The Things About Bananas | Bananas May Become the World's Perfect Fitness Food
Before the Boston Marathon, a pair of running shoes, a banana, and a bottle of water lay on a blanket. Bananas are usually given to marathon athletes.
Recovery after exercise is a polarized issue:
Do you choose sports drinks, or would you prefer a simple, elegant banana?
They are both rich in carbohydrates, which help muscles recover and boost performance and recovery. However, bananas don't contain refined sugars and dyes, and are naturally found in nature, which seems to give them an advantage.
Do everything possible, all athletes hope to reduce post-exercise inflammation while increasing endurance. Sports drinks and bananas both have the potential to do this. But which is better?
Why is the banana called ‘the chosen one’?
Despite many scientists working hard to create the ultimate exercise recovery secret in a plastic bottle, it seems impossible to beat a regular old banana~
Previous research shows that sports drinks and bananas are more effective than just drinking water in keeping cyclists going during tough bike rides. However, bananas seem to have a greater effect and are cheaper.
Preliminary research results
- The study involved 20 male and female cyclists who completed three 47-mile (75km) bike rides.
- The first was just drinking water.
- The second was drinking water and 236ml of sports drink.
The third was drinking water, eating half a banana every 30 minutes.
Researchers took blood from the cyclists before, during, and after the workout, finding that cyclists who only drank water had higher levels of inflammatory markers during the workout. Similarly, metabolic markers showed that pure water exercise resulted in a more tense metabolic curve than carbohydrate consumption in the form of sports drinks or bananas.
However, the difference between the bottle and the peel appeared in an enzyme called COX-2, which promotes the production of prostaglandins, lipids in the body. The purpose of prostaglandins is to help you recover health, and one of the prostaglandins’ jobs is to trigger inflammation within the body, so the presence of COX-2 means inflammation is developing. Unlike sports drinks, bananas seem to inhibit COX-2, which is the design purpose of anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen.
