The Benefits of Bananas for Aging Health

When you think of bananas, you might imagine a banana cream pie or a banana split, but this versatile fruit offers so much more than a basis for dessert. It works as an anti-aging tool, too, whether you eat it, drink it, or use it directly on your skin.

Nutrition Benefits

Let’s look at the fruit’s nutrition benefits first. Simply eating a banana or two per day helps you remain healthy and provides you with a remarkable amount of your daily nutrition needs. What does eating a single banana get you, nutrition-wise?

One medium banana has the following daily value (DV) percentages:

• Vitamin B6: 25 percent
• Manganese: 16 percent
• Vitamin C: 14 percent
• Fiber: 12 percent
• Potassium: 12 percent
• Biotin: 10 percent
• Copper: 10 percent
  

A tasty banana works like a multi-vitamin. There’s one caveat: If you have a health condition that requires you to maintain blood sugar levels, you should eat bananas in moderation since they rate pretty high on the glycemic index.

When they say “you are what you eat,” nutritionists tell the truth. If you eat healthily, your body stays healthy. Weight gain typifies aging, so by maintaining a youthful weight close to what you weighed at your healthiest, typically high school or college, you remain young-looking. To contribute to that, bananas also provide awesome benefits for your skin.

Skin Care

You can use bananas to combat aging in a more direct way, too. You can use them as an ingredient in numerous face washes and face masks to treat wrinkles, soften skin and treat acne. If you lament how unfair it is that adult skin can get pimples and wrinkles at the same time, the mighty banana can help you. In addition to the vitamins and minerals in it, you will also find antioxidants. Maybe you have noticed that all skin creams tout the vitamin C in them, the manganese and the antioxidants to help prevent premature aging. Well, you already know that bananas have all of that.

Now why not go to this fruit for a natural source to boost the elasticity of the skin. Try one of the following :

• Mash a banana and medium-sized avocado together and apply the mix to your face as a facial mask. Leave it on for 20 minutes. Wash your face as you normally would. You will add moisture to your skin.
• Cleanse your face as usual before going to bed. Pat-dry your skin with a clean towel. Rub your face with the peel of a ripe banana for ten minutes. Leave it on until you are ready to go to sleep. Rinse it off.
• A banana facial mask can give you that gorgeous glow you see on models in magazines. If you have oily skin, mash a banana with a splash of lemon juice and a tablespoon of honey. If you have dry skin, mash a banana with a splash of olive oil and pureed avocado. Leave your mask on for ten minutes, and then cleanse your face as usual.

You can easily enjoy the health benefits of bananas. Eat them and use them in facial treatments to combat pre-mature aging.