Check out this answer from Consensus:
The current research indicates that while bananas can improve muscle endurance, their effect on preventing muscle cramps, particularly those associated with exercise, is not well-supported. The slight increase in potassium levels from banana consumption is unlikely to be sufficient to prevent or treat acute muscle cramps.
The potential of bananas to prevent muscle cramps, particularly those associated with exercise, has been a topic of interest due to their high potassium content and carbohydrate levels. This synthesis examines the evidence from multiple studies to determine whether consuming bananas can effectively prevent muscle cramps.
Key Insights
- Potassium and Muscle Cramps:
- The effect of banana ingestion on exercise-associated muscle cramps (EAMCs) is uncertain. While bananas do increase plasma potassium levels slightly, these changes are marginal and within normal clinical values, suggesting they are unlikely to relieve acute EAMCs by increasing extracellular potassium or glucose levels1.
- Muscle Endurance:
- Consuming bananas before exercise can significantly improve lower limb muscle endurance. This suggests that bananas may be beneficial for enhancing physical performance and endurance, although this does not directly address the prevention of muscle cramps2.
Do bananas help with cramp?
Ludovico Abenavoli has answered Likely
An expert from University Magna Graecia in Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Nutrition
it’s true: bananas help with cramps.
Do bananas help with cramp?
Cornelie Nienaber-Rousseau has answered Uncertain
An expert from North-West University in Nutrition
Bananas are rich in carbohydrates (22.84 g/100 g). They are also good sources of minerals. Eating a whole fresh banana will provide the body with potassium (approximately 467 mg), magnesium (34 mg) and calcium (37 mg). These three minerals, also known as electrolytes, are among the four (sodium is the other) involved in muscle contraction (Whitney and Rolfes). Bananas are considered a fast food among athletes for muscle cramp relief (Hallissey, 2014) and post-exercise recovery (Nieman et al., 2018). However, there are not a lot of scientific evidence to support consuming bananas to prevent muscle cramping. In 2014 Hallissey reported that even though bananas increased circulating plasma potassium concentrations, the threshold frequency of an electrically induced muscle cramp were not affected one hour of after ingestion. More research is needed with different study populations to determine whether exercise-associated muscle cramps could be prevented or treated by eating bananas. Gentle stretching until cramping abates should be considered (Miller et al., 2021). Eating bananas are beneficial in general and recommended with other fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy balanced diet (Ranjha et al., 2022).