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Bananas

Also indexed as: Baby Bananas, Red Bananas

Eaten out of hand, in fruit salads, or puréed in smoothies, bananas are simply delicious.

Among the banana plant’s most remarkable features is that, despite its average height of 30 feet (about 9 meters), it is actually a perennial herb related to the orchid and lily. It bears huge, podlike purple flowers, and its individual long, slender fruits, or fingers, are technically berries. The banana is believed to have originated in Malaysia. India’s Islamic culture names it as the famed fruit of knowledge and in that version of the story it is said Adam and Eve covered themselves with banana, not fig, leaves. Today, the world’s greatest producers of bananas include Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Brazil, Ecuador, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Varieties

Although about 30 different varieties of bananas exist, North Americans are mostly familiar with three types: the blunt-ended Cavendish; the Gros Michel, known by its tapered ends; and the starchy plantains, which is used only for cooking as a vegetable. There are also dwarf or “baby” bananas and red bananas, among the other varieties.

Buying and storing tips

Avoid bruised fruit and bananas showing splits in the skin. Choose firm, green to slightly yellow bunches, and store them at room temperature. It is claimed that bananas taste sweeter ripened off the plant. Eat or prepare bananas when they ripen to a uniform yellow with tiny brown flecks. The skin of bananas turns black when they are refrigerated, though it does not affect the quality of the fruit inside. Very ripe fruit can be peeled, frozen in freezer bags, and used for baking.

Availability

Bananas are available year-round.

Preparation, uses, and tips

Bananas are very sweet and can be mashed and added to baked goods as a natural sweetener. Frozen bananas can be puréed to make smoothies or a healthful substitute for ice cream. They can be eaten out of hand or sliced and added to fruit salads. For an impressive dessert, flambé sliced bananas and serve over ice cream, or make a nutritious sandwich by combining sliced bananas and peanut butter on whole-grain bread.

In many Latin American and Asian countries, banana leaves are used in place of plates. The leaves work well as wrappers in place of aluminum foil for holding and steaming foods. In Malaysia, the banana flower is cooked and eaten; in Africa, a beer is brewed from bananas.

Because bananas emit a gas that promotes ripening, placing an unripe banana in a paper bag or breathable container with other produce will encourage the produce to ripen more quickly.

Nutritional Highlights

Banana, 1 medium
Calories: 108
Protein: 1.2g
Carbohydrate: 27.6g
Total Fat: 0.56g
Fiber: 2.83g
*Good source of: Potassium (467mg)

*Foods that are an “excellent source” of a particular nutrient provide 20% or more of the Recommended Daily Value. Foods that are a “good source” of a particular nutrient provide between 10 and 20% of the Recommended Daily Value.

Health benefits and concerns

Health benefits and concerns for fruit
Many health benefits and concerns associated with this food are applicable to other fruit. Read about health benefits and concerns for fruit for a full description.