January 2019 - Live Clean n Prosper

This week’s post is about Green Banana flour.

It’s relatively new to Australia, but it’s already getting a lot of attention due to its many health benefits.

What is it?

Banana flour is a powder made from un-ripe (green) bananas. Historically, banana flour has been used in Africa and Jamaica as early as the 1900’s, as a cheaper alternative to wheat flour. The flour is generally produced using green bananas that are peeled, chopped, dried, and then ground.

Is Banana flour healthy?

The flour is gluten free, high in potassium, magnesium, dietary fibre and vitamin E. It is now often used as a gluten-free replacement for wheat flours. It is also one of the richest sources of resistance starch in the world.

However, not all resistant starches are made equal. Of the handful of foods that contain resistant starch, the quantity is low and it can be destroyed through cooking or it comes from genetically modified sources. The cooking process does not destroy the resistant starch in the banana flour.

In 2013 Robert Watkins, a Queensland Banana Farmer, discovered the richest source of resistant starch in a variety of bananas known as Lady Fingers. While regular bananas (they must be green) consumed by the mass market such as Cavendish still contain resistant starch, they only contain approximately half the amount found in Lady Fingers.

The starchy unripe Lady Finger bananas are also low in sugar. As a result, the milled flour can help people better control their blood glucose. It also provides a range of digestive benefits, making it a powerful new gut health ingredient. Nutritional studies in the area of resistant starches have revealed enzyme-resistant starches produce important metabolites in the colon. These metabolites appear to have important biological effects, which can lead to improved physical and mental health.

Health benefits

The flour contains 3 different fibres

– Resistant starch, a fermentable fibre
– Inulin, soluble fibre and
– Dietary Fibre or insoluble fibre

These fibres work like a prebiotic. When the fibres enter your digestive system they encourage production of digestive enzymes that nourish the good gut bacteria and in turn heals your gut.

These fibres also increase the absorption and capacity of antioxidants and minerals. They improve colon health and aide in the prevention of colon cancer. Together the fibres also aide in the treatment of diabetes, lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, a well as reduce the incidence of gallstones.
Resistant starch can also assist with weight loss, as you feel quite full after consuming a small amount. Resistant Starch in this form also increases metabolism and removes aflatoxins and inflammation. (Sources – www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.naturalevolutionfoods.com.au www.wikipedia.org www.thesourcebulkfoods.com.au )

Repurposed “waste”

There is approximately 500 tonne of Lady Finger bananas going to waste every week in Australia. This is due to being considered ‘unsuitable’ according to supermarket guidelines. The fruit are perfectly good for eating and packed full of nutrients yet “unwanted” by the supermarket giants because they were too straight, too bendy, too big or too small.

Rather than disposing of the tonnes of “waste” bananas, Robert Watkins developed a manufacturing process to turn the bananas into flour.

What began as a purpose and use for tonnes of wasted bananas each week has evolved into a new market for all growers. Mr Watkins is continuing to research how the nutrient dense green bananas can be utilised in different ways.

It’s fantastic to see how one farmer can have such a positive impact on a whole industry.

Till the next post,

Live clean n prosper

Happy New Year

Thank you for joining me for yet another year of thoughts, research and recipes.

Todays post is all about New Year resolutions. The beginning of a new year is a great time to take stock – to think of all that has gone before and all the exciting things that are to come.

It is also a time that many people choose to make resolutions to bring about changes.

We have all done this; made resolutions to lose weight, get fitter, drink less or eat healthier. Talking to friends and colleagues it would be fair to say that many of us don’t succeed in making the changes we resolved to make.

Maybe this is because change is hard. It makes us feel uncomfortable.

To quote a book – Changing Habits, Changing Lives by Cyndi O’Meara – “Change is one of the scariest things to do – people like to sit in their comfort zone and continue the habits they have because it takes less energy.”

How long does it take to create a new habit?

There are several books, articles and apps available to help you form a habit, and many of those are built on the assumption that all you need is 21 days.

This number comes from a widely popular 1960 book called Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.

However, according to a 2009 study, the time it takes to form a habit really isn’t that clear-cut. Researchers from the University College London examined the new habits of 96 people over the space of 12 weeks, and found that the average time it takes for a new habit to stick is actually 66 days; furthermore, individual times varied from 18 to 254 days.

Interestingly, the researchers also found that “missing one opportunity to perform the behaviour did not materially affect the habit formation process.”

In other words, establishing a new behaviour doesn’t require perfection, just your best, most consistent effort across a long period of time. Making resolutions and building better habits is not an all-or-nothing process. Sources – www.sciencealert.com www.psychologytoday.com/au

To make a change you have to make a start.

Once you have made your resolutions, the truth is that it will probably take you anywhere from two months to eight months to build a new behaviour into your life. However, once making the commitment to yourself, make a start. If you want to make changes, you need to put in the effort, as there is no one who can do it for you.

Take small steps

Over the years we have purchased several different books on lifestyle, health etc. Recently I was reviewing 2 of these – Simple Changes by Phillip Day and the Four Day Win by Martha Beck.

These books, along with Changing Habits, Changing Lives, all have a similar theme, which is to start small and work towards your goal.

If a healthier diet is your goal, try small steps like drinking 2 extra glasses of water a day or changing what you eat for breakfast or even just eating salad twice a week. Once you start incorporating one of these steps into your routine, add the next one.

Making small achievable changes, one at a time, over a period of time is easier than trying to change everything overnight.

The information from these books that really hit home for me was that the only person we are answerable to is ourselves.

If we miss a day or lose our way, we can start again.

I hope this helps you with your resolutions and achieving your new goals.