You may have heard the proverb –“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Now add another wonderful fruit – banana to this phrase.

Adding a banana to your daily diet can do wonders for your overall health. Loaded with vitamins and minerals; bananas aid in weight loss, keep bowels healthy, fight depression and can even lower your blood pressure.

Here are some reasons you may want to consider eating a daily banana:

• One banana packs a potassium punch of 450mg. Their rich potassium content enables this popular fruit to help balance out the level of sodium in your body. Bananas natural high potassium, low salt ratio makes them Mother Nature’s perfect medicine for lowering blood pressure. Even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends the simple dietary advice to eat bananas for a healthy blood pressure level and to help prevent heart disease. Adding bananas to your diet can also help stabilize blood sugar and prevent type II diabetes.

• Having digestive problems? Eat bananas. They stimulate the growth of friendly bacteria in the bowel, and produce enzymes that aid in digestion.

• A banana is that wonder fruit that helps treat diarrhea. The high potassium content helps the body replace electrolytes that are lost.

• Apart from potassium, bananas are also rich in iron. People suffering from anemia can benefit by eating this fruit.

• Eating bananas helps fight depression by increasing the brain’s level of serotonin – the “feel good” chemical substance that affects your mood and sleep.

• Bananas are naturally sweet and their high fiber content help to make you feel full. Bananas are the perfect pre-exercise food, an easily digested carb before a workout to give you that energy boost.

• Bananas help strengthen the nervous system, aid in the prevention of kidney cancer and keep your eyes healthy. Whenever you feel hunger pangs in between meals, try reaching for Mother Nature’s sweet and portable low-calorie snack—a banana—instead of salty, fatty, processed junk food.

Apart from the superb health benefits, bananas the perfect base for delicious and nutritious smoothies. Check out this recipe of low cholesterol frozen banana yogurt.