Re: I just joined/Thank You!!!! (Rolf)

[Guest guest]

> How on earth does the statement

> " a banana is 12% carbohydrate "

> translate to grams of carbohydrate?

Rolf, the edible part of a raw banana

(i.e., excluding the skin) is mostly

carbohydrate and water plus a large

number of nutritious trace elements,

minerals and vitamins.

A typical raw banana is 21.4% digestible

and 1.8% indigestible carbohydrate by

weight or 23.2% of total carbohydrate

(dried banana is 75.2% digestible CH

and 12% indigestible CH by weight or 87%

total CH).

This means that 1 kilogram of raw

bananas without skin has 214 grams

of digestible carbohydrate and

18 grams of " fiber " in it.

An average Chiquita banana that we

get over here weighs about 180 grams,

of which about 118 grams is edible

and 62 grams is skin. So a typical

banana has 118 x 0.232 = 27.4 grams

of total carbohydrate or 118 x 0.214

=25.2 grams of digestible

carbohydrate).

If you take that as a percentage of

the whole raw banana as we get it

from the store, 25.2/180 x 100, then

that works out at 14% digestible

carbohydrate in a typical unskinned

Chiquita banana.

Whoever worked out that figure of

12% could very well have been taking

a different type of banana as being

typical and it came out to 12% but

in any event, the 12% (or some figure

like it) must apply to the whole

banana and not just the edible part.

It is not usual in Europe to refer

the nutrient content to the complete

fruit but to 100 grams of the edible

part. We know banana as being 21.4%

digestible carbohydrate, i.e. in

every 100 grams of skinned raw banana

there will be 21.4 grams of carbohydrate

to be taken into account when dosing

insulin.

My wife and I eat one banana a day

each.

Regards

Thornton

Pforzheim, Germany