Bananas

It is wonderful to walk down Long Beach streets and see so many banana plants, ranging in height and numbers of flowers and fruit. If you happen to have a banana plant that does not yield fruit, the banana leaves can be used as wrappers to steam rice, vegetables, poultry and fish.

Banana plants are fascinating! Edible bananas vary in color, size, taste and sweetness and may be used for sweet and savory and cooked or uncooked menu items. All types of bananas are a source of potassium, fiber, Vitamin C, some B vitamins and antioxidants. We can refer to bananas as “fruit,” but they are actually berries, related more botanically to blueberries than to apples, producing single fruit.

Bananas are carbohydrate chameleons. Unripened bananas or green bananas can be up to seventy per cent starch. This means that the carbohydrate portion is largely indigestible (this is a good thing), providing limited calories and sugar.

A ripe banana can be up to 12% sugar, meaning the starch has broken down into sugars, such as fructose and glucose, which are easily digestible. In other words, a slightly unripe banana would contain fewer accessible carb calories than a ripe banana.

There are two types of fiber found in bananas, resistant starch and pectin. Both of these fiber types function as prebiotics, helping to grow beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. There is an urban myth that bananas can cause constipation. Bananas are high in pectin, the type of fiber that can actually help to prevent constipation.

Beyond the edible fruit, banana plants have several useful components. For example, banana plant fiber has been used, in Asia, to weave a light-but-strong cloth, making it a precursor to the currently popular bamboo fabric. The inside portion of banana peels have been used to relieve insect bites, and the whole banana peel, fresh or dried, can be boiled to make a relaxing tea.

Banana peels can be boiled in a sugar syrup, to create a crispy candy. Although quite niche, pickled banana peel is a sweet and sour condiment.

Although relegated to history, the International Banana Museum was a museum located in Mecca, California, dedicated to all things banana. The one-room museum contained more than 20,000 banana-related items, including banana jewelry and banana lamps.

In 1999, the museum set a Guinness World Record as the largest museum devoted to a single fruit.

We all probably have great ideas for using bananas, from simply eating them as a portable snack, to slicing them over sweet and savory dishes, to adding them to cold beverages or to baking batters.

Here are some fun banana factors to complete your banana knowledge:

• The scientific name for banana is musa sapientum, which means “fruit of the wise men.”
• Rubbing the inside of a banana peel on a mosquito bite is said to keep it from itching.
• Bananas may help to restore dry, damaged hair. Mash a banana and add a tablespoon of heavy cream and a tablespoon of honey to the mixture. Apply it to dry hair, cover hair with a shower cap, and then wrap your head in a warm towel. Leave it on for up to an hour and then rinse thoroughly with warm water before shampooing.
• Bananas and banana peels make great fertilizer (you can compost them, bury them whole, or cut them in small pieces and mix them with garden soil) because of their phosphoros and potassium content.
• Rubbing the inside of a banana peel on houseplant leaves makes the leaves shiny.
• Bananas don’t actually grow on trees; they grow on plants that are officially classified as the world’s largest herb.
• About 75 percent of the weight of a banana is water.
• Bananas first became popular in the United States at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Celebration, where they were sold wrapped in foil for 10 cents each.
• David Evans Strickler invented the banana split in 1904 at the Tassel Pharmacy soda fountain in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
• Wrapping banana stems tightly in plastic wrap will make them last three to five days longer.

Banana peels are actually edible if cooked.

If you peel a banana from the bottom up (holding on to the stem like a handle), you will avoid the stringy bits that cling to the fruit inside.

Please contact Nancy at foodprof2@gmail.com for future column ideas, or for nutrition or health questions.