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When on a diabetes ward at Derriford Hospital a few years back they were giving the gentleman in the bed next to mine 4 bananas a day in order to bring his potassium levels up they didn't seem to notice or care that it was putting his blood sugars through the roof.
 
They are also one of the highest fruits in potassium. Fine if completely healthy but if you have any underlying kidney problems, often, albeit not always (it depends on a person's blood tests) you have to engage in a low potassium diet and bananas are a big No No.
Unfortunately with kidney disease, its often not discovered until it becomes a bit of an issue but as a diabetic, iI believe they should naturally test for it every so often

Here is a valuable link to the kidney foundation and its list of both high and low potassium foods.
Even if one doesn't need to be on a low potassium diet, its interesting to take note of the different foods and in this case, fruits to get a better idea of which fruits fall under which level. You can see why bananas would be favoured by athletes that dont have an issue with their kidneys.

https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/potassium
 
well I must be a weird rareity.... I found having a small banana for supper helps with the dawn phenomenon, strange but it works for me.
 
Hpetal said:
well I must be a weird rareity.... I found having a small banana for supper helps with the dawn phenomenon, strange but it works for me.
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but what does it do to your levels an hour or so after eatying it? Bananas are very quick release, meaning the glucose is released almost instantly, which is why athletes eat them during competitions.
 
I have the same issue with fruits, that many will make my BS levels higher. Since I have to stick to a low potassium diet, I am now pretty regulated as to which fruits i can eat ( not many) but blueberries and apples, for example, are just two that I eat quite a bit of but neither seems to affect my BS levels. In my case I eat the blueberries in that popular coconut porridge recipe several here on this site eat for breakfast and apples, I tend to stick to unsweetened apple sauce......both seem to be fine for me though.
 
Suffolkboy69 said:
Hi has anyone found that bananas spike their bs
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Bananas were the cause of me being put on Metformin when a hba1c came back in the high 7 mark.

As bananas are grown in Queensland, they are often sold very cheap, we got stuck into them when they being sold at 50 cents a kilogram.
 
New2ThisType2 said:
They are also one of the highest fruits in potassium. Fine if completely healthy but if you have any underlying kidney problems, often, albeit not always (it depends on a person's blood tests) you have to engage in a low potassium diet and bananas are a big No No.
Unfortunately with kidney disease, its often not discovered until it becomes a bit of an issue but as a diabetic, iI believe they should naturally test for it every so often

Here is a valuable link to the kidney foundation and its list of both high and low potassium foods.
Even if one doesn't need to be on a low potassium diet, its interesting to take note of the different foods and in this case, fruits to get a better idea of which fruits fall under which level. You can see why bananas would be favoured by athletes that dont have an issue with their kidneys.

https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/potassium
Click to expand...
I was advised by the transplant liver clinic not to eat bananas because they raised my potassium levels which were already raised by taking the anti rejection drug cyclosporine ( Neoral ) and mycrofenalate . As an aside I still eat an occasional .banana so I can get a quick fix.
 
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