Pioneering Organic Bananas, Peels and All

Just now my local Pioneer supermarket had organic bananas, and I brought some home. As luck would have it, on the same day an email popped into my inbox touting the benefits of eating banana peels, something you obviously cannot do with any bananas that were sprayed with loads of chemicals.

Dole Organic Bananas from Pioneer Supermarket, 1345 Castle Hill Avenue

Now, let's count the benefits, and the ways I found to use this knowledge.

Benefits of banana peels

• Here's OMTimes on the health benefits of Banana Peels
• Full of serotonin... great against depression.
• Full of tryptophan... a natural sleep medicine
• Full of soluble and insoluble fiber... good for lowering cholesterol
• Fiber also helps with weightloss and obesity
• Natural source for probiotics and detoxification, again because of the fibers. Obviously also helps against constipation (as is most of the vegan diet...).
• Important cytoprotective and antimutagenic agents that protect against cancer, and carotenoids and polyphenols that shore up your immune system.
• They protect red blood cells.
• Rich in anti-oxidants and other nutrients: lots of potassium, B-vitamins, magnesium.
• Contains lutein which hlpes night vision and prevents macular degeneration. full of anti-fungal and anti-biotic compounds.
• It is a natural anti-inflammatory agent and helps your skin look great. 
• You can make tea of the banana peels alone, or you can use it in soups, sauces and gravy.
• With cinnamon, you can use the tea as a natural sleeping aid... drink an hour before you hit the hay.
• You can make smoothies with bananas including the peel.
• You can make gravy and curry with banana peel.
• Even Business Insider reported on it, because in many parts of the world people do eat the banana peels.
• And Yahoo! too says, Don't forget to eat the peel.
• Sleep medicine - and tea from banana peels with cinnamon, and again
• More on Shattering the Matrix
• And on Doctor's Health Press.
• And finally Banana Peel Recipes from Kerala.

Obviously, you can google it yourself and find many more recipes. My first attempts were just to slice the banana with the peel and eat it that way, and then I also added it to my oatmeal in the morning, which I heat up with some banana with the peel for about 1:45 minutes. See here:

Sliced banana with peel and oatmeal (with apples and raisins and cinnamon)

Note one detail, Dole also wraps some plastic around the top of the bunch, which slows down the ripening process... very thoughtful. You can do this for yourself with saran wrap if your bananas don't come that way.