A Lesson in Bananas

sunshel:

Bright yellow bananas are sold everywhere. In fact, it’s rare that you’ll find a truly ripe, spotted banana for sale at a convenience store or gas station. That’s probably why many of us grew up with the backwards idea that Yellow=Good and Brown=Bad.

Eating unripe fruit (those bright yellow/green bananas!) can cause a number of digestive problems, like constipation and stomach aches, and can also be harmful to your enamel.

The Difference Between Unripe & Ripe Bananas

  • Unripe (yellow/green): 80% starch, 7% sugar, hard to digest, bad taste
  • Ripe (brown spots): 5% starch, 90% sugar, easy to digest, tastes sweet

How Do I Know if It’s Ripe?

It should have brown spots all over it, and no visible green at the top or bottom. The banana on the far right is at it’s sweetest, most digestible form, and is perfect for eating.


For more information on fruit ripening and how to speed up the process, check out this great website.

When you drink wine, you might be drinking some snakes

At a wine seminar back in NC, I met a vineyard owner who is quite proud that his vineyard still hand-picks it’s grapes. Aside from being able to only the pick the best and ripe grapes, he cited one of the hidden benefits to this process is that most larger companies that use machines for harvest actually end up with a lot of snakes in the mix. As a wine lover (and extreme snake-fearer) this left me jaw-dropped for months.