting to just about everything. I had severe joint pain, an itchy skin rash over much of my body and my insides generally felt as though they were on fire.  Any food seemed to make my throat tighten and caused my tongue to swell and  my mouth to be sore.

One day I remember that I ate about 6 bananas and nothing else at all!

Apparently bananas are actually berries and they grow on a tall herb rather than a tree. Who knew? A medium-sized banana contains about 100 calories, and provides a quick but sustained energy boost in a natural and nutritious form. Bananas are easy to digest  and contain negligible fat and no cholesterol or sodium.

Contrary to the popular belief that bananas are our best source of potassium, bananas don’t even make it to the top one hundred of potassium containing foods although they do, of course,  contain some potassium along with magnesium and other nutrients.  More later about this!

Bananas contain tryptophan which is a type of protein that our bodies convert into serotonin, known to promote relaxation and improve mood. So they are not just a pretty face! 🙂 I have found that my general anxiety levels have greatly diminished since I adopted my raw foods diet. I will also tell you more about this soon.

I use bananas to sweeten a lot of things I make, including my green smoothies. I make raw cakes and biscuits with them. I also eat bananas as a dessert in their own right.

Here is a simple recipe that is a winner with anyone visiting my home.

Here I have blended the following:

Frozen banana

Frozen mango

a small amount of coconut water to make the blender operate!

If you do not have a powerful blender you may need to let the frozen fruit defrost a little before blending, or even just use some fruits that have been chilled rather than frozen. It must be said, thought, that frozen banana does give an amazing  flavour. Here is the blended result.

Ripe Banana And Mango Smoothie. It is so simple and yet so tasty!

Ripe Banana and Mango Smoothie for my  Raw Foods Diet

By the way, The speckled banana in the photograph above is, in my opinion, just ripe enough to be very sweet. I don’t eat bananas that do not have speckles! 🙂