Should you should skip Bananas?

The ancient ayurvedic texts say that bananas are clogging because they carry “madhu rasa” and “guru guna” – in other words, a sweet taste and heavy aftereffect. But what does this mean? Another way to understand this would be through other fruits, such as the orange or the apple. These fruits also have “madhu rasa” or sweet taste, but in addition they are also characterized by an “amla rasa” or sour taste. 

In Ayurveda, the sour taste is known to support digestion and metabolism more because it carries more “agni” or digestive properties in it. The sweet taste is said to be made up of the water and earth elements, while the sour taste is known to be made up of water and fire elements. So the sweet taste is considered to be heavy, but the sour taste has some inherent fire to it that supports metabolism.

That’s why fruits that carry a little sour taste are not clogging. Clogging? It means they don’t make toxins or “ama” – the first kind of toxins result from semi-digested food, heavy food that the body cannot break down properly and gets to sit in your body without being processed. This is one reason why people tend to eat a banana for lunch, it helps them feel full because it is heavy and sits in the stomach giving a feeling of satiation, while all it is doing is not getting digested! 

Long term consumption of bananas will results in severe imbalances. The micro and macro channels will carry semi-digested residues not only of banana but of overall food, because the regular consumption of bananas will dampen metabolism overall and affect the proper digestion and absorption of all food items. This is the “rasa” or taste based answer to your question.

There is a property called “prabhava” in Ayurveda that concerns the post-digestive effect of any food item, long after it has been completely physically digested and assimilated. The ayurvedic texts explain that the “prabhava” of banana is also channel clogging. You may have food items that are clogging on an initial physical level, but not ultimately, this is an exceptional make-up and very healthy for all body types. For example, the pomegranate fruit is initially clogging due to its sweet and cold initial properties, but as it goes deeper into the stages of metabolism and digestion, it has actually a channel opening “prabhava” which makes it a unique medicinal fruit.

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Some findings show that bananas are good to consume because modern nutrition evaluates all food materials based solely on nutritional facts. They determine the physical nutritional benefits in terms of fat, sugar, minerals, and other properties, and they are not able determine whether that material is good for one and not another. The Ayurvedic way of understanding encompasses nutritional facts but also goes beyond, because every individual’s condition is different, digestive and metabolic fire levels are different, and particularly, an individual may have a chronic condition where toxic residues or “ama” may be particularly unwelcome.

 Ama or toxic build-up from semi-digested food is considered to be the seed of all diseases, and the last thing one would want to do is to consume anything that can even remotely clog the macro- or micro- circulatory channels. Channel health and care is primary, because channels are detox pathways but they also nurture and nourish us by delivering life-supporting materials. So under no circumstances does one want to delay detox, or delay the delivery of the nutritional substances to are targeted to reach specific organs and organ systems.
Ironically, small bananas somehow have less channel-blocking after- effect. They also tend to be more aromatic. Aromatic principles are always channel opening. So if you must have bananas, favor the really small ones, but by all means, avoid the large ones if you want to maintain healthy and clear channel pathways.
OCTOBER 17, 2013 BY VAIDYA MISHRA

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