Bananas - friend or faux?

This food still bugs me. I see runners shoving these down their throat like Brittany Murphy's husband did to In & Out's burgers, yet I'm still not sold on the banana. Bananas are almost fat free and a great source of phosphorous, calcium, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, niacin, vitamin E and vitamin B6... according to the informatin I'm reading. Yet they cost around 100-150 calories and can pack in around 25-35 carbs per banana. I TOTALLY understand the difference between bad carbs and good ones. "Good carbs" are the ones our body can use for energy purposes. "Bad carbs" turn to sugar faster and send bloodsugar surges that lead to weight gain and other crappy health issues. So getting back to the subject... bananas have a whole heck of a lot of carbs to such a small amount of food, but supposedly this is the good kind of carb and should help our body to have more good energy.

However, I was told not to eat bananas without some kind of protien to balance out the high sugars. Yet on the glycemic index chart, bananas are only at an 18 (0-250). They do contain about 15-20g of sugar though, and the majority of the calories come from these sugars.

So where does this leave the banana?
Are they a good fat free energy source packed with nutrients?
Or are they a high calorie, high carb, sugary snack?

I still have absolutely no clue. I just think it works for some, but not others. In the aspect of using this as a natural energy source for running, biking, or any athletic reason really, it's a much better grab than a cup of coffee, a white flour bagel, soda, or a sugary energy drink. As long as you go out and use this energy source, it can be a great food. If you're going to be sitting around eating bananas, probably not so great. Bananas happen to be my daughter's all time fav food, but I figure she's little and needs that kind of energy. Her little body probably burns that off just running from one end of the house to the other!

And yes... apparently I just wrote a whole blog post on one piece of fruit.