My ready advice to everyone who comes to me for nutrition counselling is to eat one banana every day. Now this advice flummoxes everyone. After all, this fruit has been getting a bad rap for years now, and has been almost strictly banned from diets of those looking to knock some weight off. A big mistake, according to me.

Firstly, it is a zero fat food and secondly it’s loaded with Resistant Starch (RS), a healthy carbohydrate that fills you up, and keeps those damaging cravings away, besides boosting our metabolism.

A slightly under-ripe, firm, medium-sized banana will give you 4.7 grams of RS, perfect to keep you full for a long duration. What’s more, RS consumption is associated with lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels and better calcium and magnesium absorption in the body, thus better, stronger bones too.

Plus, it’s your gut’s good friend too, and keeps digestion issues away.

Banana smoothie all the way.

Bananas also have the right kinds of carbohydrates that release instant energy into the body, just when you need it. It contains three natural sugars – sucrose, fructose and glucose – combined with an extra large dose of fibre, so gives you an instant boost along with sustained and substantial energy (that’s why you see so many top-level athletes munching on bananas during competitions).

It also has high-iron content, which stimulates haemoglobin production in the bloodstream, and helps keep fatigue away. In fact, now new research has clearly announced it to be an exercisers best friend.

A new study that compared the cellular effects of carbohydrates consumed during sports has reported that banana provides comparable or greater anti-inflammatory and other benefits for athletes than sports drinks and can actually replace sports drinks to fuel exercise and speed up recovery.

It ranks high as a feel-good food.

The study found that the body produces less of a genetic precursor of an enzyme known as COX-2 if bananas are eaten during workouts.

Less COX-2 means reduced inflammation. And possibly better immunity too.

That’s not all! Banana is one of the most effective mood boosters around and the possibly the least expensive one too. It ranks high as a feel-good food because of multiple reasons. It has high levels of both tryptophan and tyrosine, which are precursors to the “happy” neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.

Plus, it is rich in potassium – a mineral vital for optimum nerve functions, and delivers natural sugars that are quickly released into the bloodstream, making us feel exuberant.

Banana with cold cereal is a good way to start your day.

All these reasons make banana a natural, inexpensive, and properly packaged alternative to expensive, possibly additive-laden sports drinks, I say!

So help your muscles recover and restore energy to your body by having a banana an hour before you begin exercising, during the exercise (if the workout is long and very intense, like say a long cycling expedition), or right after you stop exercising. Don’t miss out on the amazing benefits of this wonder fruit.

So make “the banana” exciting, and add it to your daily diet, whether or not you are exercising that day. Add a few slices to cold cereal, make a smoothie with yogurt or milk, reach for it in the late afternoon for a quick perk-me-up, add to a fruit salad, or have a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Or try my favourite energy giving as well as hydrating recipe (from my book Don’t Diet! 50 Habits of thin people): cut pineapple, papaya, banana, cucumber into small pieces. Mix them together. Add to this one cup chilled coconut water, mix, whirl and sip.

Also read: Don’t worry about weight loss. Eat right and detox first