National Banana Day takes place on the third Wednesday in April — April 17 this year — and we are preparing to have an amazing day doing the best thing with bananas … eating them! Can you believe that bananas are one of the oldest cultivated fruits in the world? Bananas’ popularity spans across the world and there are thousands of banana varieties. Bananas are beneficial and versatile and can be used in puddings, muffins, pies, sandwiches, bread, cakes, and more.
- 327 BC – Arab conquerors bring this yellow fruit when Alexander the Great sends his armies to descend upon India.
- 1516 – Brought by a Portuguese monk missionary, Friar Thomas de Berlanga, bananas reach the New World.
- 1834 – Banana trees are planted and production begins on a larger scale, especially in the Caribbean.
- 1865 – Following the Civil War, Americans begin the consumption of bananas.
- 1870 – Lorenzo Dow Baker’s company imports bananas.
- 1900 – The 20th century marks an influx of bananas into many economies.
- 1907 – At his restaurant in Wilmington, Ohio, Ernest R. Hazard creates this new ice cream treat, the Banana Split which he hopes will attract college students to his shop.
- 1930 – The first Banana Bread recipe is popularized when baking soda comes on the market in the United States.
- A banana is technically not a fruit, it’s really a berry! This has to do with the fact that the seeds are located inside the flesh rather than on the outside.
- The banana plant is an herb used for treating a wide range of illnesses.
- Because they contain so much of the isotope Potassium-40, bananas are technically radioactive. The good news is that they can’t harm a person unless they are eating around 700 or more bananas per day for their entire lifetime.
- Bananas cannot be grown simply from a seed, which means they are technically “sterile”. Instead, in order to propagate bananas, a piece from another banana plant has to be split and then grown, sort of like cloning.
- The growth of popularity of bananas can be partially attributed to Jules Verne, the American author who wrote about the fruit in his book Around the World in 80 Days, which brought them to the forefront of many people’s minds.
- The ability to balance and choose varieties based on preference are hallmarks of a healthy diet. There is no specific number of bananas that is recommended for consumption daily but one to two per day is a good start.
- A medium banana contains about 105 calories.
- Interestingly, bananas are the oldest cultivated fruits in the world.
- There are about 1,000 varieties of bananas, but Cavendish is popular in the U.S.
- The cluster of bananas that grow on the banana plant is called hands (together they look like fingers on a hand).
- Banana playlist
- Day O [The Banana Boat Song] (1956) by Harry Belafonte
- Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas (1974) by Harry Chapin
- Yes, We Have No Bananas (1923) by Louis Prima
- Hollaback Girl (2004) Gwen Stefani
- Apples and Banana (1985) by Raffi
- Banana in Your Fruit Basket (1991) by Bo Carter
- Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears (1967) by The Monkees
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