8 (More) Reasons to Love Bananas
There’s a lot to love about bananas – they’re nutritious, delicious, and convenient to eat when you’re on the go. Believe it or not, there are even more benefits that this fruit has to offer. Check out this video for 8 (more) reasons to love bananas!
1. They’re considered a superfood because they’re full of many vitamins and minerals.
2. Bananas are comprised of slow-digesting carbohydrates that keep you full longer.
3. Eating a banana a day has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.
4. They’re in season year-round, making them accessible whenever you’ve got a craving.
5. Bananas contain pectin which acts as a prebiotic and helps with digestion.
6. With their hardy peel, bananas are quite shelf-stable and easy to take on-the-go.
7. There are endless ways to cook bananas into healthy and delicious treats.
8. The glucose in bananas help level out your blood sugar, preventing you from crashing mid-day.
8. The glucose in bananas help level out your blood sugar, preventing you from crashing mid-day.
Healthy Homes
Prior to COVID-19, good handwashing habits were quietly saving lives and preventing illness. It is estimated that proper handwashing with soap and water reduces global diarrhea related deaths by 50%.
In 2019, 2,576 participants, including children, youth leaders and adults, enrolled in the Children International Healthy Homes program in Guayaquil, Ecuador, supported by GROW. They learned about safe water storage and proper handwashing techniques that are extremely important in today’s world. 85% of these enrollees completed the program.
175 volunteers recruited and trained new families that had never participated in the program. These volunteers were responsible for replicating the techniques they had learned during training sessions for other families in their communities. Amid social distancing, this information is now being shared via videos created by staff and youth health leaders.
The result of the 2019 program is that 98% of the households now have soap and water in a handwashing station that is available to all family members. 96% of the families now use soap and water for handwashing, compared with only 8% prior to the introduction of the program. 91% of the participants learned the critical times for handwashing, including before eating, after using the toilet, after outside play and after handling garbage. 89% agreed that their water at home needed to be treated to be potable, a major problem in poverty stricken rural areas.
Healthy Homes with contributions from the GROW program is creating a healthier population, leading to a better quality of life for these rural communities of Ecuador.
