RE: banana root flour

[Guest guest]

As far as I know, banana root flour is illegal. Most fleshy roots

are full of starchy polysaccharides which we avoid on SCD. I would assume

the same for banana root flour – especially since the banana plants’

stem and leaf petioles exude a milky sap when cut which is almost always a sign

of sticky latex production throughout the plant, roots included.

Banana flour is also made from the unripe fruit which is full of

starch. Unripe bananas are not allowed on SCD because of that starch. We must

eat fully ripe (with black spots) bananas in which the starch has been turned

into sugar.

<snip>

The rootstock which bears the leaves is, just before the

flowering period, soft and full of starch, and is sometimes used as food in

Abyssinia, and the young shoots of several species are cooked and eaten. http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/plafru51.html

Carol

CD 22 yrs SCD 5 yrs

From:

BTVC-SCD [mailto:BTVC-SCD ] On Behalf Of madietodd

Has anybody heard of this, and can we use it? I

saw it in an Ethiopian

store yesterday. It must be a starch, since it's used as a thickener,

but it's made entirely from the banana root.

[Guest guest]

At 11:23 AM 9/8/2010, you wrote:

Has anybody heard of this, and

can we use it? I saw it in an Ethiopian store yesterday. It must be a

starch, since it's used as a thickener, but it's made entirely from the

banana root.

I think you answered your own question.

SCD eliminates starches. Banana root is composed of starches. So, it's

not legal.

—

Marilyn

New

Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

Babette the Foundling Beagle

[Guest guest]

Marilyn - thanks. Sometimes a whole group of foods is not allowed

because of an assumption (eg that canned foods contain added sugars)

which allows for exceptions. So it seemed possible that starches are

forbidden because all of the common ones share a characteristic which is

not present in banana root. Since bananas are allowed, I wondered.....

Thanks for all the time you spend on this.

Madeleine

> >Has anybody heard of this, and can we use it? I

> >saw it in an Ethiopian store yesterday. It must

> >be a starch, since it's used as a thickener, but

> >it's made entirely from the banana root.

>

> I think you answered your own question.

>

> SCD eliminates starches. Banana root is composed

> of starches. So, it's not legal.

>

>

> — Marilyn

> New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

> Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

> Darn Good SCD Cook

> No Human Children

> Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

> Babette the Foundling Beagle

>

[Guest guest]

At 07:16 PM 9/8/2010, you wrote:

Since bananas are allowed, I

wondered.....

Madeline,

Yes, I know -- we're ALWAYS looking for interesting and legal foods to

add to our repertoire. I'm still trying to figure out what I can

use in lieu of filé powder in gumbo, because without the filé, it's just

seafood soup. It's just sassafras leaves, but since it's a thickener, I'm

assuming starch, mucilage, or gum, all of which is illegal.

However, keep in mind the only RIPE bananas are allowed. When the bananas

are green, they, too, have a fair amount of starch in them. That's why we

let them ripen, so the starch can be broken down to monosaccharides by

the ripening process.

—

Marilyn

New

Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

Babette the Foundling Beagle