10 Surprising Health Benefits Of Eating 3 Bananas a Day

Bananas are incredibly versatile fruits that can be used to make refreshing smoothies, add delicious flavor to a baked meal, or simply eaten on-the-go. That might explain why they are one of the world’s most popular fruits: Over 96 percent of households in the U.S purchase bananas at least once a month, according to this report.

So we love eating bananas. But is this obsession good for us?

The research says yes. Bananas have a lot more going for them than simply an affordable price and sweet flavor. Studies indicate that the magic number is three–by eating three bananas per day, you provide your body with about 1500mg of potassium, and loads of health benefits.

So what exactly are the benefits?

Here are 10 amazing health benefits of eating bananas every day:

1. Bananas lower high blood pressure.

Studies show eating as little as three bananas a day may lower your blood pressure significantly. A medium-sized banana has about 422 mg of potassium and is nearly sodium-free. The high potassium-to-sodium ratio helps to neutralize the blood pressure-rising effect of sodium in the diet.

So it would seem that your mom’s admonition to reach for a banana instead of that bag of crisps is very sound advice.

2. Bananas improve digestion.

Bananas are loaded with fiber, both soluble and insoluble. Fiber is an important nutrient in the body because it helps regulate the speed of digestion, slowing it down. Eating a banana will make you feel full longer and can also help with the problem of constipation.

No wonder bananas are often included in breakfast meals. They help you start your day energized and keep you satisfied longer.

3. Bananas improve cardiovascular health.

Eating foods high in fiber is good for the heart, and bananas are full of fiber. A high-fiber diet has been linked with a lower risk of both cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD). The soluble fiber present in banana is, in particular, associated with a decreased risk of heart disease.

A healthy, balanced diet will provide the essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants your body needs–top it off with a banana or two for an extra 4 grams of fiber per fruit.

4. Bananas help create healthy cells.

Bananas are rich in vitamin B6, containing 20 percent of the daily amount required for adult intake. Vitamin B6 helps the body produce insulin, hemoglobin and nonessential amino acids necessary to create healthy cells. It also helps with the production of antibodies that fight infections.

Maybe we should have been saying it different all along: “A banana a day, keeps the doctor away.”

5. Bananas improve GI tract heath.

Since bananas are relatively easy to digest, they are considered non-irritating for the human gastrointestinal tract, or GI tract. In fact, bananas not only ease digestive strain, but also sooth the digestive tract and help restore lost minerals after diarrhea. That is why they are among the first solid foods introduced to babies.

This is also one of the reasons bananas make up part of the clinical BRAT diet – bananas, rice, applecause and dry toast – that dietitians use to treat acute diarrhea.

6. Bananas are rich in Vitamin C.

When you think of vitamin C, oranges and strawberries might be the first fruits that come to mind. But a full serving of bananas provides a whopping 15 percent of the daily requirement for this essential nutrient. Vitamin C is an important antioxidant that neutralizes harmful free radicals in the body. Free radicals are uncharged atoms, molecules or ions (the “bad guys”) that are constantly destroying cells in your body. Vitamin C also aids in keeping blood vessels healthy and produces collagen that holds muscles, bones and other tissues together.

7. Bananas improve athletic performance.

If you have ever wondered why many athletes love bananas, here’s the reason: Bananas boost the muscles and provide antioxidants and other nutrients naturally. According to a study at the Appalachian State University’s Human Performance Lab, consuming half a banana every 15 minutes during a cycling time trial test was as effective as drinking a carbohydrate matched sports drink every 15 minutes. No wonder Yohan Blake, the Jamaican Olympics sprinter, reportedly eats 16 bananas a day!

8. Bananas fight anemia.

Because bananas are high in iron, consuming them can stimulate production of hemoglobin in the blood and help fight anemia. Anemia is a condition where there is a decrease in the number of red blood cells or hemoglobin in the blood, leading to fatigue, paleness and shortness of breath.

Moreover, Vitamin B6 present in banana regulates blood glucose levels, which can also help those suffering from anemia.

9. Bananas suppress hunger pangs.

This happens not merely because eating bananas makes you feel full for longer, but also due to their pleasant smell. That’s right, the scent of bananas can apparently suppress appetite and hunger pangs! According to this study by Dr Alan Hirsch of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, smelling bananas when you are hungry can trick your brain into thinking that you’ve actually eaten them.

So, yes, bananas can help you lose weight.

10. Bananas lift mood and help you feel happy.

A medium-size banana provides about 27 mg magnesium. This mineral can help boost your mood and aid good sleep. Men and women need 420 mg and 320 mg of magnesium per day, respectively. If you’re low on magnesium, you’re likely to suffer from anxiety, irritability, depression and other disorders.

Since many of us don’t get enough magnesium in our diets, consider eating a banana next time you’re having a case of the 3 p.m. munchies. It will fill you up and leave you feeling positive.

Bonus non-health benefits

You should also know dried ground banana peels make fantastic mulch for seedlings and new plants in the garden. Bananas are also a perfectly safe and healthy treat for your beloved dog!

A final tick for the pro column: If you are dying for some pearly white teeth, rubbing banana peel on your teeth for about two minutes after you brush can contribute to a perfect smile.

But don’t take it from me. Try a few bananas today!

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10 Things Every Couple Needs To Stop Doing

Most couples develop some bad habits over time that can wreak havoc on the relationship. Here are 10 things every couple needs to stop doing before they damage their relationship.

1. Giving Your Partner Your Partial Attention

Checking email, texting, or watching TV while your partner is in the same room doesn’t constitute quality time together. However, many people have difficulty unplugging and giving their partner their undivided attention long enough to hold a real conversation. Give your partner your full attention so you can truly connect with one another.

2. Skimping on the Compliments

You can never give too many compliments. However, as a relationship matures, compliments often begin to dwindle. Give your partner plenty of encouragement. Offer praise and genuine words of encouragement to help your partner navigate each day with confidence.

3. Keeping Score

Keeping score and trying to ensure that everything is fair can make couples argue more like siblings. Everything doesn’t have to be fair in your romantic relationship. Trying to keep a tally of who has done the most or who has earned something will only damage your relationship. Focus on giving to your partner rather than worrying about what you’re getting.

4. Not Being a Person of Your Word

Your partner needs to know you are trustworthy. Make promises that you’ll follow through with. Don’t say things that you don’t mean and don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep. Building trust, loyalty, and security in the relationship means that your partner needs to know you are a person of your word.

5. Talking More Than Listening

Communication should involve listening more than you speak. However, most people focus more on getting their point across rather than truly trying to understand what their partner has to say. Focus on listening to your partner and developing an understanding of your partner’s point of view before trying to express your opinion. Listening to your partner can reduce a lot of conflict caused by misunderstandings.

6. Listening Passively Only

Listening should be an active process. However, many people treat it like a passive activity. Not talking doesn’t constitute listening. In order to actively listen to someone, you should ask questions, nod your head, and seek clarification when you don’t understand. Get rid of other distractions and focus on what your partner has to say by showing you are actively trying to understand what is being said.

7. Making the Relationship Lower on the Priority Scale

Relationships often top the priority scale in the beginning but over time, a relationship can slip down the priority list slowly. Kids, jobs, extended family, and friends can all take precedence over the relationship if you’re not careful. The lower the relationship falls on the priority scale, the more likely the relationship will suffer.

8. Offering Criticism

Giving too much criticism can break down a relationship quickly. Offering your opinion about what your partner doesn’t do right or should be doing differently can create a wedge in the relationship. Offer feedback in a way that is tactful and diplomatic and make sure you are giving more positive feedback than negative.

9. Nagging One Another

Nagging is an annoying habit that can make a relationship become more painful than joyful. It’s okay to ask your partner to do something but avoid nagging if the job doesn’t get done according to your time frame. Treat your partner like a responsible adult, not a child who needs parenting.

10. Trying to Change Each Other

Trying to change your partner will only backfire on you in the long-run. You can change yourself only. Focus on changing your own behavior and it may or may not lead your partner to change. Accept that you can’t force your partner to change and accept that your partner does not have to do what you want.

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16 Intimate Things Every Couple Should Do At Least Once

No flame burns forever, and the same goes for love. The busyness of modern life has deprived many couples of time together, let alone moments for extra intimacy. Passion and sexual tension need to be reignited regularly to keep love strong and growing. See the following 16 things you can do as a couple to increase intimacy and your desire for each othHigh. 

1. Shower together

A shower in itself is a very personal act. It is a daily routine that is undergone in one’s own privacy. To shower together is to break down this barrier of private space and get closer to each other. As you lather each other with foam, you re-learn about each other’s body—the curves, the shapes and where it tickles. A shower together can be very intimate and relaxing, or full of sexual tension, or both.

2. Have sex in a public place

It could be in a secluded corner in a park, in your own backyard, or anywhere where you won’t get caught easily. Make it a shared adventure, but do be smart about it. This could either be the most exciting thing ever, or the worst disaster!

Risk level: High

3. Go ice skating together

Holding hands, slipping on ice, and falling down together can be pretty romantic, too. Make some silly moves, race each other, show off some swirling skills or your ability to skate backwards. Go back to being like young teenagers in love. Have great fun helping each other up, pulling each other down and sharing in laughter.

4. Involve food in foreplay

The trick is to try something new while keeping it clean and manageable. Use fruits, such as strawberry, banana, mango, pomegranate, peach, etc., and syrups such as chocolate fudge, maple syrup and honey. And of course, whipped cream. Just remember to lay down some towels beforehand so that the sheets don’t get dirty.

5. Watch porn together

Don’t be shy about it! Use porn to teach each other what you’d like to have done to you, and what you’ll like to do to your partner. It’s a chance to get to know more about each other’s secret fantasies and previously unknown preferences or fetishes. Also, you don’t need to go to the book store for a copy of the Kama Sutranow. You’re welcome!

6. Have a beach getaway together

The beach, the sun, the sand, and the clear waters. Help each other with the sunblock lotion. Have a nice little picnic under the trees. Get a beautiful tan together. Go frolic in the blue sea when it gets too hot. Roll around in the powdery white sand. You can rekindle a lot of love by spending alone time in a natural setting, enjoying each other’s company.

7. Give each other a massage

Massage helps to relax the body by relieving tension in the muscles. It is best to do this for your partner after he or she has had a hard day at work. Giving a massage is a loving act that shows that you are understanding and giving towards your partner.

Light some scented candles or use some aromatherapy oil. Play some soft music in the background. It doesn’t have to take a long time. A 10 to 20 minute session will be able to win every bit of your partner’s heart.

8. Help each other shave

This requires a great amount of trust, but it can help to build trust between two people, too. Let your partner teach you if you don’t already know. Be patient with each other.

9. Cook a meal together

Enjoy the process of planning a meal and cooking it together. It takes cooperation and communication. Both of you share the labor and also the fruits of it. Share your family stories while you cook.

If you want to spice things up a bit, you could try cooking naked—by wearing just aprons with nothing else underneath.

10. Shop for underwear and lingerie for each other

Who doesn’t love presents? Surprise your partner with a new pair of undies today. You don’t even have to go to an actual store. Shop online! You’ll be surprised by the huge range of choices. But before that, ask your partner what he or she likes—the colors, the designs, the brands, etc.—so you won’t have too difficult a time deciding what to purchase. You could also try something extra kinky like lacy tops, thongs or certain sexy accessories

11. Bondage

It doesn’t have to be complicated. For starters, a blindfold and whatever works to bind the hands, such as a men’s tie or women’s leggings, will suffice. For the more “advanced” or more adventurous couples, you can buy real handcuffs and other locks or straps from adult toy stores. In any case, safety first! (You can also add #4 to this.)

12. Go camping together

Camping can provide a really good way to increase intimacy for couples who both love nature. It is a sweet escape for those who are tired of the city life and all its hustle and bustle. Being closer to nature allows the rejuvenation of the mind. Think of the cool, fresh air, the silence and calmness, and the endless amount of space that nature offers.

Find yourselves a safe and adequate camping site. Learn to work together to set up a good, sturdy tent for yourselves. And what’s more romantic than melting marshmallows over campfire and star gazing side by side? You could end your night with an intimate time inside your tent or out in the open. With this, you check off #2 of this list, too!

Again, safety first: notify your family or one or two of your good friends of your whereabouts. Choose a campsite or an area that is well visited by other travelers and does not have a huge track record of animal attacks. It is best that the place is not so secluded that you can’t get internet or reception on your cell phones.

13. Book a room at a hotel (or a motel)

Many of us are too tied down by our work commitments or school schedules to be able to go on multiple holidays throughout the year. Most of us only have the year end to travel and go for a vacation with our loved ones.

But you could change things up a bit. Book a nice hotel room as a surprise for your partner. It can be just be a random Friday night out, a celebration for a promotion, a birthday or an anniversary, or a simple gesture of love for your partner. He or she will definitely appreciate your move.

For the more adventurous couples, you can try going to a motel for the night for an extra sense of spontaneity and risk.

14. Take a long, hot bath together (with champagne of course!)

Because it is sexy, and you know you want to. (You can combine it with #13.)

15. Roleplay

Especially convenient when it’s Halloween season.

16. Pen erotic writings for each other

Move over, sexting! Erotic writing could be the next big thing for couples in love. Seeing how the Fifty Shades Of Grey series has become such a bestseller worldwide, it comes to us as no surprise how personal erotic writings could be a good way of communicating to your partner in a subtle but still sexy manner. Reveal to each other your secret fantasies and yearnings. This could work really well for couples who are in a long distance relationship. Use secret pet names for each other. Be unreserved with your imagination.

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7 Signs You Will Probably Have A Long-Lasting Marriage

Everyone wants a long and happy marriage.

According to reports in the Huffington Posts and the NY Times the divorce rate has actually been declining for several years.

This is great news!

But wouldn’t it be nice if there were some science behind how to make a marriage last? Or maybe a formula that could be applied or a special pill designed specifically to foster long lasting marriages?

Andrew Francis and Hugo Mialon, two researchers at Emory University studied 3,000 married couples in the U.S. to determine some of the factors that can help make a marriage last. Their demographic statistics were compiled and their findings are actually quite interesting.

And while there is no recipe or secret to making a marriage last, there are some signs you may be on the right track:

1. You dated at least three years prior to becoming engaged

Research shows that couples who dated for at least three years prior to their engagement are 39 percent less likely to get divorced than couples who dated less than a year before getting engaged.

According to Psychology Today, there is no hard and fast rule on how long a couple should wait to get engaged or married.  However, most experts agree that anything shorter than two years drastically increases the odds of divorce.

Dating for a while before saying “I do,”  indicates a level of planning that suggests the couple is in it for the long haul.

2. You attend church regularly

The statistics here are clear.  Those who attend church regularly and are active in their faith are 46% less likely to divorce.

An article, on this topic, published inChristianity Today cites the findings from a study conducted by Dr. Wilcox, Director ofThe National Marriage Project. The study finds that “religiously unaffiliated Americans are the most likely to divorce.”

Also, when considering how much religion factors into a couple’s ability to make a marriage last, you must understand that it isn’t religion per se that holds the marriage together. Rather, it is the belief system of the church and its views concerning marriage and family. This belief system is tied to the support network that accompanies regular church involvement.

When couples engage in a belief system that frowns on divorce and are surrounded by individuals who reinforce and encourage marriage–the chance of divorce diminishes. 

3. You have a large wedding

On the surface, this factor doesn’t seem to make sense. However, consider the following statistic: couples who elope are 12.5 times more likely to end up divorced than couples who get married at a wedding with 200+ people.

Having a large group of family and friends who support the marriage is critically important to long-term marital stability.

4. You have an inexpensive wedding

This factor seems to directly contradict point three. But the research data doesn’t lie. The study found that the more you spend on a wedding the higher your chances of divorce become.

The study states that couples who spend $20,000 or more on their wedding are 46 percent more likely to get a divorce. Adversely, couples who spend $5,000 or less are 18 percent less likely to divorce.

Researchers Francis and Mialon say one possible explanation for their findings is that post-wedding debt can stoke marital tensions.

5. You have a honeymoon immediately after the wedding ceremony

Going on a honeymoon decreases the likelihood of a couple splitting up by 41 percent.

There’s a reason the honeymoon comes right after getting hitched. There is all of this wedding stress that builds up, followed by a huge and extravagant party involving all of your family and friends. All of this stress and pressure can really take a toll on the newlyweds. A honeymoon is a time of relaxation, re-connection and release.

6. You have a combined annual income of over $125K

Its no secret– disputes over finances are one of the leading causes of divorce.

Couples with an annual income north of 125K are 51 percent less likely to come undone. And the more a couple earns the lower their chances of divorce become.

7. Inner beauty is valued over external beauty

This is a no brainier. If the physical attractiveness of your spouse is high on your list of priorities you may as well prepare to become a divorce statistic.

In fact, men are 50 percent more likely to end up divorced when they site their partner’s looks as being an important part of their decision to marry.

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