Beetitudes

I recently came across this video from Nutrition Facts’ YouTube page, and it blew my mind! I had never heard this before, and wanted to share it with you in case you haven’t either. If you’ve been putting bananas and berries together in your smoothies – stop!

Equally, avocados, apples or pears. If it turns brown when peeled or cut, you don’t want to eat it with anything flavonoid-rich. There is an enzyme in these fruits called polyphenol oxidase that breaks down polyphenols when the plant is damaged (that is what causes the browning) as a self-protective measure. “When exposed to oxygen…polyphenol oxidase can oxidize polyphenols into these breakdown products, which have antimicrobial activity,” according to the video.

This oxidation causes flavonols to break down, which means we don’t get to absorb these beneficial polyphenols…because they’re gone. So when you mix bananas into a smoothie with berries, which I’ve been doing for years, the banana will cause the flavonols from the berries to break down and you will get none of the antioxidant benefits.

This was especially concerning to me, because the vast majority of the time, smoothies are the only method by which I consume berries. I do eat them fresh during the summer months when good quality berries are available. The rest of the time I buy frozen and put them into a smoothie. This would also apply if you put dark cocoa in your smoothie with a banana – none of the benefits of the cocoa flavonols remain.

Eating avocado, apples, pears, eggplant, beet greens, peaches, potatoes, or mushrooms (plus a few others) with polyphenol-rich foods, you will get the same result. With one caveat – cooking these foods kills the oxidizing enzyme. So if any of these foods are cooked, you’re fine to eat them with anything you want. If raw, however, you don’t want to eat them with polyphenol-rich foods, including green and black tea.

So I will no longer be putting bananas in my smoothies! I only used banana to sweeten the smoothie, so I have switched to using maple syrup to sweeten instead. I’m also leaving avocados out of my greens (greens or salads weren’t specifically mentioned in the video, but I’m taking no chances), and leaving apples out of any fruit salads. Any time I eat bananas, avocados and apples now, I make sure to do it well after having eaten my antioxidants! I seldom eat peaches, and I don’t like pears or eggplant so I’m safe with those too.

I’m sorry for the horrifying news! But I wanted to pass it along and get it out into the world, so everyone can get as many of those antioxidants as possible without unknowingly self-sabotaging.