"Banana Island Today!"
just started a limited form of the diet last week. i make a lot of banana smoothies to get my calories. i've noticed that every time i have a banana smoothie, my stomach starts cramping painfully for about 15-20 mins. the internet says it is an intolerance.
has anyone had experience with this? does it go away over time? is it damaging? how the heck else would i get so many calories every day without bananas? this is a bit frustrating!
-Randy
Permalink Reply by ednshell on Welcome Randy! :)
The vast majority of people have no problem with bananas, so first look at the most likely reasons you are running into cramps.
How long do you wait to have your smoothie after your last meal? Depending on what you ate last, your smoothie could be running into your last meal. You might try eating your smoothie first thing in the morning and see if that stops the cramps. As your diet gets cleaner and your digestion better, you won't have this problem anymore.
Are you well hydrated? Do you pee with vigor 8-12 times daily? Dehydration can cause poor digestion.
Are your bananas ripe? The bananas on the top of this page, far right, are just ready to eat. Look for spots. Eating ripe takes practice but your taste buds will adjust within a week or two.
Here are some other high cal fruits.
Permalink Reply by Randy on thanks ednshell. i added that link to my favorites bar, very helpful!
today i waited well over an hour after my breakfast, which was a mono meal of grapes. i don't have good digestion overall so they may have run together.
i am reasonably well hydrated i believe.... my pee comes out mostly clear.
my bananas, at least today, were definitely ripe.
i am still concerned, tho, about the idea of having an intolerance. i don't get this kind of stomach pain with other fruits. there are some other accounts on the web of people with the same reaction i have. they refer to it as an 'intolerance', altho they are not coming at it from a raw vegan standpoint. i'm really curious (and hopeful) as to whether i might need to not eat bananas anymore, or whether this whole thing will pass.
Permalink Reply by ednshell on 
Permalink Reply by Adam on Hey Ednshell
Recently, I have been eating exclusively bananas. I have to say I really don't feel as good as I normally do. I know my body doesn't do well on bananas, but I don't seem to be doing as bad with bananas at the moment as I have been. I think the main reason for that is that I have been making a conscious effort to eat HUGE quantities of greens with the bananas and not eating the bananas quite as ripe. They are still sugary ripe, most of the time, but I have started eating some of the other bananas when they only have a couple of spots on and some of them when just yellow. Although on these days the bananas are less satisfying, it means that I never have to end up eating over-ripe bananas. I have thrown up one too many times and had one too many migraines now to risk eating lots of bananas.I have been eating a minimum of 45 bananas a day for the last month at least.
Although I can now eat more bananas than I used to (depending on size, about 14-17 bananas) in one sitting, I can only do so with a minimum of 1kg of pak choi per day. I also have to drink what I consider to be an uncomfortable amount of water (minimum 4 litres per day), which I never have to do with other fruits. I get really dehydrated and get headaches if I drink less than this amount whilst eating bananas, and my urine smells really weird. This week the pak choi has now run out, so I have bought 5kg of spinach. I will be having 750g per day. Will see how I feel with that. I have also bought some dried figs to reduce my reliance on bananas a little. I will be soaking them for a minimum of 12 hours. I hope they won't screw up my teeth as much as dates have in the past.
I have also found I am unable to eat bananas. I can only get them into my body by blending them. Most fruits, I don't like blending them as I prefer to enjoy eating them. But I find that I get acid reflux, headaches and vomiting whenever I eat the bananas, even with loads of greens. I don't really know why it makes a difference with blending them, because I don't ever use water in any of my smoothies.
I couldn't say that my body does well on bananas now. But I find that I can eat more than 6 in a sitting, if they are less ripe, with huge quantities of greens and blended. I don't know whether this is just because I know that I need to, or because my body isn't struggling with bananas as much because I have given my body a HUGE break from bananas over the last year or two (I hadn't totally eliminated them, but I would go months without them and rarely ate them at all.
Ordinarily, I would say it is stupid to force-feed the body foods which it clearly doesn't do well on. But I really need to watch my spending for 6 months for definite, and possibly longer. My food budget has been cut to the point where the only fruit I can afford is bananas and some dried fruit.
I think organic is very important for bananas too. I realised multiple times that I always get headaches if I eat non-organic bananas.
I can't say I really liked plantains. I tried them once in Costa rica and I thought they were digusting. Edible, but really not enjoyable. I know Doug loves them though.
Banana symptoms are not something that everyone gets for sure. Although it is probably a minority, I know that several people have contacted me getting similar or different symptoms. I certainly find that in people who have persistent acne for example, despite being on a lfrv diet for sometimes over a year, the symptoms don't improve until bananas are removed.
For my own symptoms I don't know why my body suddenly started getting symptoms. I ate bananas as a staple for years, usually having 24+ bananas in one sitting. Then one day I lost my interest in them and when I tried to reintroduce them several months later I got ridiculous symptoms, to the point where, as you stated, the maximum I could manage was 6.
I am glad, for convenience, that my body can handle more than 6 at the moment, with a little help from greens and blending. But I look forward to the day when I can afford to never eat them again....or perhaps at least try a different type of banana other than fyffes cavendish.I prefer to eat my foods without blending; I don't really like force-feeding my body stuff that ignores feedback given when the food is eaten normally. One day I hope to ditch the blender for good.
Take care
Adam x
Permalink Reply by Catherine Forest on 
Permalink Reply by Ryan Betker on I did want to mention that there are plenty of folks who detest bananas (which is more of a challenge.. definitely! ;).
Megan McDonnell and Karmyn Malone are some folks who can't take bananas.
And myself - I can't handle any/many cavendish bananas anymore. One day they started tasting like ash to me.. I've tried several different brands of cavendish too (organic and convential).
Other varieties work slightly better for me, and then extremely high quality bananas go down sooo easy - such as Jourdan's Ice Cream Bananas.
Hey Randy,
Just wanted to mention, make sure you're not hoarking that smoothie lickety split, either.
The faster I drink my smoothie, the faster my stomach hurts.
I finally caught a clue and took HALF AN HOUR to drink a 10 banana smoothie and I had
NARY A PAIN! It was lovely!
I too, thought I had some random banana intolerance.
Anyway, just throwing that out there in case you hadn't tried.
Julie
Permalink Reply by Catherine Forest on I took an intolerance test after 5 months on this perfect 80/10/10 diet because I was still having migraines and could not drop weight. Turns out I have severe intolerance to bananas (which I ate everyday, many a day), pineapples, pecans and the cabbage family (I used kale in my smoothie a lot)... So, yes, it is possible, I guess. I did not have any tummy pain tough...
The naturopath recommended to stay off them for 3 months and start reintroducing them once or twice a week (we are leaving for Costa Rica for the winter, there is no way I am not going to have nanas and pineapple there!!). We'll see how that goes!
For now, my basic smoothie is grapes, mangoes and spinach.
Permalink Reply by Freshtival on
Quote: " how the heck else would i get so many calories every day without bananas? "
I find that making fresh juices helps keep me satiated.
Maybe this is why people are able to juice fast for long periods of time ?
Permalink Reply by ednshell on Juicing is not 811.
With a few exceptions, it is preferable to consume the whole food rather than to extract part of it and drink it. Drinking fruit or carrot juice without the pulp being present to slow the absorption rate of the nutrients can spike the blood sugar and throw your blood chemistry out of balance. It is far better to consume the whole fruit. One exception is fresh-squeezed citrus fruits, since a significant portion of the pulp is generally retained with the juice. The other "exceptions" are to blend fruits such as melons, and to make smoothies out of various fruits like bananas and strawberries. Liquefying the entire fruit in a blender turns it into a juice or a thick smoothie, while keeping the entire nutritional package together. Blending whole tomato, celery and orange together makes a thick, tasty, salad dressing.
http://www.foodnsport.com/faq.php
Permalink Reply by Randy on thanks everyone for all your input!
i guess my symptoms are a bit rare. i am finding that it's a bit better by slowing down drinking and also not drinking them cold. unfortunately, not solving my problem though. it's a somewhat acute pain a couple inches above and left of my belly button, like the bananas are producing a lot of gas that's getting trapped there. it's not a new feeling for me as far as the gas is concerned, but bananas are the only fruits that seem to bring it on. i checked a igA/igE food allergy test from last year, and bananas were not on that list so i don't have an allergy. does anyone know if this test show intolerances as well?
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