Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Digestive Problems. Unripe bananas contain proteins that inhibit the actions of amylase, an
enzyme required to digest starch and other complex carbohydrates.
Sulfite allergies. See How other kinds of processing affect this food.
Latex-fruit syndrome. Latex is a milky fluid obtained from the rubber tree and used to make
medical and surgical products such as condoms and protective latex gloves, as well as rub-
ber bands, balloons, and toys; elastic used in clothing; pacifiers and baby bottle-nipples;
chewing gum; and various adhesives. Some of the proteins in latex are allergenic, known
to cause reactions ranging from mild to potentially life-threatening. Some of the proteins
found naturally in latex also occur naturally in foods from plants such as avocados, bananas,
chestnuts, kiwi fruit, tomatoes, and food and diet sodas sweetened with aspartame. Persons
sensitive to these foods are likely to be sensitive to latex as well. NOTE: The National Insti-
tute of Health Sciences, in Japan, also lists the following foods as suspect: Almonds, apples,
apricots, bamboo shoots, bell peppers, buckwheat, cantaloupe, carrots, celery, cherries,
chestnuts, coconut, figs, grapefruit, lettuce, loquat, mangoes, mushrooms, mustard, nectar-
ines, oranges, passion fruit, papaya, peaches, peanuts, peppermint, pineapples, potatoes,
soybeans, strawberries, walnuts, and watermelon.
Food/Drug Interactions
Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors are drugs used to treat
depression. They inactivate naturally occurring enzymes in your body that metabolize tyra-
mine, a substance found in many fermented or aged foods. Tyramine constricts blood vessels
and increases blood pressure. If you eat a food containing tyramine while you are taking an
MAO inhibitor, you cannot effectively eliminate the tyramine from your body. The result
may be a hypertensive crisis. There have been some reports in the past of such reactions in
people who have eaten rotten bananas or bananas stewed with the peel.
False-positive test for tumors. Carcinoid tumors—which may arise from tissues of the endo-
crine system, the intestines, or the lungs—secrete serotonin, a natural chemical that makes
blood vessels expand or contract. Because serotonin is excreted in urine, these tumors are
diagnosed by measuring the levels of serotonin by-products in the urine. Bananas contain
large amounts of serotonin; eating them in the three days before a test for an endocrine
tumor might produce a false-positive result, suggesting that you have the tumor when in
fact you don’t. (Other foods high in serotonin are avocados, eggplant, pineapple, plums,
tomatoes, and walnuts.)
Bananas