Banana bread is a tasty, convenient snack or breakfast food. Unfortunately, it can also pack a lot of calories and fat. To make sure you're getting the best nutritional value, check the nutrition label on bread you buy. When you make your own, include healthy add-ins and choose a recipe with whole grains and minimal fat.
Nutrition Facts
If you buy a loaf of banana bread at a bakery or grocery store, find out if nutrition information is available for it. The Food and Drug Administration recommends checking out all nutrition labels and paying particular attention to the amount of calories, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium in a food item. When you know how much of each component your banana bread has, you can help work it into a daily diet.
Guidelines
Whether you buy or make your bread, you should aim to get a loaf that contains whole grains and is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and relatively low in calories. A loaf that contains some form of fiber, such as whole wheat flour, rolled oats, or ground flaxseed, will keep you fuller longer and help regulate your metabolism.
Add-Ins
One "Cooking Light" recipe for banana bread includes flaxseed meal, which adds fiber and nutrients to the finished bread. Mayo Clinic recipes for quick breads and muffins call for add-ins such as cornmeal, rolled oats, nuts and wheat bran, all of which add some calories but serve the more important purpose of making the recipes healthier overall.
Substitutions
There are plenty of substitutions you can make to limit the total amount of fat or calories in a banana bread recipe and boost its nutritional profile. Consider using white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour for some or all of the all purpose flour listed in a recipe. Use egg whites or egg substitute instead of whole eggs. Instead of refined sugar, use honey, maple syrup, brown rice syrup or agave nectar to sweeten the bread naturally. Finally, replace up to half of the butter, margarine or vegetable oil in a recipe with unsweetened applesauce.
Tips
The nutritional content of your bread is important, but how it tastes matters, too. Spend some time experimenting with different add-ins and substitutions before you strike a good balance between taste and nutrition. If you've never cooked with wheat germ or flaxseed meal before, for example, you may need to adjust the amounts until they taste good to you. Try to make banana bread more often than you buy it, since you can always control the ingredients when you bake.
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