Sorted by the chapter they appear in.
1. (No banana fact)
2. Humans share around 50% of their DNA with bananas.
3. Research indicates that mosquitos are attracted to people that have recently eaten bananas.
4. The hormone that ripens bananas (and eventually turns them brown and mushy) is called ethylene. So when you eat a bruised part of a banana, you're eating extra hormonal banana.
5. Bananas are high in Vitamin B6 which helps the brain produce serotonin, y'know, that thing my brain never produces. So yeah, use that information as you will.
6. Bananas are botanically considered berries. So a banana-berry smoothie is actually just a berry smoothie.
7. "Musa sapientum" is the Latin name for banana which means "fruit of the wise men".
8. the peel of a banana is actually used frequently in home medicines and health remedies, it's often used for treating warts, itching and inflammation.
9. Bananas used in cooking are sometimes referred to as plantains to differentiate them from dessert bananas.
10. Some people say bananas are high in potassium (which is true), so eating too many would cause death. But in actuality, you'd have to eat 400 bananas to die from it. Do what you will with that information.
11. The world record for the most bananas peeled and eaten in one minute was eight bananas and was achieved by Patrick Bertoletti on January 14th, 2012.
12. Bananas originated in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific around 8000 to 5000 BC
13. Uganda is called "The Banana Republic of Africa" because they consume around 272.155 kg/600 pounds of bananas per capita every year.
14. Bananas in supermarkets are grown so their seeds are diminished, so they're just left with those darker spots where the seeds should be.
15. Y'all remember what I said about ethylene being the hormone that ripens fruit, specifically bananas? Well, since it's in other fruits too, if you put a green banana in a paper bag with another fruit (peach, melon, tomato, apple, pear, whatever really) it will ripen faster because they give off ethylene, so they can ripen together.
16. Australians eat 5,000,000 bananas every day, and if you put each of those bananas in a line end-to-end, it'd stretch from Melbourne to Sydney.
17. The reason bananas are bent is due to a phenomenon called "negative geotropism". Instead of growing downwards (toward the ground), bananas turn upwards towards the sun. The fruit grows against gravity, basically.
18. This fact was given to me by @konyo_yoken so thank you very much. In the song Banana Man by Tally Hally, the word banana is said 20 times. (Note: This person's @ has since changed)
19. Similar to most fruits, since they have low density, bananas float in water, regardless of whether they are ripe, over-ripe, peeled or unpeeled
20. Bananas are radioactive. They contain Potassium-40, which is a radioactive isotope of potassium (which we've already said they're high in, I think in the one about banana overdose?)
21. About 800,000 perfectly good bananas are thrown out each year, before they even reach supermarkets. This is because if the banana does not meet the perfect conditions relating to shape, size, etc, the banana will likely not sell, and often these "not good enough bananas" don't go to food charities or anything like that.
22. Some say around have of the people who have an allergy to bananas are also allergic to latex. This is apparently due to the kinds of proteins in bananas.
23. Have you ever noticed that banana flavouring doesn't really taste like bananas? That's because the flavouring was designed after Gros Michel Banana. During the 1950's a disease call Fusarium Wilt spread across banana crop, rendering the species now virtually extinct. The bananas we eat now have a slightly different taste, so now there's a disconnect between banana flavouring and actual bananas.
24. Apparently in some stores in South Korea, bananas are packaged so that they range in ripeness. Basically one will be ripe soon after the purchase, then the next will follow and so on. Bananas go bad pretty quickly, so this is done is ensure less bananas get wasted.
Writing this was an experience, collecting all of these, tagging this story, filling in the story details. Hope it was worth it.
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All The Banana Facts So Far
Non-FictionThis took way too long, I hope you're all grateful- If you don't know what this is, I write banana facts in the A/Ns in each chapter of my story Hopelessly Obsessed (KomaHina). It's kinda became on meme on that story. Some people suggested I compile...
