Banana chips are a sweet treat made by frying thin slices of underripe bananas and drizzling them with sugar or honey. Some home cooks also make banana chips by baking or dehydrating banana slices.
While raw bananas can provide healthy nutrients, banana chips don’t provide significant vitamins or minerals because a single serving is relatively small and uses only a small part of the whole banana. Since banana chips can be rich in fat and sugar, this snack should be consumed in moderation.
Banana Chip Nutrition Facts
The following nutrition data is provided by the USDA for 10 banana chips
●Carbs There are 73 calories and just over 8 grams of carbohydrates in a serving of banana chips. A 10-chip serving also provides about 1 gram of fibre and about 5 grams of sugar.
●Fats There are about 4.7g of fat in a serving of banana chips. About 4 grams of fat is saturated fat, 0.3g is monounsaturated, and 0.9g is polyunsaturated.
●Protein A single serving of banana chips provides only 0.3 grams of protein.
●Vitamins and Minerals Banana chips are not a significant source of any vitamins or minerals.
Health Benefits
While a whole raw banana can provide certain health benefits, you’re not likely to gain these advantages when you consume a single serving of banana chips. If you consume enough fried banana chips to get the same vitamins and minerals provided by a whole banana, you’ll also end up consuming substantial fat, carbohydrates, and calories.
●May Aid Weight Loss
Banana chips may be a better option to potato chips even when they are fried. Banana chips provide over a gram. While this isn’t a substantial amount of fibre, adding this nutrient to your diet can assist you to feel full longer after eating.
●May Help Lower Blood Pressure
Bananas can be a good source of potassium. Potassium is known to have beneficial effects on blood pressure, especially when paired with a low-sodium eating plan. Banana chips may provide a very small amount of potassium. But this snack is also likely to be lower in sodium than comparable snacks like crackers or potato chips.
●Allergies
People with oral allergy syndrome may react when they consume banana chips. Other foods such as avocados, cucumber, kiwi, and melon, may also cause a reaction.
Oral allergy symptoms generally include itching around the mouth, face, lip, tongue, and throat and generally appear right after consuming the fruit. Those with ragweed allergies may also have a reaction when eating banana chips or other foods that are made with bananas.
Many packaged banana chip brands make their products with coconut oil or palm oil. While there are few reports of coconut allergy or reactions to coconut oil, allergy experts don’t know for sure if consuming foods made with these oils is necessarily safe for those with coconut allergy.
Adverse Effects
It is not likely that you would experience adverse consequences from consuming banana chips.
Varieties
Banana chips found in stores can be made with a variety of different ingredients. Most often they have sugar or another sweetener added, but a few brands add salt to give the chips a savoury flavour.
