Banana facts

Why
bananas
are good
for you

Banana facts
(31 facts)
3 medium size bananas weigh approximately 1 pound.aas
A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to
20 bananas, which are known as fingers.
As bananas ripen, the starch in the fruit turns to sugar.
Therefore, the riper the banana the sweeter it will taste.
Banana plants are the largest plants on earth without a
woody stem. They are actually giant herbs of the same
family as lilies, orchids and palms.
Bananas are a good source of vitamin C, potassium and
dietary fiber.
Bananas are America's #1 fruit.
Bananas are available all year-round. They are harvested
every day of the year.
Bananas are great for athletic and fitness activity because
they replenish necessary carbohydrates, glycogen and body
fluids burned during exercise.
Bananas are not grown commercially in the continental
United States. They are grown in Latin and South America
from countries like Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia,

Honduras, Panama and Guatemala.

Bananas are one of the few fruits that ripen best off the
plant. If left on the plant, the fruit splits open and the pulp
has a "cottony" texture and flavor. Even in tropical growing
areas, bananas for domestic consumption are cut green and
stored in moist shady places to ripen slowly.
Bananas are perennial crops that are grown and harvested
year-round. The banana plant does not grow from a seed but
rather from a rhizome or bulb. Each fleshy bulb will sprout
new shoots year after year.
Bananas have no fat, cholesterol or sodium.
Bananas were officially introduced to the American public
at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Each
banana was wrapped in foil and sold for 10 cents. Before
that time, bananas came to America on the decks of sailing
ships as sailors took a few stems home after traveling in the
Caribbean.
Each banana plant bears only one stem of fruit. To produce
a new stem, only two shoots - known as the daughter and
the granddaughter - are allowed to grow and be cultivated
from the main plant.
In 1516, Friar Tomas sailed to the Caribbean bringing
banana roots with him; and planted bananas in the rich,
fertile soil of the tropics, thus beginning the banana's future
in American life.
In 2001, there were more than 300 banana-related accidents
in Britain, most involving people slipping on skins.
In Eastern Africa you can buy banana beer. This beer is
brewed from bananas.
In some lands bananas were considered the principal food.
Early travelers and settlers would carry the roots of the plant
as they migrated to the Middle East and Africa. From there
Portuguese traders carried banana roots to the Canary
Islands, where bananas are still grown commercially.
In South East Asia, the banana leaf is used to wrap food (in

the place of plastic bags and cling wraps), providing a

unique flavor and aroma to nasi lemak and the Indian
banana leaf rice.
India is by far the largest world producer of bananas,
growing 16.5 million tonnes in 2002, followed by Brazil
which produced 6.5 million tonnes of bananas in 2002. To
the Indians, the flower from the banana tree is sacred.
During religious and important ceremonies such as
weddings, banana flowers are tied around the head, for they
believe this will bring good luck.
Over 96% of American households purchase bananas at
least once each month.
Some horticulturists suspect that the banana was the earth's
first fruit. Banana plants have been in cultivation since the
time of recorded history. One of the first records of bananas
dates back to Alexander the Great's conquest of India where
he first discovered bananas in 327 B.C.
The average American consumes over 28 pounds of bananas
each year.
The banana market is controlled by five large corporations Chiquita (25%), Dole (25%), Del Monte (15%), Noboa
(11%) and Fyffes (8%). Most bananas are grown on huge
plantations, controlled by these corporate giants. The
remaining banana production for export comes from small
banana producers.
The banana plant reaches its full height of 15 to 30 feet in
about one year. The trunk of a banana plant is made of
sheaths of overlapping leaves, tightly wrapped around each
other like celery stalks.
The origin of bananas is traced back to the Malaysian
jungles of Southeast Asia, where so many varieties and
names for the banana are in that area.
The phrase 'going bananas' was first recorded in the Oxford
English Dictionary, and is linked to the fruit's 'comic'
connections with monkeys.

The word 'banan' is Arabic for finger.

There are more than 500 varieties of banana in the world:
The most common kinds are Dwarf Cavendish, Valery, and
Williams Hybrid bananas. Other types of bananas include
Apple and a small red banana called the Red Jamaica. A
large type of banana called the plantain is hard and starchy
and is almost eaten as a cooked vegetable. The Cavendish is
the most common variety of bananas now imported to the
United States. The Cavendish is a shorter, stubbier plant
than earlier varieties. It was developed to resist plant
diseases, insects and windstorms better than its
predecessors. The Cavendish fruit is of medium size, has a
creamier, smooth texture, and a thinner peel than earlier
varieties.
There is no such thing as a banana tree. Bananas grow on
plants.
Today's commercial bananas are scientifically classified into
the genus Musa of the Musaceae family.
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