Calories in a Banana

Banana is my favorite fruit. So looking up the calories in a banana was one of the first things I did. I wasn't too surprised to find out that in this case, size does matter! So here are the number for calories in a banana:

• Small banana (101 gr, 6-7"): 90 calories in a banana
• Medium banana (118 gr, 7-8"): 105 calories in a banana
• Large banana (136 gr, 8-9"): 121 calories in a banana

Most of the calories in a banana come from sugar (more than 50%), but looking beyond the calories in a banana, there are a lof of other "goodies" inside it. Take for example Vitamin C. A small banana consists of 15% of the recommended intake of Vitamin C for adults, and a large banana has upto 20%.

Remember than we are talking about fresh and raw bananas. Cooking, steaming or drying he bananas takes out a lot of the vitamins and lower the nutrition values. If you check the calories in a banana that was dried like banana chips, you'll find out there are more than 5 times the calories in a banana that stayed fresh and yummy!

Another good tip would be exchanging all sorts of banana flavored desserts with eating pieces of banana with low fat yogurt. The calories in a banana plus the calories in yogurt would be less that any commercial dessert.

Calories in Fruit

In the culinary way of thinking we tend to refer to sweet plants as fruit. The sweetness comes (obviously) from sugar. So it is not a big surprise to find out that most of the calories in fruit come from sugar.

But besides sugar, fruit is also high in fiber, water and vitamin C. A fruit's weight can be more than 90% water (which doesn't add anything to the calories in fruit), but the sugar will be the biggest contributer to the calories in fruit.

Despite the sugar and the calories in fruit, it still considered healthy to eat fruit. Regular consumption of fruit is associated with reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging.

Calories in Fruit

Why open a calories in fruit blog? Well... I love fruit and I being careful with why I eat made me check for the calories in fruit almost everyday.

It could be calories in an apple, calories in a banana, pear calories, calories in strawberries - you get the picture. So I figured that instead of just searching for calories in fruit, I'll write everything down, so it's going to be handy for me and all the other people looking for calories in fruit info.

If you have a fruit you like but can't find how many calories it has, just go ahead and ask me. I 'll do my best to answer any calories in fruit question you have!

Kiara.