Bananas Are Easy Healthy Food
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 If you want an easy healthy food, you can’t go wrong with healthy bananas!

They come prepackaged by Mother Nature, full of goodness like potassium. All you have to do is peel and eat.

There are actually two main types of bananas, the sweet banana, which is what we usually see in the stores and eat fresh. The other kind is the plantain banana, which is usually cooked. It is becoming more readily available in supermarkets.

Although we usually see sweet bananas with yellow skins, they do come in different colors. When ripe, they can be red, pink, black or purple.

What’s So Great About Banana Foods?

Bananas not only have a lot of potassium, they also have manganese. Besides having those minerals, they are a good source of vitamins B6 and C, plus they have a lot of fiber. This makes bananas a very healthy food indeed!

This easy healthy food is also full of antioxidants. What’s interesting is the fact that as bananas ripen, the level of antioxidants increases, so the riper the banana, the more antioxidants it has.

Choosing And Storing Bananas

What’s you best choice of bananas? Well, it depends on what you want to do with them. If you want to eat them fairly quickly, choose bananas that are completely yellow. However, if you want them to last longer, choose green bananas.

You can delay the ripening of green bananas by putting them in the refrigerator.  The peels will turn black but the flesh remains good.

On the other hand, if you want to speed up the ripening process, put the bananas in a bowl sitting in sunshine. You can also place them in a brown paper bag with a piece of apple or tomato to make them ripen faster.

Tips For Banana Foods

Besides eating bananas fresh, they can also be used for cooking and baking and combined with all kinds of other foods. They’re a great addition to smoothies, adding a fuller body and texture to the drink. And who hasn’t heard of banana bread and banana muffins? They’re great in fruit salads, slicked up over a bowl of cereal, and make a great sandwich when paired with peanut butter.

When preparing bananas for recipes, once they are peeled, it’s best to dip them in lemon, lime or orange juice to prevent them from browning if you won’t be serving them right away.

To enhance the taste and smell of bananas, try using them in a recipe that calls for them to be heated.

Healthy Bananas Can Help Sick People

If you have kids, chances are you’ve heard of the BRAT diet. If you’re unfamiliar with it, this is a diet of:

• Bananas
• Rice
• Applesauce
• Toast

These foods are considered to help when someone is suffering from diarrhea. In the past, pediatricians prescribed this diet as the only foods to give children, but nowadays they are more often just incorporated into their regular diet.

Bananas also contain the compounds called protease inhibitors, which help destroy harmful bacteria like H. pylori, which is believed to be the cause of stomach ulcers.

Cheers For Healthy Bananas!

Bananas are versatile and tasty and good for you. They may be the ultimate easy healthy food, a part of the superfoods list!

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Health Benefits of Bananas

If you’re lucky enough to be able to get hold of some fresh figs, by all means, eat some of them fresh out of hand. They’re a delectable tasting fruit, and good no matter how you eat them. (For tips on buying fresh figs, see “Wondering How To Eat Figs?)

However, if you want to try something a little different, why not try grilling fresh figs?

Tips on Grilling Figs

As mentioned in an earlier post, “How To Grill Fruit”, there are some basics you need no matter what sort of fruit you grill. Be sure the grill is absolutely clean, and stay close to the grill while the fruit is cooking. It doesn’t take very long!

You can use an outside grill or an inside grill like the George Foreman Grilleration. Of course, the flavor is a little different depending on which kind of grill you use. That holds true whether it’s an electric grill, gas grill, charcoal grilling or using wood chips.

Figs On The Grill

Follow these steps to grill fresh figs:

1. Ffirst cut them in half long-wise, or if you prefer, you can grill them whole.
2. Brush the figs with melted butter or an aromatic flavored oil.
3. Cook cut-side down on the grill until browned, about 2 or 3 minutes

You can serve the grilled figs as a dessert by themselves, or pair them with something like mascarpone cheese. They also can be used with dessert crepes, or paired with cake. Top them with whipped cream, or put them in a bowl with ice cream. Use your imagination!

However you choose to eat your grilled figs, they’re a healthy taste treat!

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Eating Figs Grilled

Fresh Fig Benefits

Figs not only taste good, but they are a good source of fiber and complex carbohydrates. They’re also rich in several minerals, including potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron. In fact, when you eat a half-cup of figs you get as much calcium as when you drink a half-cup of milk.

So if you’re wondering how to eat figs, so you get these healthy fruits in your diet, here are some suggestions. . .

How To Eat Figs Fresh

Fresh figs are great eaten as is. Some people say fresh figs taste like a mix of a peach and a strawberry!  However, sometimes fresh figs are hard to find, as they are extremely delicate and don’t travel well.

Green Figs

The trees produce a small, early crop. There is a second and much bigger crop, which is when most figs are more readily available. In southern areas of the United States this occurs from July on through until frost stops production. In more northern locations, fig trees may only produce one crop per season, generally in August or later.

Fresh, ripe figs should be fairly soft, but not mushy. A perfectly ripe fig is heavy for its size and usually oozing a bit of sugary syrup. Sometimes these natural sugars appear as surface sugar crystals. This is a natural phenomenon and does not indicate spoilage.  If you want to remove the sugar crystals:

1. Place 1/2 cup figs in a microwave-safe dish.
2. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon water.
3. Cover loosely and microwave on high for one minute.

The color of figs varies from green, brown, yellow to purple or almost black, depending on the variety of fig. The size also varies depending on the variety.

Ripened figs can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days, but they should be eaten as soon as possible after you buy them. They ferment readily, and should also be checked for mold.

You can use a sharp knife or a pair of scissors to cut up figs. If the knife gets sticky, run it under hot water to remove the fig syrup.

If you find fresh figs that are hard or dried out, they should be used in recipes where they are poached or macerated. Keep in mind that figs do not continue to ripen once picked, so if they’re unripe when you buy them, they’re going to stay that way.

If it doesn’t look like you’re going to use up your fresh figs right away, they can also be kept in the freezer for up to one year.

Brown Turkey Fig hanging on tree.

When You Can’t Find Fresh Healthy Figs, Try Dried Ones

Since it’s sometimes difficult to find fresh figs, dried figs are a good option. They can be eaten as is for a sweet treat.

Dried figs can also be soaked to soften them, or cooked by themselves or with any other dried fruits. They are good stewed, and are usually sweet enough to require little or no sugar.

Buy natural dried figs that don’t have any sulfite or potassium sorbate preservatives. You get more fruit for your money with preservative-free figs because the preservatives make the fruit retain up to 30% more water. It’s better to be eating the figs than perservatives anyway!

Natural dried figs will be darker in color than those with perservatives. The flavor is also more concentrated, and of course they are also more nutrient dense since they don’t have so much water.  They’re also chewier.

Dried figs can be stored in the original sealed package at room temperature for a month. For longer storage, keep them in the refrigerator, six months to a year. Opened dried figs should be transferred to a sealable plastic bag or some kind of airtight container and stored in the refrigerator. They are best used within a year of purchase.

Sometimes a powder forms on dried figs. This is the fruit’s natural sugar in a crystalline form and is edible.

It doesn’t matter whether you call them a Fig (English), Higo (Spanish), Figue (French), Feige (German), or Fico (Italian), this is one healthy fruit, and an easy health food to add to your diet.

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Wondering How To Eat Figs?