What nutrients does banana have?

Answer 1

Answer 1: Bananas have always been thought of as excellent natural sources of potassium. And they are; but they have a bunch of other good stuff in 'em, too!

One medium-sized (around 126 grams) banana contains:

• Vitamin B6 (.5 mg)
• Manganese (.3 mg)
• Vitamin C (9 mg)
• Potassium (450 mg)
• Dietary Fiber (3g)
• Protein (1 g)
• Magnesium (34 mg)
• Folate (25.0 mcg)
• Riboflavin (.1 mg)
• Niacin (.8 mg)
• Vitamin A (81 IU)
• Iron (.3 mg)

The reason potassium is singled-out among all the other things in the banana is because that 450 mg of potassium in a single banana is actually more than 10% (more precisely, around 13%) of the adult human body's minimum daily requirement of potassium. It's unusual (though not unheard of, of course) for a single serving of any fruit to provide quite so much of any one nutrient like that. Nutritionists, then, sometime refer to a banana as a "super fruit," because of its inordinate provision of so much of the minimum daily adult requirement of the single nutrient potassium.

ADDENDUM: I should have added, back when I first wrote this answer, that bananas are so rich in potassium that one must be careful not to eat too many of them in a given day... especially if one is already getting a balanced diet which, collectively, provides 100% or more of the minimum daily adult requirement of potassium; or if one if taking potassium supplements. Consuming either too much or too little potassium can be harmful. For example, if you consume a normal balanced diet, you should get, from it, pretty much all the potassium you need in a day. So, then, if you also ate too many bananas per day, then you'd definitely be getting too much potassium. But keep reading, because there are some good articles mentioned, below...

Down in the "sources and related links" section of this page, I have placed a link to an excellent article entitled "Can Too Much Potassium Be Harmful," which explains what can happen if too much (or even too little) potassium is in one's body. Be sure to read it.

Too much potassium can also mask the symptoms of certain other problems, such as pernicious anemia, for example, just to name one. And too little potassium -- especially if you eat a lot of salt -- can also be harmful; can even statistically increase the likelihood of your dying a premature death from a number of causes. So, then, down in the "sources and related links, below, I've also placed a link to another article entitled, "Can too little potassium be harmful?" I've also provided Google search results, there, to other such articles. Be sure to read enough of them that you understand the issues.

Answer 2

potassium is one