Research, Technology

Scientists advise not to throw away bananas: something useful can be made from them

According to the UN, in 2019, humanity threw outin the trash more than 900 million tons of food. Such a huge figure has developed from all the soups, confectionery and so on that people have not eaten. But if men and women could learn to shop more consciously and order meals without surpluses, resources could be used to feed less self-sufficient people. According to the results of scientific research, some foods are not fully used by people. Bananas are an example - most people only eat the inside and just throw the peel in the trash can. Scientists assure that this is not worth doing, because with the help of the peel you can significantly increase the nutritional value of dishes. Let's see how to do it.

You can benefit from a banana peel, now we'll tell you how

What can be done with banana peel

As part of the scientific work, the results of which werepublished in the scientific journal ACS Food Science & Technology, scientists have found good reasons not to throw away banana peels. Instead, they recommend dipping it in boiling water, drying it, and grinding it into flour. Subsequently, it can be added to various kinds of pastries: cookies, bread, pies, as well as pizza and homemade noodles. It sounds unusual and bold: what will the food become after adding a new ingredient?

Banana peels are perceived as garbage, but they are not.

The authors of the scientific work tried to add flourfrom banana peel to cookie dough. The exotic additive made up no more than 15% of the total flour mass - with a higher concentration, the cookies could become too hard. The baked goods were offered to a group of volunteers. They noted that in terms of taste, banana cookies are no worse than ordinary ones. The only difference was that it turned out to be more solid - this feature was explained by the presence of more dietary fiber.

Banana peel can be used to make flour

Why can bananas disappear from the face of the earth? Here's the answer.

Benefits of banana peel

The volunteers did not notice this, but the cookies withadding banana peel, in fact, is more nutritious. According to the authors of the scientific work, it contained more fiber, magnesium, potassium and antioxidant compounds. The benefits are obvious: fiber normalizes digestion and metabolism, magnesium has a beneficial effect on muscles and other parts of the body, and potassium plays an important role in the functioning of the nervous system. Antioxidant compounds, in turn, reduce the risk of cancer.

Banana peel contains antioxidants, which we talked about in this article.

In addition to the health benefits, banana flourpeel increases the shelf life of cookies - at room temperature, it can be stored for up to three months. This is not the first time scientists have experimented with banana flour and have previously conducted similar studies. For example, researchers once tried using banana peel flour to make a cake. It was noted that the ingredient gives baked goods a more pleasant color and significantly increases the nutritional value. In 2016, scientists found that adding about 10% of a banana peel product to regular flour increases the content of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.

See also: Popular foods that contain poison

Can you eat banana peel

The existence of such a scientific work maysurprise - while other scientists are busy unraveling the mysteries of the universe, the authors of this study are baking cookies. However, science is very diverse, and there is room for such strange studies. To a greater extent, the authors of this paper wanted to demonstrate at least one way to reduce the amount of wasted food. According to them, about 40% of the mass of each banana falls on its peel, and most people simply throw it away. But it turns out that you can benefit from it.

People are throwing away too much food and something needs to be done about it.

It is important to note that in order to use bananapeel with benefit, it must be treated with hot water, dried and crushed - raw peel is useless. Of course, it also contains many vitamins and minerals, but the human intestine can absorb them only after heat treatment. The bright yellow banana peel is said to be particularly rich in antioxidants, while the green one contains tryptophan, which promotes sound sleep. On top of all this, banana peel contains resistant starch, which is very beneficial for the intestines.

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At the end of the article, it is worth noting that scientists recently talked about the fact that "false" bananas can save millions of people from hunger. Here are the details.