Bananas After a Workout Help Recovery… a Bunch

Gatorade has made a fortune teaching people about electrolytes and glucose and how important they are to keep your body’s fuel tank from going dry. But a new study looked at something much cheaper and more natural than a sports drinks — a banana. And it looks like the banana wins.

Here is how the study looked, according to this article:

The researchers asked 20 competitive cyclists, male and female, to complete a grueling 47-mile (75-kilometer) bike ride on several occasions at the campus performance lab. During one ride, they drank only water. In the others, they had water, but also eight ounces of a sports drink or about half of a banana every 30 minutes. 

Then the bikers gave blood, multiple times, which was studied for various things, such stress on the body and inflammation.

What they found was that yes, both a sports drink and a banana led to less inflammation than just water, but there was also an enzyme, COX-2, which came into play. That enzyme causes more inflammation, which is something that a pill like ibuprofen suppresses. But researchers found that unlike a sports drink, bananas actually actively suppressed that enzyme.

So between the enzyme suppression, the lack of artificial ingredients and the ease and cheapness of snacking on a banana versus your Gatorade, we think you may want to go bananas. We also like to add peanut butter on our bananas because protein also helps recovery and muscle repair after a workout.

-Shane M.