Apealing Bananas

After Reading THIS, you'll NEVER look at a banana in the same way again! Bananas Containing three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber, a banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.

Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression

According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS

Forget the pills -- eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia

High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia. Blood Pressure:  This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it the perfect way to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry! to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power

200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation

High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to l! axatives. Hangovers:  One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn

Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness

Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness. Mosquito bites:  Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves

Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system. Overweight and at work?  Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers

The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. I! t is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control

Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan. Smoking:  Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress

Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium! banana snack.

Strokes

According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine," eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%! So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice thecarbohydrates, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around. So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say,

"A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

Killer Hills:

Don't be macho. This is the firm warning from Roger Minkow, M.D., to any rider who even remotely suspects a heart problem. He's not speaking only as a medical professional. He's speaking as a victim.

 Minkow, 59, is the designer of the Specialized Body Geometry seats that revolutionized the saddle industry in the late 1990s. He rides for fitness, and that's what he was doing in 2003 when he began noticing tingling and numbness in his left pinkie and the front of his left shoulder. He'd feel it during a gradual climb on his training route, and then it would subside on the descent.

Rather than ignore this odd condition, Minkow went to a cardiologist. A battery of tests found nothing wrong. But on subsequent climbs and descents of the hill, the same thing happened. This time he demanded an arteriogram.

 Result: 99% blockage of one artery and 85% blockage of two others. He was that close to having a heart attack. The next day he underwent triple bypass surgery.

 "When you have symptoms going up a hill versus going down, it indicates a cardiovascular problem," Minkow says. "You're not okay and you need to find out why. You can't be macho about it.''

The Skinny on
Energy Bars

You've ridden 10 miles. You stand over your mountain bike staring down the hill you're about to bomb when you hear something. A bear? You're not quite sure.

"Grrrowwwwl." It's your stomach, and the only thing you've got is a half-melted, day-old energy bar that's been baking in the sun. Another 15 miles to go. Is this glorified granola bar going to fill the void and get you home?

It's supposed to. Energy bars are marketed to fuel the muscles, fire your get-up-and-go spirit, and even help you trim down. Does all that make energy bars a great idea? Find out tonight on "Tech Live" as we take a tour of the Clif Bar headquarters in Berkeley, Calif., a place where the term "granola" definitely has more than one meaning.

Peace, love, and nuts

"We're not making huge claims. We're making some basic claims of sound nutrition," says Gary Erickson, owner and chief promoter of Clif Bar, a popular food supplement company best known for its energy bars. The company is based in a laid-back, geeky, health-oriented community that was ripe for the blossoming energy bar business when Clif Bar opened there in 1992. "Berkeley lets people think out of the box."

In fact, the energy bar business is said to generate more than $1 billion in annual worldwide sales, according to Nutrition Business Journal, and much of that business is coming directly from Berkeley. Some of Erickson's biggest competitors -- including the high-profile company PowerBar -- are located there.

The California lifestyle inspires Erickson to run a casual operation. He gave employees a workout room, a washer and dryer, a hair salon (Erickson, who's completely bald, admits the salon "was not my idea"), and even a game room with an indoor golf range. It's all for an end product that packs a panoply of organic ingredients: organic rolled oats, organic roasted soybeans, organic milled flaxseed, and organic soy flour.

Glorified candy bars?

Competing products such as PowerBar, Balance, and MET-Rx add a variety of vitamin, carbohydrate, and mineral mixes. But energy bars also all generally contain sugar, sometimes more than what's found in a chocolate bar.

Fifteen years ago, when Erickson and his mother started cooking up energy bar recipes in their Berkeley kitchen, their product was geared toward athletes and workout fanatics. Most energy bar manufacturers target health-minded markets with a promise of convenient food that replaces normal meals and helps the overweight slim down and beef up.

For the heavy-duty exerciser, even athletic researchers admit there's some value to the extra "oomph" the bars give.

Don't eat the whole box

But the problem, according to San Francisco obesity specialist Dr. Melina Jampolis, is that non-athlete types and couch potatoes aren't turning to energy bars as substitutes in their diets, but rather eating them in addition to their regular meals. "I think they're being abused, and people are consuming too much of them at the wrong times for the wrong reasons," she says.

And the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in a recent edition of its Nutrition Action Health Letter, wrote that "eating healthy, whole foods like fruits and vegetables beats eating energy bars because foods contain phytochemicals and other constituents that aren't added to bars."

Eat your veggies

Translation: Phytochemicals are disease-fighting chemicals, and fruits and vegetables are good for you in ways energy bars can only hope to be.

Most critics insist that nothing beats wholesome, healthy foods. In fact, Jampolis says that "instead of an energy bar, people could just eat a whole wheat English muffin with a little peanut butter."

But like his competitors, Gary Erickson counts on food science and food research to refine supplements, and answer skeptics by producing what he says is a better energy bar. "We're looking to create some great new stuff," he says.

And, yes, he expects his mother to help out in the kitchen.

we do not know who to give credit too?