Health  &  Fitness

Copyright ©  Eoin Franklin 2009

BANANA BREAD RECIPE: High Protein, High Carbohydrate, Low Fat

 

The following bread recipe was developed by a marathon runner who was looking for a bread they could eat on its own without having to put anything on it. A snack they could easily bring with them during the day providing an overall well balanced meal in itself without having to add to it. A meal that they could rely on to provide a good sustainable energy source with a higher protein level to aid in pre-training preparation or post-training recovery.

 

Overall it is a very good start to any day, or general pre-energy boost for those tough training sessions. It is a great source of low GI carbohydrates to sustain your energy levels. It also provides more easily absorbed carbohydrates to get into your system quickly. It contains a good quantity of protein, and is very low in both fat and sugars. This bread is sweet enough to eat on its own, but if you do put anything on it, a banana is a nice healthy addition. Try to avoid the usual butter, jam etc., they only ruin the purpose of this bread.

 

This bread only contains 1% fat (gram percentage) or 5.5% fat (calorie percentage), and contains almost no saturated fat!

 

INGREDIENTS: 325g of coarse brown flour, 50g of wheat bran, 25g of strong white flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon, 400g of banana, 1 desert spoon of honey, 1 teaspoon of almond essence, and 5 egg whites.

 

Mix the coarse brown flour, wheat bran, strong white flour, baking powder, and cinnamon thoroughly in a bowl.

 

Separate the 5 egg whites into a bowl and whip to a froth. (this can take a little time!)

 

Mash 400g of ripened banana (flesh weight) and mix in the honey and vanilla essence. Add this mixture to the egg white and mix together thoroughly.

 

Gradually stir the flour mixture, little by little, into the egg and banana mixture. Pour the mixture into a non-stick bread tin.

 

Preheat a fan-assisted oven to 135 degrees, and bake for 65-75 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire tray.

In conclusion, the only version of this marketing strategy that can be trusted is the food marked as 0% fat. Any other advertised value is inaccurate and needs to be ignored, and re-calculated as shown above. When you have calculated a true calorie fat percentage, any food that is 30% fat or more needs to be carefully considered as part of a healthy diet. The calculation above may appear slightly laborious, but we all have calculators in our mobile phones, and the ability to calculate the real fat content is a very useful tool in taking control and indeed responsibility for how you incorporate food in your diet.

 

Finally, a healthy diet is not simply based on how much fat we have. This is a very important factor, but there are many others, and not all fats are bad fats. However, the above calculation is a very useful first step in establishing a healthy diet.

 

An unhealthy high-fat diet can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 300%.

In Ireland, cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death.