Calories in a Banana

Calories in a Banana

The Calories in a Banana are not very high, ranging from 72 calories for a small banana to 121 calories for a large banana. Most of the calories in a banana come from carbohydrates. Naturally forming simple sugars and starch make up its carbohydrate content. Please note that the composition of the carbohydrate calories in a banana change on the age and ripening of the fruit. As it ripens, the sugar levels rise and the starch levels fall. This happens both on and off the tree. The lower starch levels mean that as the fruit gains more color and ripens, it gets easier for your body to digest.

The most popular use of bananas are for protein shakes.

Calories in a Banana

Protein levels in a banana are very low, making up about one percent of its total calorie content. The calories from fat are even less, accounting for less than one half percent.

The high points (other than the low calories) are that they are very low in any saturated fat. They have absolutely no cholesterol and are high in Potassium and dietary fiber. In terms of Vitamins, it is very high in Vitamins B6 and C. The one low point is that (as most fruits are) they are high in Sugar.

All in all, I would say have a banana at least once a day, as not only will it give you a boost, but it also contains a lot of Nutrients for a very low calorie cost.
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Filed Under: Nutrition

Subway Calories

Turkey breast, ham & swiss and salami sandwiches

Turkey breast, ham & swiss and salami sandwichesAs part of the series on the calories in fast food, today we are looking at Subway calories. Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world today, with over 31,000 restaurants in 91 countries, as of September 2009. As you will already know, they sell primarily submarine sandwiches (also the source of their name) and focus on the growing interest in health food. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition

Victorinox Chefs Knife Deal

chefknife

chefknifeIn my view, there are five main items any kitchen cannot do without. One of those must-have items, is the classic 8inch Chef’s knife. Unfortunately, getting your hands on a good chef’s knife, can be a very expensive business with good chef’s knives costing between $100-$200. Recently I came across a  post in the Cool Tools Weblog recently spoke about a $27 dollar chef’s knife worth taking a look at, and I though it was a good deal that had to be talked about: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Weight Loss

The Benefits of Drinking Water

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The human body is essentially a very complicated organic machine, it needs a vast variety of nutrients and vitamins in order to function (just as any machine would need some of fuel) and maintain peak performance. Among the many different vitamins and nutrients that we need, nothing is more important to the body than water. Water is the holy grail of the human body and the benefits of drinking water are numerous, and even then, knowing just a fraction of its importance, a great many people fail to adequately hydrate the body and will only drink water when they are really thirsty. The issue is that by the time your body signals that it is thirsty (or thirsty enough to prompt you to drink water), you are already extremely dehydrated. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Weight Loss

Basic Nutrition Course

nutrition

nutritionOne of the biggest issues when it comes to achieving a healthy lifestyle for many is the lack of knowledge on the very basics of nutrition. Nutrition in itself forms the very basis of what we should be eating and drinking and why. We all know that eating too much of anything is bad, but do we really know what constitutes too much, why we shouldn’t have too much of it, and what happens if we do. I do believe that a lot of the bad food decisions we make, are because we were never properly educated in the basics of nutrition and health at a very young age. Over the last few days, i ran a series of five articles, covering the very basics of nutrition. It covers some of the fundamental concepts and hopefully, will provide you with a better understanding of what goes into your body. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition

Basic Nutrition Course #5: Vitamins & Minerals

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Will a supplement give you more energy?

20070301_vitaminVitamins and minerals are essential compounds needed in small amounts by the body. Contrary to popular belief, taking vitamin/mineral supplements will NOT give you energy. Only calories (from carbohydrate, protein, and fat) give you energy. Vitamins and minerals have no calories, so they can’t give you energy. Vitamins and minerals do, however, play vital roles in the metabolic processes that convert carbohydrate, protein, and fat to energy. So, if you have a deficiency of a certain vitamin or mineral, taking a supplement may help make you feel better. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition

Fast Food Calories

upclose-fast_food2

upclose-fast_food2When it comes to controlling my food intake, or trying to maintain a calorie restricted diet, one of the biggest issues is what to do when it comes to fast food (or junk food as we usually call it). I tend to encounter the need to eat fast food when i need to get something to eat in the kind of hurry where only fast food would do.

In that situation, there is no real choice, I need food and if i am in a hurry, then i need it fast so the only viable thing to do is to eat fast food. But this is where a little bit of knowledge will go a long way. If you do enough research, you can make some informed choices and reduce the calorie intake. True, this is a damage limitation exercise, but it is better than making an uninformed bad choice. Here are the posts covering the fast food calories of the most popular restaurants. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition

Basic Nutrition Course #4: Protein

photolibrary_rf_photo_of_high_protein_food

Do you need extra protein to build muscle?

Protein in food is broken down to amino acids in our bodies. Amino acids provide the building blocks for growth and repair of ALL the body’s cells, including skin cells, liver cells, immune cells, as wellas muscle cells.

The key to building muscle is resistance training (not consuming protein or amino acids) and consuming adequate calories and carbohydrate to fuel this type of training. In theory, it costs an extra 350-500calories every day to build a pound of muscle in a week. It only costs an extra 10-14 grams of protein every day to build a pound of muscle in aweek. (NOTE: 14 grams of protein is the amount in 2 oz. of chicken–a mere biteful!) In most cases, the only reason high protein, weight gainer drinks and sports bars help is because they provide these extra calories.

That being said, it IS true that people trying to build muscle DO need more protein than a sedentary person. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition

How to Tone your Arms

tones arms

tones armsMillions of people search for effective exercise methods that will tighten and tone their arms. However there are only a few who actually get the type of results that they are looking for. This may be caused by a variety of factors. Many of these factors may include improper training of the muscles. Although many people perform a variety of exercises they may not know how to effectively train. Before you begin a weight training regime you need to decide what type of look you want. Do you want lean muscle. Maybe you want to increase muscle mass. These questions are important because your decision will determine what methods you will use to train. Since in this instance we are look to tone the arms, our pursuit is in building as much lean muscle mass as possible. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Exercise

Calories in Indian Food

Serve-Indian-food-in-styl-060609

Serve-Indian-food-in-styl-060609This post is in response to a question I received recently from a reader, David Drake, on the calories in Indian food.

I managed to locate as much information on the calories in Indian food as i could. Unfortunately there is a lot of variation in the numbers i was seeing from site to site but i put together the most comprehensive list possible under the circumstances, and since these numbers aren’t set in stone, use them as a rough approximation. The calories will vary depending on how the food is prepared, as eating at home as opposed to a restaurant will probably be much healthier and contain lower calories. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition
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