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Diet on bananas: results, reviews
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025

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For many, bananas are a favorite and healthy delicacy, and in countries where they grow, one of the main food products. They owe such popularity to their composition - a real storehouse of vitamins, micro- and macroelements, proteins, amino acids, fats. Thanks to fructose, glucose, sucrose - an energy source for human nutrition, they have a positive effect on brain function, and pectins and fiber improve the functioning of the liver, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, and cardiovascular system. But does all this not contradict the very concept of a "banana diet" for weight loss? Many other diets prohibit this fruit. The fact is that bananas are divided into dessert varieties and platanos - green unsweetened fruits that require heat treatment. They are mainly used as cattle feed. The banana diet provides for the use of the latter, but in the absence of such, ordinary, unripe bananas with green peels, sold in our country, are taken.
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Indications
Indications for use are getting rid of excess weight, preventive unloading of the body. The banana diet for weight loss may be ineffective for people with severe obesity.
General information banana diet
The essence of the diet is based on the action of starch contained in fruits and not absorbed by the human body. Such starch is called resistant or stable. It is not absorbed in the small intestine, but is fermented by bacteria in the large intestine, forming short chains of fatty acids and directly absorbed by the intestinal capillaries into the blood. This provides about 90% of nutrition to the body's cells. Bananas also, in partnership with other ingredients, remove unnecessary substances, cleanse the intestines, removing unwanted accumulations.
The banana-milk diet lasts 3 days and consists of eating bananas and low-fat milk. For this, you will need 3 bananas and 3 glasses of milk. In the morning and at lunch, it is best to eat the whole banana, wash it down with a glass of the drink. Divide the third banana in half and eat for a second breakfast and dinner, if you can stand it. You can make a cocktail from these two ingredients, and also drink green tea without sugar and plain or non-carbonated mineral water. If you replace milk with kefir, you will get a banana-kefir diet for those who prefer fermented milk products.
Any mono-diet does not provide the body with the necessary nutrients, cannot satisfy the physiological needs of a person, therefore it is fraught with various negative consequences for health. In the case of cottage cheese and banana, cottage cheese, rich in calcium, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium, iron, vitamin C, A, B1, B2, will replenish the missing elements of nutrition. The cottage cheese and banana diet is well tolerated, besides, it is tasty and effective. It is designed for 4 days, but you can return to it again after 2 weeks. Each of the components is used either separately or together. For breakfast, 1 banana out of 5 is eaten, 2 for lunch, the rest are optional in between. The amount of cottage cheese, water, tea is not limited. For this diet, it is recommended to choose ripe bananas with a thin yellow peel.
The Japanese banana morning diet is positioned as the easiest, allowing you to lose 5 kg in a week. It was created by Japanese doctor Hiroshi Watanabe, who has repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to lose weight on other diets. Together with his wife, he had to develop his own theory based on accelerating metabolic processes with the help of banana and water and outlined in a book. Judging by the fact that it has spread around the world and is successfully used, such a tandem works. Watanabe claims that you can lose weight by replacing your usual morning meal with bananas and washing them down with warm water. Other conditions of the diet include a ban on going to bed later than 12 o'clock at night, overeating, consuming dairy products and alcoholic beverages. Hiroshi Watanabe's banana diet includes one unripe banana with water for breakfast, lunch and dinner can be anything you want, but the last meal should be no later than 8 p.m., and light fruit snacks are possible.
Apple-banana diet. There is another version of the banana diet with the addition of an additional ingredient - apples. It looks like this: Day 1 - apples (6 pcs.), bananas (9 pcs.), milk (2 l); Day 2 - 3 pcs., 9 pcs. and 2 l, respectively; Day 3 and 4 - 1, 9 pcs., 2 l; Day 5 and 6 - 6 bananas and 2 l of milk, Day 7 and the last - 3 bananas and a liter of milk. During the day, you can drink unlimited water, including still mineral water, unsweetened tea.
Banana peel diet. It turns out that banana is a waste-free product. The peel, like the fruit, contains many microelements, vitamins, antioxidants, and its caloric content is lower than the main part. These advantages of the peel led nutritionists to the idea of using it in diets. In what form to eat? It is no secret that the peel is treated with various chemicals before transportation to preserve its appearance, so simply eating it raw is dangerous. But when soaked for half an hour in cold water and thoroughly washed under running water, it is suitable for consumption, although it is unlikely to be appetizing in this form. A more acceptable option is to boil it in water as a compote. You can use a blender to make a smoothie from an unpeeled banana, adding low-fat yogurt or kefir.
What can you eat while on this diet? Bananas, both peeled and unpeeled, smoothies made from them, you can add fresh berries, but without sugar, drink compote from the peel, plain or non-carbonated mineral water. What can't you eat? If this is an express diet designed for 3-4 days, then in order to get results, you should not include foods in the diet that are not included in the menu. With a longer diet, other low-calorie foods are added in small quantities.
Banana diet for 3 days
Allows you to lose the same amount of kilograms. The diet at this time consists of three or four fruits, unlimited water, green tea. All this "abundance" of food is divided into 3 meals. You should not go on a diet abruptly, but gradually, somewhere over a week, begin to reduce the calorie content of your usual food, reduce portions. You also need to exit the diet carefully, gradually including familiar dishes in the menu.
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Banana diet for 7 days
Promises to lose one kilogram per day, and seven per week. The main thing is to eat 1.5 kg of fruit daily, drink green tea and plain water. Bananas are filling in themselves, but if you feel very hungry, then a small piece of boiled meat and a spoonful of porridge on water without oil are allowed once a day.
Banana diet for a month
Despite the usefulness of this fruit, it is not easy to stick to a banana diet for a whole month, and it is also harmful to health. Therefore, they are most often used as express diets. The optimal option for a month's diet is to combine bananas with other low-calorie and low-fat foods. The banana diet menu can be as follows: 5 bananas eaten during the day, unsweetened oatmeal on a water basis for breakfast, lunch with a small piece of boiled dietary meat and vegetables. A glass of kefir at night. During the month, you can change cereals and vegetables (except rice and potatoes), limit salt, remove sugar.
Benefits
The banana diet, thanks to the caloric content of the main ingredient, suppresses hunger and leads to weight loss. In addition, it improves intestinal peristalsis, restores its microflora, accelerates metabolic processes, is a good preventive measure for arthritis, heart and vascular diseases, colon cancer, and reduces low-density cholesterol in the blood. Bananas also contain the proteinogenic amino acid tryptophan, which is converted in the body into serotonin, the hormone of happiness. Read also what other ways you can increase serotonin levels in this article.
Contraindications
The banana diet is contraindicated in diabetes mellitus, individual intolerance to the product, exacerbations of chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, biliary tract, liver, kidneys.
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Complications
The risks associated with the diet directly depend on its contraindications. The banana diet, like any mono-diet, limits the intake of ingredients necessary for its functioning: vitamins and valuable minerals. Possible complications are associated with its imbalance. Only a short period of its use will allow you to minimize the risks.
Reviews and results
Reviews and results of the banana diet are different. Fans of this fruit and those with a sweet tooth liked it. It was noted that the weight loss is not very impressive, but still minus 1.5-2 kg it gives. If you consolidate this result, and then repeat it in 2 weeks, you can achieve good positive dynamics. Others could not withstand 3 days and, in their opinion, crossed this fruit out of their menu for the rest of their lives, and at the same time kefir.