Not so long ago I heard someone talking about wanting to gain weight. Definitely not a common sentiment, but the additional statement that eating bananas would cause weight gain is something that I’ve heard before.

I’m not sure why bananas have earned such a bad rap. One medium banana (about 18-20 cm long) has only 105 calories. It’s got 2.1 g of fibre, 32 mg magnesium, 422 mg potassium, and 10 mg of vitamin C. Sure, it’s also got 14 g of sugar but that’s the same amount of sugar as in a medium apple, only 2 g more than in a medium orange, and a few grams less than an equivalent serving of grapes. Bananas are also similar to other fruits in that they contain very little fat; about 0.4 grams each. There is nothing particularly offensive about bananas.

The truth is, bananas are not going to cause you to gain weight. Unless, of course, you’re consuming a large quantity of them every day on-top of all of the calories that you need just to maintain your current weight. If you are trying to gain weight your best bet is to go for calorie dense snacks that are also nutritious like nuts, peanut butter sandwiches, granola, dried fruit, or cheese. Bananas are not the ticket to weight gain. Consuming more calories than you expend, regardless of their source, is the ticket to gaining weight.