I transited through the Savannah / Hilton Head airport yesterday, for the first time.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that Savannah BANANAS items were a big draw in the laid back airport gift shops. 

Sure, there were deep fried and boiled peanuts, plus other mementos of “The Hostess City of the South”. For your trivial pursuits, Savannah is the oldest town in Georgia, established in 1733 by James Oglethorpe. Let’s move from colonial history to all-time FUN.   

“The Greatest Show in Sports”

What makes fans go Bananas, and how might we emulate that energy? 

• The traveling Bananas team entertained our daughter’s family at the Sacramento River Cats stadium last year.  Parents and Kids vouched for the uber-fun times for all!

Free food and drink at home games in Grayson Stadium are one enticing way to drum up the energy. And, ticket prices are a whole lot more appealing than those for “my” San Diego Padres baseball team.

According to one source, eleven Bananas went on to, or came from Major League Baseball teams for their energetic play.

New and certainly non-traditional Rules for entertainment also foment GOING BANANAS. 

• There is a dance in the third inning, with 2 outs and two strikes. Yup.
• There is a two-hour time limit to games.  Thus, seventh inning stretches and Kate Smith’s rendering of GOD BLESS AMERICA may be skipped for some games.

My point about Bananas?

First – getting immersed in an activity is great for our noggins.

Second, each banana [not the baseball player] is full of healthy micronutrients, with nice amounts of fiber as a healthy carbohydrate and a gram of “plant-based” protein.

• The Association of Nutritionist and Foodservice professionals promotes “nature’s candy” and asserts that these yellow bunches are the most exported fruit in our world.

As I wrote in KABOOMER, if you monitor glycemic indices of fruits, the browner the banana skin, the higher the glycemic index (GI). I prefer younger bananas at the just-past-green-skin stage for my “candy”.

Ex Scientia

Here is what Science Shares about Bananas and near-cousin Plantains as “vigorously growing, monocotyledonous herbaceous plants”

1. Potassium-packed! There is a fine reason why endurance athletes chomp on the innards of these wrapped fruits. “ When you don’t get enough potassium, your blood pressure and kidney stone risk can increase, you may feel weak and tired, or even experience muscle cramps.”
2. Hydration: “Potassium plays a part here by helping regulate the balance of fluids in your body, especially the electrolytes you lose”.
   1. As my habit of sharing experiential lessons, I bicycled 388 miles in 6 days for a Charity Event.  In the 80 degree, high humidity Southeast, you betcha that bananas were a regular foodstuff for me.

Take note that dehydration and loss of electrolytes in a primary cause of exercise fatigue.

3. Gut Health!  Three grams of fiber, and pre-biotics to help out microbiome’s health.
4. Easy-peasy pre-workout Carbs (with natural wrap too)
5. Post[-endurance workout Recovery. Banana phytochemicals reduce inflammation
6. Ticker Health!

Potassium flushes excess and heart-stressing sodium from your body through your urinary tract.  We do need sodium, yet not excess sodium!  Danger! Most Americans consume excess sodium due to processed and ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

7. We can substitute cane sugar with bananas in some baking recipes.
8. A natural source of Vitamin B-6.  Granted, most Americans get enough of this essential B-6 vitamin even if they don’t go bananas.  As it is water-soluble, B6 doesn’t hang around our bodies like fat-soluble Vitamins A,D, E and K.
9. Potentially help to naturally curb appetites because of “banana resistant starch” in un-ripe bananas. 
10. Kidney Health.  Anti-oxidant polyphenols in bananas can counteract excess calcium in our bodies, limit kidney stone development, and help women avert renal cancer.  Yup.

Daily?

I don’t eat a banana a day. Yet, I could as my clinical lab draws show average Potassium concentrations.

Ask your Health care professional!

Can Potassium compounds kill?

Well, spy-versus-spy uses of Potassium Cyanide (KCN) can be deadly if you’re into cloak and dagger truths.

Highly concentrated Potassium Chloride (KCl) can be used to stop one’s heartbeats.  For the better, let’s shift to micronutrient adequacy.

Most Americans do ingest and absorb adequate Potassium with a balanced lifestyle diet

Citation: Health Direct

Despite what that legendary health coach, Mae West advised, too much of a good thing, like the mineral potassium, is not wonderful.

Moderate your Lifestyle Diet and Move!

Takeaway #2

Try to Go Bananas and have fun in your immersive activities and exercise. Humor is good for your happy hormones, Trust me.

Until the 2026 pre-season of the Savannah BANANAS, Stay Well Past Forty.

DF