Banana Nutrition Facts, Calories and Macros

The banana sold in most US stores is the Cavendish, a seedless dessert banana eaten raw. It is picked green and ripens after harvest, when much of its starch turns into sugars. That is why a spotty banana tastes sweeter and mashes more easily than a firm yellow one.

Plantains are close relatives that stay starchy and are almost always cooked. Smaller and red varieties such as baby (finger) bananas and red bananas are sold too, but USDA's standard record, used on this page, is for raw dessert banana, weighed without the peel.

Most bananas are eaten as they are, as a portable snack. Beyond that, their uses follow ripeness:

• Yellow and firm: sliced onto cereal, oatmeal or yogurt, or packed whole in a lunch.
• Very ripe: mashed into banana bread, muffins and pancakes, where they add sweetness and moisture. Many bakers use mashed banana to replace part of the egg or fat in a recipe.
• Frozen: blended into smoothies for body, or on their own into a soft-serve style frozen dessert.
• Cooked: caramelized in a pan for desserts such as bananas Foster, or baked.

• Banana bread. The most common use for overripe bananas, made with flour, sugar, eggs and butter or oil. All-Purpose Flour · Sugar · Egg · Butter
• Banana muffins and pancakes. The same idea as banana bread in smaller portions, often with oats. Oats · Whole Milk
• Smoothies. Frozen banana is the base of many smoothies, blended with milk or yogurt and other fruit. Whole Milk · Greek Yogurt · Strawberry
• Banana pudding. A layered dessert of vanilla custard, sliced banana and wafer cookies. Whole Milk · Vanilla Extract
• Banana chips. Thin slices that are usually fried and sweetened, so their nutrition is very different from fresh banana.
• Peanut butter and banana sandwich. A classic pairing on bread or toast. Peanut Butter · White Bread

Keep bananas at room temperature until they are as ripe as you like. To speed ripening, put them in a paper bag; bananas give off ethylene, the gas that drives ripening, and the bag keeps it close. Once ripe, they can go in the refrigerator: the peel turns brown or black, but the fruit inside stays firm for a few more days. For baking and smoothies, peel ripe bananas and freeze them in a sealed bag or container.

If you sell banana bread, muffins or smoothies, the label has to reflect your recipe, not a whole banana. Weigh the banana you actually use, peeled, and enter it with your other ingredients in the label generator. For baked goods, the finished weight is lower than the raw batter because water evaporates, so set your serving size from the baked product. The FDA reference amount for your product category is in the RACC lookup.