Making the Most of Banana January 2009
Banana… the unseen nutritional value
Dr Omo Ohiokpehai: Nutrition specialist
Summary:
Nutrition specialist Omo Ohiokpehai explains how bananas are an excellent source of potassium, calcium, Vitamin C and Vitamin A, as well as sugars and energy. As such, they are a fantastic food for children, helping them to have strong bones, good eyesight and a healthy immune system. Sick people can easily absorb calories from banana, which is easily digestible.
Suggested introduction:
When did you last eat a banana? Was it yesterday? Today? Or maybe you are having one right now?
Most people eat bananas for their tender sweetness, but Dr Omo Ohiokpehai, a Nigerian food and nutrition specialist working for CIAT Kenya, explained to Zambian journalist Matongo Maumbi, that there is more to bananas than the sweetness - they are also highly nutritious.
Where better to talk about bananas than in a kitchen? And no ordinary kitchen either! It's one that is serving over 400 banana scientists from 65 countries with delicious dishes, morning, noon and night.
Tape in:
We are in a busy kitchen. I'm now looking...
Tape out:
...very much. Let me enjoy my banana now.
Closing Announcement:
Matongo Maumbi and Dr Omo Ohiokpehai enjoying some nutritious bananas at the Banana 2008 international conference in Mombasa, Kenya.
Making the most of it:
Invite a studio guest to share delicious banana recipes for the young, the sick, the elderly and the sporty.
Further information:
Omo Ohiokpehai,
TSBF-CIAT, ICRAF Campus,
UN Avenue, Gigiri,
P.O. Box 30677-00100,
Nairobi, Kenya,
E-mail: o.ohiokpehai@cgiar.org
Transcript
Maumbi
We are in a busy kitchen. I'm now looking over the pots with delicious meals. There is a pot full of beef, a pot full of beans I can see. But the point at hand now is bananas. As you know bananas are sweet, bananas are nutritious and everybody likes bananas. I'll just move away a bit from the noise in the kitchen and talk to a banana specialist. I'm standing here with Madam Omo Ohiokpehai from CIAT in Kenya, who is going to take me on a nutritional tour. What is the nutritional value of bananas?
Ohiokpehai
It is important that we talk of bananas and recommend them for children. It is easily digestible itself and contains high potassium, calcium, vitamin C and especially vitamin A.
Maumbi
Of all those that you have mentioned, what do they do to the body of a child?
Ohiokpehai
Vitamin A is responsible for eyesight. It gives the growing child good eyesight, it prevents blindness. And also calcium is for good bones, and potassium allows calcium to work as it should be. And vitamin C helps to safeguard our immune system.
Maumbi
Now from the children, we'll move onto the teenagers, the adults. What good is there in bananas?
Ohiokpehai
What is good for the children is also good for the active body. Vitamins, minerals and especially the fact that bananas are digestible which means whenever they are hungry and they eat enough bananas they will be OK. And they will not put on unnecessary fat, because bananas have no fat, they have no cholesterol, they are the best for the stomach and even for the sick.
Maumbi
Now you've said that bananas are good for the sick. How good are they for people like who have diarrhoea, people who have say maybe they are on treatment of HIV?
Ohiokpehai
It is important that we promote bananas for the sick. When I say the sick, anybody whose immune system is not as good as it should be. Because of its high digestibility, because of its high nutrient content it will help the sick to have energy, because bananas contain very high energy calories. The texture is very good, it will assimilate easily. It will conquer hunger, and vitamin A and iron, which is implicated in HIV and AIDS, is present in bananas and plantains.
Maumbi
Is that why athletic people, those people who are sportsmen, eat a lot of bananas?
Ohiokpehai
Yes. I'm sure they know the goodness of bananas. I'm sure they even feel it when they eat it, there is an instant energy. All forms of bananas are good for the body.
Maumbi
Now just how much of the bananas should I eat in a day?
Ohiokpehai
It is difficult to say how much because we all have different weights, we all have different heights and it comes to play to say how much. The important thing is that you have five servings of variety of fruits per day, and that will do it. It is important that we promote variety of fruits, including more bananas, oranges, other fruits and vegetables.
Maumbi
Now madam, there are some bananas here. I'm getting hungry with the way you are talking and there are some beautiful yellow bananas, well shaped. I think I will take one, I'm sure you will also take one.
Ohiokpehai
Of course, let's eat it for good health and nutrition.
Maumbi
Thank you very much. Let me enjoy my banana now. End of track.
