Let’s Go Bananas

Had enough of the latest political insanity? 

Yes, you have. 

Here’s a refreshing break from all that to a topic to which we can all relate — the beauty and simplicity of the ubiquitous banana. The U.S. imports over 10 billion tons of bananas annually. We eat most of them in some form with the exception of those turning brown and left to rot on the kitchen counter —–too brown to eat. 

Potassium and pectin— elongated and edible WoW! After only one search I’m getting alliterative and nearly rhythmic descriptions of my favorite food. I’ve been eating one banana daily for at least 2 years. Along with a multi-potassium, pectin, vitamin drink, they jump start my system just before my daily swim 6 days a week.  I’m convinced that this unassuming fruit is largely responsible for my overall, right now anyway, good health.

Hence, this tribute —————-  

How many other unaltered foods are this economical, I asked myself this morning. After a brief search, I found an excellent article which is way too long, saying, in a nutshell, bananas are, for the big grocery store chains, what’s called a “loss leader”. The marketing gurus believe that if you see them when you first walk in the store, which you will, you will gauge that grocer’s overall pricing against the price/pound of bananas. In addition to being a powerful source of nutrition, bananas, it turns out, are a powerful influence in the grocery business.

We have loved our bananas for over 100 years. An attempt to tax bananas in the early 1900’s was met with “storm the castle pleasure, masses,” resistance and ultimately abandoned. A cheap, simple pleasure for the masses??? Leave it alone!

Books have been written about the history of bananas, there are famous paintings of bananas.

Bananas won’t stain your hands, they won’t squirt sour juice in your eye, and once you “unzip” the peeling, it’s all good!     

I’m reluctant to eat the skin of an apple. Do you know where that Apple has been?

Perfect packaging —– designed and brought to you by Mother Nature.

A few negative issues with bananas —- 

There are no Instructions for how to open it. How did the first monkey to eat one figure that out?

No ingredients label/ nutrition information.

If I want organic, how can I be sure they’re organic??? The Purple tape? I’m still suspicious.

There is a dark side to America’s love of bananas —– some people will violate the banana’s nutritional benefits with a banana sandwich on white bread with Duke mayo. Others will add processed sugar and put a blow torch to them. Please, let’s outlaw bananas Foster.

If you really want to immerse yourself in banana awareness, just google “pictures of bananas” and spend the rest of this week soaking up useless, amusing knowledge without ever seeing the words electoral, -rump or -iden.