Bananas provide several key nutrients for everyday health. They are low in calories -- providing about 90 calories for a 6-inch banana -- high in fiber and offer several vitamins and minerals. If you are bored with plain bananas, find other ways to incorporate them into your diet. Mash them up and stir them into mashed sweet potatoes at dinner for added sweetness. During hot summer months, put a skewer through a peeled banana, pop it in the freezer and dip it in melted chocolate for a sweet treat.
One 6-inch banana provides nearly 10 percent of your daily potassium requirements. Potassium is an electrolyte, meaning it helps conduct electricity throughout your body. When potassium is absorbed in your system, it dissolves in the fluid inside of cells. Potassium crosses cell membranes, if needed, to help other electrolytes sustain a balance of fluid. This process is imperative for electrical flow, which makes your heart beat and keeps muscles moving. You need 4,700 milligrams of daily potassium, reports the Linus Pauling Institute. Having a 6-inch banana as a midmorning snack adds more than 350 milligrams of potassium to your diet.
A banana packs nearly 3 grams of fiber into your diet if you eat a 6-inch piece of the fruit. Most of the fiber in bananas is insoluble. This is the type of fiber that pushes out waste and makes your stools easier for you to pass. Bananas also have a small amount of soluble fiber. As soluble fiber travels through your intestines, it soaks up liquid and creates a thick sludge. Soluble fiber is responsible for slowing digestion, a process that helps vitamins and minerals fully absorb in your gut. Keep your bowels healthy by getting the recommended 14 grams of total fiber for every 1,000 calories you consume, reports the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010. As an example, if you follow an average 2,000-calorie diet, you need 28 grams of fiber each day.
You get several types of B vitamins by enjoying a banana once in a while. B vitamins work together to break down carbohydrates, as well and protein and fat, from the foods you eat. Bananas have small amounts of thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. Folate, another B vitamin in bananas, is an important vitamin for women of childbearing age. You need this vitamin to prevent neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, that occur in a growing fetus, often before you are aware of a pregnancy. Folate also helps make new red blood cells, which carry oxygen around your system.
One 6-inch banana has more than 10 percent of your daily vitamin C needs. Vitamin C not only helps your immune system work its best, it also acts as an antioxidant. In this role, vitamin C neutralizes damaging free radicals that destroy healthy cells. High levels of free radicals in your system increase your risk of chronic diseases, including cancer and heart damage. The Office of Dietary Supplements reports that women need 75 milligrams of vitamin C each day, while men require 90 milligrams. You get about 9 milligrams of vitamin C from a 6-inch banana.
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