Let’s go bananas for a second. Let’s go deep into all the health benefits and uses of bananas and banana peels. It turns out bananas are more useful than we ever thought, so there are plenty of uses to add them to our grocery cart every week.
Here are 12 clever uses for bananas you probably never knew. Check them out and see which work for you. Bananas can play an essential role in your life if you let them.
Bananas have lots of potassium
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room and take care of the most obvious reason you want to add bananas to your diet. Bananas have lots of potassium, which is an essential mineral you only get through food. Potassium helps your body regulate fluids but also helps your neurotransmitters. Bananas are healthy, and not that we’ve gotten that off our chest, let’s see what else bananas can do for you.
Bananas can keep your skin clean and shiny
A face mask made with bananas is an all-natural way of returning brightness and elasticity to your skin; it can clean your pores too and leave your face smooth as silk. Leave your yellow face mask on for at least twenty minutes and wash your face as you’d typically do. Trust us, it works.
Bananas are ideal for making ice cream
Frozen bananas are the best base for dairy-free ice cream, and you know staying away from milk is in vogue right now. For many people, this is more than a trend; it’s a necessity, especially if they’re lactose intolerant. Blend a frozen banana with your favorite flavors, from chocolate to blueberries, for creamy and smooth ice cream with no dairy whatsoever.
Polish your shoes with a banana
Yes, the oil in banana peels can make your leather shoes look as good as new. All the banana peels’ enzymes can eliminate even hard stains, and the shiny effect will last a few days. Remember to wipe your shoes after scrubbing them with banana peels to remove any organic matter. This one’s a good alternative for when on the road, or if you want to go organic all the way.
Polish your silverware
It’s not only shoes benefiting from bananas. Forks and knives can get that shine back by scrubbing them with the potent oils and enzymes in banana peels.
This is particularly useful for silverware that darkens with time. You might want to do this more than once for ancient silverware, but the results are guaranteed. After treating your cutlery with bananas, throw it into the dishwasher, and they’re ready for the table.
Bring life back to house plants
This is a generations-old natural remedy to keep plant leaves bright and green. Rub your favorite plant’s leaves with banana peels to remove dust, water stains, and give the plant all the nutrients to get back its greenness. On the downside, if you leave too much actual banana in the plants, you might see fruit flies around your house.
Keep bugs away
There’s an added benefit to treating your plants with banana peels; they keep harmful bugs like aphids away (you might still get some fruit flies, though.)
You can even scatter shredded banana peels around your garden to make sure you keep harmful pests at bay. Bananas are all-natural and organic, so you’ll save some money while helping the environment by avoiding chemical insecticides.
Bananas make for fantastic compost
If you’re not making compost at home, do so. Especially if you tend a garden. Bananas add plenty of nutrients to compost and can even prevent your pile of earth from getting too stinky. Shred your banana peels before adding them to your compost pile and cover them with earth to keep those fastidious fruit flies away.
Bananas can eliminate warts
This is not the most scientifically proven method to treat warts, but people swear by it. Rubbing banana peels regularly in the affected area could eventually eliminate them. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence in favor of this method, so you might want to try it out. Talk to your doctor before treating yourself with bananas, just in case.
Feed the birds!
There’s nothing like attracting singing birds to your garden, and although traditionally, people use seeds, birds, and even butterflies are attracted to bananas.
Leave some bananas away from insect reach and poke some holes in them. You’ll have some colorful visitors fluttering around, and that’s just mood-lifting.
Bananas can ripen other fruit
As you know, bananas ripen fast. Before you know it, they go from inedible green to overripe. It turns out bananas release a gas called ethylene, and that gas can ripen all other fruits around the yellow tropical treat. Place some bananas with any other fruit you want to mature, from mangoes to avocados, and watch them ripen almost overnight.
Banana peels can give you a great smile
Rubbing your teeth with banana peels can help you whiten them. It’s the mild acids in bananas that can help you remove some stains, of course, along with other standard health practices like brushing your teeth frequently.
Be careful now. Banana peels might be useful for your teeth, but the fruit can cause cavities if you’re not mindful.
Bananas can do it all!
How about that? Bananas are not only healthy; they can help around the house. Stock up on bananas and make the most out of them. Whenever you get the chance of getting such a versatile food, you can’t miss out on it.
Let’s pay our respects to bananas and show them some love! Share this fruity information with your loved ones and get yourself a bunch of the bendy fruit.
