Under-ripe bananas high in ‘restraint starch’

I often get asked if it’s difficult to come up with a new topic about nutrition each week. Are you kidding me? My biggest challenge is to narrow down the daily input of  nutrition research into just one subject. Call it summertime, but this week I wasn’t up to the challenge. So here are more than one newsworthy findings that popped up in the field of nutrition this week:If you want to get less sugar from your daily banana, eat one that still shows some green, says registered dietitian Abbey Sharp. That’s because under-ripe bananas contain more starch that slowly converts to sugar as it ripens. Both sugar and starch are carbohydrates, to be sure. But greener bananas are especially high in “resistant starch” - a carbohydrate with some unique health benefits.Resistant starches are not digested in the intestinal tract so they affect our bodies more like dietary fibre and don’t raise blood sugars like other carbohydrates. Resistant starch also helps feed the good bacteria in our guts which promote health and may even have a role in controlling our weight. No need to toss bananas when they turn black, however. At this stage, they make an ideal replacement for sugar in recipes. Banana bread, anyone?Here’s one treatment where more is better. Osteoarthritis (OA) - sometimes called “wear and tear” arthritis - is caused when the cartilage that cushions our joints breaks down over time. And it hurts, especially if the wear and tear is in the joints of our knees.Hauling around extra pounds can aggravate osteoarthritis. But how much weight do we need to lose for relief? Experts currently say that an overweight person can cut their knee pain in half by losing just 10% of their current weight. (That would be 20 lb for someone who weighs 200 lb). A recent study published in Arthritis Care & Research, however, found that losing 20% (40 lb for the person who weighs 200 lb) improved knee pain an additional 25%. I know, I know, easier said than done. - Tribune News Service