Banana peels are your new weight-loss weapon

 

Don’t throw this away — it’s your new secret weapon

BESIDES being the culprit of an old-timey pratfall, most of us give nary a thought to banana peels, let alone consider eating them. But this overlooked “food waste,” a culinary staple in places like India and the Caribbean, not only transforms dishes from ho-hum to delicious, it can also help you lose weight.

We’re serious: Banana peels are the new weight-loss weapon. Best of all, you can just toss them into your morning smoothie along with that whole fruit, no extra calories or prep needed.

Why are peels the new slimming superfood? For starters, the skins are packed with nutrients like vitamin A, lutein, and other antioxidants, including B vitamins, which your body needs to keep its metabolism stoked. What’s more, they have tons of soluble and insoluble fibre, even more than the fruit itself — both can slow digestion, boost feelings of fullness, and even work to lower cholesterol.

Choose green peels, which are better for cooking, and you’ll also get a big dose of probiotics, which increasing research shows are essential to balancing the body’s internal flora for weight loss. Green skins are also rich in resistant starch, the “calorie-free carb” that our bodies can’t digest and triggers fat-burning in animal studies. Plus, while bananas are famous for their potassium, which can turn a regular workout into a phenomenal, calorie-busting one, about 40 per cent of the mineral is found in the peel. Take that, you peel-tossers.

Not just for weight loss, eating more green skins is like taking a daily dose of Prozac: Research shows that green skins are high in tryptophan, serotonin, and dopamine, so much so that eating two peels a day for three days could raise levels of these feel-good chemicals in your brain by 15 per cent, according to one study.

Include the peels in your smoothie. Source: istock

While yellow peels have fewer micronutrients, they have anti-cancer qualities not found in green skins. Although the internet has greatly exaggerated the disease-fighting benefits of bananas — and somehow neglected to point out that most of these benefits are in the peel — overripe skins can still help with the production of white-blood cells.

Now that you’re convinced of the benefits, how on earth do you eat banana peels? The peels of both green bananas (or unripe ones, otherwise known as “raw” or “cooking” bananas) and the more familiar yellow ones can be eaten, but when it comes to cooking, consider them as two separate ingredients.

Green skins are starchier than yellow ones and are similar to sauteed green peppers in appearance and texture when cooked. They’ll take on whatever flavours of the ingredients they’re prepared with and work well in savory dishes, although the peels do have to be cooked.

Yellow skins, on the other hand, don’t have to be cooked, and give off a more traditional banana flavour, making them better suited to sweeter uses like blending into smoothies or making tea.

Personally, we like green banana peels, not only for their weight-loss benefits, but also because you can use the fruit of green bananas similar to how you’d use a potato. (Hello, carb substitute for French fries and mashed potatoes. Google for the recipe.)

No matter which colour you use, try to buy organic to reduce pesticide exposure, and be sure to clean the peels well to get rid of any extra chemicals, dirt, or other gross stuff that might be on them.