Make your new favorite - healthy sugar free banana bread (aka diabetic banana bread) - from all-natural ingredients. Try it plain for a healthy snack, or add some mix-ins like walnuts, pecans, or unsweetened chocolate chips if you want something extra special.

Sliced no sugar added banana bread on a wooden board: Close up

Do you love banana bread? I do too! My best banana bread is delicious, but I can't decide which flavor I would love to add. Chocolate chips, nuts, dry fruit, mayonnaise, cream cheese, peanut butter... Do you have your favorite?

Here is a healthy option - diabetic banana bread. It is packed with all flavors of traditional banana bread but guilt-free.

Jump to:

Why you should try this recipe
Ingredients
Recipe variations
How to make sugar-free banana bread
Expert Tips
Storing and freezing
Love low-carb desserts? Try these next!
Recipe card
Comments

With no sugar added, it is perfect for those with diabetes. With no artificial ingredients or preservatives, it is just good old-fashioned banana bread that will make you feel amazing.

Did I mention that one slice has just 215 calories and 3.4 grams of sugar? There are endless possibilities to explore with this simple recipe. Plus, it only takes about 20 minutes of hands-on time.

Sliced and halved no sugar banana bread on a wooden cutting board

Why you should try this recipe

Here is a diabetic banana bread recipe without sugar and natural and artificial sweeteners. The right amount of sweetness is due to bananas.

It is one of the best and easiest quick breads that make a perfect diabetic-friendly snack or healthy breakfast.

This no sugar banana bread (still a sweet bread on definition) is a great solution when you have an abundance of overripe bananas, a good source of potassium.

Ingredients

For ingredients and detailed instructions, refer to the recipe card below.

Oil: the recipe calls for grapeseed oil, the most neutral and flavorless oil used in baking. You can replace it with melted coconut oil or avocado oil.

Try to avoid olive oil: it will overpower your banana bread. Unless you love the taste of olive oil in baked goods.

Eggs: use large eggs at room temperature.

Flour: The recipe calls for all-purpose flour to make this quick banana bread, but you can replace it with whole wheat pastry flour if desired.

Baking powder: use fresh aluminum-free baking powder.

Baking soda is another leavening ingredient used to make the recipe.

Bananas: extra ripe bananas with brown spots or streaks on the peel are the best bananas you need to make traditional banana bread.

But it is known that unripe bananas have less sugar content and more resistant starch than ripe bananas. That is why raw bananas are diabetic-friendly.

On the opposite side, ripe and overripe bananas have a higher glycemic index and cause blood sugar to rise faster than unripe bananas. It becomes clear that the bananas' effect on blood sugar levels depends on their ripeness.

So it is wise enough to use yellow bananas instead of the overripe ones to make low sugar banana bread if you have diabetes or blood sugar intolerance.

Vanilla extract brings a beautiful vanilla flavor to the recipe.

Lemon juice: use freshly squeezed lemon juice; use a citrus squeezer to get the juice.

Recipe variations

Omit the streusel topping. This recipe is a healthy and sugarless twist on streusel-topped banana bread. You may want to omit the topping to decrease the calorie intake of the slice to 182 calories.

Still, the crumb topping is made without refined sugar, bringing texture to this lovely banana loaf.

Make whole wheat banana bread. Try to replace all-purpose flour with white whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat pastry flour to make your banana bread healthier.

Opt for sugar-free, gluten-free banana bread. Use gluten-free flour or gluten-free blend instead of all-purpose flour. To make the bread egg-free, replace eggs with flax eggs.

Choose the oil. Oil brings moisture to cakes, but is it worth swapping oil, one type, with another? According to a nutrition calculator, switching between grapeseed oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil doesn't change the number of calories in this banana bread.

The only difference is in saturated fat content, with the highest in avocado oil and the lowest in grapeseed oil. So, you can use grapeseed oil with natural flavor, coconut oil with its sweet and coconut taste, or avocado oil with its light nutty and avocado aroma.

Add mix-ins. Add chopped walnuts, pecans, or unsweetened chocolate chips to bring an amazing flavor and taste to your banana bread. You can add one of them, no more than 2 oz. (60 g), to avoid the banana bread batter overflowing during baking.

Enhance the flavor. Add a few drops of banana extract to increase the banana flavor.

Thickly sliced banana bread topped with streusel: Close up

How to make sugar-free banana bread

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F/150 degrees C.

Sift all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl with a flour sifter and set aside. Butter and flour an 8 x 4.5-inch/20 x 11 cm nonstick bread pan.

Make cake batter

Pour grapeseed oil into a large mixing bowl. Add eggs and beat well with a hand whisk (photo 1).

In a separate medium bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Add the banana mixture to the wet ingredients and mix.

Stir in the dry ingredients and delicately mix with a rubber spatula. Add vanilla extract and lemon juice until combined (photo 2).

Photo 1: Egg and oil mixture in a bowl Photo 2: Ready batter in a bowl — **PHOTO 1 PHOTO 2**

Pour the batter into the prepared tin (photo 3) and refrigerate while making the streusel.

Make streusel topping

In a separate bowl, place all-purpose flour, almond flour, oats, and chilled butter cut into small cubes. Make the crumbly dough with your hands. It has to look like wet sand (photo 4).

Photo 3: Bread batter in a tin Photo 4: Crumble topping in a bowl — **PHOTO 3 PHOTO 4**

Take the bread batter from the fridge and sprinkle the streusel on top (photo 5). Bake banana bread in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes (photo 6).

Photo 5: Streusel on top of the batter Photo 6: Baked banana bread in a pan — **PHOTO 5 PHOTO 6**

The bread is ready when a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes and remove it.

Take a butter knife and run around each side to loosen up any stuck-on crumbs before carefully transferring the baked bread onto a wire rack.

Expert Tips

Make mashed bananas by using a potato masher if preferred.
Let the bread cool down completely before slicing it.
If you add any additional mix-ins (2 oz. or 60 g chopped walnuts, pecans, or unsweetened chocolate chips), gently fold them in at the last moment.

Storing and freezing

Store sugar-free banana bread at room temperature for a couple of days, or keep it in the fridge for 5 to 7 days.

Can you freeze diabetic banana bread? You can freeze it for up to 3 months. Slice the bread before freezing, wrap individual slices, and freeze.

To thaw the slices, bring them to the counter, let them rest at room temperature, or lightly toast them.

Love low-carb desserts? Try these next!

If you love this sugar-free banana bread recipe, try other low-sugar desserts on the website.

HUNGRY FOR MORE? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for my latest updates.

Recipe card

No Sugar Added Banana Bread

Print Recipe

Save Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

4.9 from 9 reviews

Make your new favorite - healthy sugar-free banana bread - from all-natural ingredients. Try it plain for a healthy snack, or add some mix-ins like walnuts, pecans, or unsweetened chocolate chips if you want something extra special.

Author: Irina Totterman
Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Yield: 12 1x
Category: No-sugar-added Desserts
Method: Baking
Cuisine: American

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F/150 degrees C. Sift all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl with a flour sifter and set aside. Butter and flour an 8 x 4.5-inch/20 x 11 cm nonstick bread pan.
To make the batter, pour grapeseed oil into a large mixing bowl. Add eggs and beat well with a hand whisk. In a separate medium bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Add the banana mixture to the wet ingredients and mix. Stir in the dry ingredients and delicately mix with a rubber spatula. Add vanilla extract and lemon juice and mix until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and refrigerate while making the streusel.
To make the streusel topping in a separate bowl, place all-purpose flour, almond flour, oats, and chilled butter cut into small cubes. Make the crumbly dough with your hands. It has to look like wet sand. Take the bread batter from the fridge and sprinkle the streusel on top. Bake banana bread in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
The bread is ready when a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes and remove it. Take a butter knife and run around each side to loosen up any stuck-on crumbs before carefully transferring the bread onto a wire rack.

Notes

Make mashed bananas by using a potato masher if preferred.
Let the bread cool down completely before slicing it.
If you are adding any additional mix-ins (2 oz. or 60 g chopped walnuts, pecans, or unsweetened chocolate chips), gently fold them in at the last moment.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 slice
Calories: 215
Sugar: 3.4 g
Sodium: 126 mg
Fat: 11.7 g
Saturated Fat: 2.1 g
Carbohydrates: 24.2 g
Fiber: 1.7 g
Protein: 4 g
Cholesterol: 31 mg

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

Sugar Free Banana Bread (Diabetic-Friendly)

Why you should try this recipe

Ingredients

Recipe variations