Good Things for Potassium: Bananas and Coconut |
Ever have a taste for a banana but only have lime green bananas or mushy black ones in your fruit bowl, like me? I just stare at them and wish that they were yellow... and ripe... and creamy-tasting.
Mmmm...bananas are so tasty and so full of energizing potassium. But bottled coconut water is becoming the handiest way for me to get a daily dose of nutrients like potassium.
Keeping a bottle of coconut water stashed in my office desk or gym bag is just very handy for me.
According to the USDA nutrient database, 1 cup of coconut water has about 600 mg of potassium versus 422 mg in 1 ripe banana.
Losing Potassium Big Time
You may want to start drinking coconut water if eating a banana regularly is getting harder and especially if you are losing vital potassium from your body because of any of the following reasons:
- You are a big time coffee drinker, downing 3 or more 8 oz. cups of java every morning;
- You drink caffeinated soda pops throughout the day;
- Your prescription medication makes you go to the bathroom more often;
- You strictly follow the rule to drink 8 or more glasses of plain, H20 water a day; or,
- You work-out and work-up a real sweat.
How Bananas Can Be Annoying
Perhaps you are not eating as many bananas because of one or more of the following reasons:
- Bananas give you indigestion and/or gas;
- You can’t eat-up fresh yellow ripe bananas fast enough before they get over ripened;
- Bananas cost too much at your office’s kiosk or at the gym’s cafĂ©;
- You just don’t like the fishy or “bad water” taste that many bananas seem to have these days; or,
- Your body cannot handle the blood sugar changes when you eat a banana.
Don’t get me wrong: Drinking coconut water will never replace eating a tasty banana or other potassium-rich foods like yogurt, watermelon or salad tomatoes.
All I am saying is that a quick gulp of the natural refreshment that's in a bottle of coconut water is indeed a quick and easy "good thing". I like to think of coconut water as the original convenience food.
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