Food and Cooking

6420 readers

4 users here now

All things culinary and cooking related. Share food! Share recipes! Share stuff about food, etc.

Subcommunity of Humanities.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

New Research Reveals Why You Shouldn’t Add a Banana to Your Smoothies (scitechdaily.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

55 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Researchers have found that the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO) in certain fruits like bananas can reduce the absorption of heart-healthy flavanols, especially when combined with flavanol-rich ingredients like berries. The study suggests choosing ingredients with low PPO activity, such as pineapple or oranges, when making smoothies to optimize flavanol absorption.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So basically, just add a bit of lemon juice to your smoothie?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I'm not confident saying for sure without reading the actual paper - it really depends on how PPO interacts with the flavanols, but at the end of the day denaturing the PPO with heat should make it a non-issue. Keep in mind though that bananas are far from the only smoothie ingredient with PPO!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Or add cooked banana instead? Heat it up before freezing that over ripe banana.