Bananas, Complex or Simple Carbs?

[Madevilz]

I always thought Bananas contained simple carbs, but I found this article:
http://www.medical-library.net/sites...nutrition.html


saying that it is complex.

High-fiber (high-cellulose) vegetable foods are the healthiest choices for human nutrition, and intake of these foods is associated with lowered incidences of hypertension, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, etc. Examples are lettuce and broccoli. Examples of low-fiber, complex carbs are banana, tomato, squash and all cereals and grains (therefore bread and pasta), potatoes and rice.

Is it true?

[psychojoe]

i tihnk the ripeness makes a big difference. Taste a ripe and unripe banana (yellow and green respectively) and see which is sweeter

[SinewySam]

i think sweeter is healthier tho cuz when starch ripens to sugar in the fruit thats also when the vitamins are made?

[Wtf?]

i tihnk the ripeness makes a big difference. Taste a ripe and unripe banana (yellow and green respectively) and see which is sweeter

Yeah ripe/speckled is the healthiest. I've even read on a few sites that they're only alkaline forming when they're ripe. (which is a good thing)

[TinyMan]

That's interesting, and I have to think about this for a moment. Typically speaking, most fruit has the sugar fructose/glucose in it (I believe fructose is the sweetest of all sugars), and both of these sugars are certainly simple carbohydrates. Starch was the part that threw me a bit.


The breakdown of the carbohydrates of 225g of bananas is as follows (taken from nutritiondata.com)

Total Carbohydrates: 51.4g
Fiber: 5.9g
Starch: 12.1g
Sugars: 27.5g

From this, sugars are simple carbohydrates, and fiber is a complex carbohydrate. But I had to read up on starch, I had always assumed (incorrectly) that starch was a form of a simple carbohydrate. Typically speaking, simple carbohydrates encompass the various sugars. Starch appears to be actually a complex carbohydrate - it is not a sugar, given by the chemical structure C6H10O5. If I'm right, that is a more complex structure than a sugar, and is multiple sugar molecules that have been joined together.

Meaning, that banana's contain both simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Note here that I'm not sure if nutritiondata.com is talking about the inside of the banana only, or the banana and its peel (where I would expect a large concentration of complex carbohydrates).


Tinyman



http://www.epicurious.com/cooking/ho.../entry?id=1708

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/...rticlekey=6553