Appetite for local banana consumption increases

It is an exhilarating scene to witness nicely arranged banana in tray laced with groundnut being carried around by the traders moving from one street corner to the other selling.

In Ghana, these banana sellers most often move from office to office, lorry stations, mechanical shops, and generally walk all-day targeting places, where people have congregated especially in the afternoon to entice them to taste banana and groundnut.

In the public sector sometimes banana and groundnut or ripped roasted plantain and groundnut fight for attention and served as a precious meal for those with low cash especially after the second week of the month as a means to reduce expenditure on lunch.

A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency in Tema on the consumption of bananas indicates that appetite for the local banana has increased over the foreign ones due to taste and nutritional value scores of Sellers in Tema Community One market within the Tema Metropolis have revealed.

Mrs. Linda Amedekey a banana seller at Tema Community One Market told the GNA that demand for local banana was very high as according to her dieticians have concluded that it contains less sugar as compared to the foreign banana.

Mrs. Amedekey said the local banana had a longer life span as compared to the foreign banana; “Even though the price of local banana is higher, people still rush to purchase it more”.

Madam Halimatu Sumaila, also a seller told the GNA that the local banana brought in from the villages mostly in its unripe state are preserved properly to ensure that it does not lose it original taste and quality.

Madam Sumaila explained that the foreign banana is sold off frequently at a cheaper price since people do not purchase more of it.

“This is done to sell them off as early as possible since it has a shorter life span and when kept for a longer period of time it will go bad and the trader will lose income,” she stated.

According to some nutritionist, bananas are relatively high in iron, which helps the body’s haemoglobin function and due to their content in fibre they help restore a normal bowel function.

Banana also contains pectin, a soluble fiber (hydrocolloid) that can help normalize movement through the digestive tract.

Some consumers told the GNA that, they depend on bananas especially in the afternoons as it reduces depression, Mr Dominic Owusu Ansah stated.

Mrs. Sandra Akua Antwi said it helps her to fights anemia as it is relatively high in iron, which helps the body’s haemoglobin function, “so I like banana especially with groundnut in the afternoon it energizes me to continue with the day’s task”.

According to research published in the Archives of Ophthalmology adults consuming at least three servings of fruit per day have a reduced risk by 36 per cent of developing age-related muscular degeneration, the primary cause of vision loss in older adults, compared to persons who consume less than 1.5 servings of fruit daily.

Source: GNA