As long as smoothies have existed — roughly 45 years — people have put bananas in them. The “potato of fruits” is a relied-upon source of sweetness and starch, pairing well with the blended beverage’s more acidic players, like raspberries. Now, history might be encouraged to stop repeating itself.
New research from the University of California-Davis suggests that adding a banana to a berry smoothie can negatively impact how your body absorbs the oh-so prized flavanols in the latter.
Known for their presence in other delicious vittles like dark chocolate and green tea, flavanols are anti-everything that you’d want them to be. They contain properties that are anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antioxidative. Whether they come from berries or somewhere else, you want them to be able to do their job.
Bananas, by contrast, have high levels of an enzyme that can dramatically reduce how many flavanols your body can absorb.
To test how this molecule might impact nutrient absorption, researchers asked participants to drink a banana-based smoothie and a mixed-berry smoothie. There was a flavanol-capsule control group, too.
Researchers analyzed blood and urine samples and found that folks who drank the banana smoothie had 84% lower flavanol levels than the control group. The mixed berry group, however, demonstrated levels close to those of the capsule control group.
Now, this doesn’t mean that bananas are bad for you, or that you should never eat them. Think of it as trying to maximize the nutritional benefits, at least when it comes to your smoothie stance. If you end up missing the yellow fruit, you can always add it back in. In the meantime, bananas will be waiting in the wings.