According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, millions of Americans suffer from high cholesterol. And that’s not a fact to be taken lightly. The higher your cholesterol levels rise — particularly your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or so-called “bad” cholesterol levels — the greater your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
How can you lower your cholesterol? First, talk to your doctor about the benefits of cholesterol-lowering medications. Then, consider adding cholesterol-lowering foods to your diet, including bananas.
When eaten regularly or even daily, bananas can help lower your LDL cholesterol levels. This is a welcome, if unexpected, effect in exchange for a natural sweet treat. And bananas aren’t exactly nutrient-poor, either. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that a medium-sized banana contains more than 3 grams of fiber, 5.9 milligrams of calcium, 422 milligrams of potassium, and plenty of vitamin C, folate, and vitamin A—all for just 105 calories. That means you can lower your LDL cholesterol levels without sacrificing a tasty snack or ingredient.
A banana a day could lower cholesterol levels
How effective are bananas as a natural way to lower cholesterol? Recent research suggests that bananas are more than just promising—they may be predictive when it comes to removing unwanted cholesterol from the body and helping you fight cholesterol buildup in the arteries. (You can thank bananas’ fiber content for their cleansing effects, says Healthline.)
In a 2023 study published in the Middle East Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 40 rickshaw drivers were asked to eat a banana in the morning, at lunchtime, and in the evening. After two weeks of the banana-rich diet, their cholesterol levels had dropped noticeably. At the start of the experiment, the drivers’ average total cholesterol level was 178.57. At the end of the study, the drivers’ average total cholesterol level had dropped to 124.35.
Another 2019 study in Nutrition & Food Science showed similarly positive results, although it examined the unexpected effects of banana flour on laboratory animals rather than banana fruit on human subjects. In the study, rats were fed unripe concentrations of banana flour. The rats that ate the lowest (10%) concentration of banana flour excreted more cholesterol than before. These findings led researchers to conclude that banana flour at low concentrations could help lower cholesterol. Again, the study focused on rats, not humans. Regardless, the study result provided a compelling argument for eating bananas.
Other positive health effects of bananas
In addition to being a cholesterol-lowering food, bananas can improve your health in other ways. For example, you may find it easier to lose weight if you eat bananas instead of other sweets. In a 2023 study from Health Biotechnology and Biopharma, overweight men who ate bananas daily were able to reduce both their BMI and body weight.
You may also find that bananas help you lower your blood pressure. That’s what happened to the elderly participants in a study published by Nusantara Science and Technology Proceedings in 2024. The participants who ate bananas and watermelon were able to lower their blood pressure without the use of medication.
That doesn’t mean that bananas alone can treat high cholesterol, obesity or high blood pressure, or that they’re always the healthiest choice. For example, you should monitor your banana consumption if you want to avoid overdosing on carbs or sugar. As Healthline reports, a medium-sized banana contains about 15 grams of sugar, so if you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, you may want to try another food that can help you regulate and control your total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels.
