Which way do you open a banana?

  • Thread starter Thread starter skip0110
  • 28 comments
  • 983 views

How to eat a banana?

  • I open 'em from the stem end!

    Votes: 27 84.4%
  • I open 'em from the black end!

    Votes: 5 15.6%

  • Total voters
    32
Messages
5,178
United States
Worcester, MA
Messages
skip0110
Well, I had always opened bananas from the end with the "stem" part, but my roommate opens the "backwards" (or at least I think so) from the black end. This is driving me crazy, so I want to find out which is the right way to open a banana?

I say, open from the stem end, becuase that gaves you some leverage.

He says, the stem gives you something to hold on to when you've almost finished.

I say he's crazy.

So vote, and give me a reason too :)

I open it from this end.
banana.jpg

He opens it from this end.
 
I hate bananas.

They're all curved. That's not natural. They're yellow - what the hell kind of fruit is yellow (mangoes don't count - they're odd too). And they grow on banana trees - but it's not a tree, it's actually a shrub.

Bananas are evil, and I suspect they may be trying to kill me.

Your roommate is Satan.
 
Looks like I am in the majority here. So :p you, roomie.
Famine
I hate bananas.

They're all curved. That's not natural. They're yellow - what the hell kind of fruit is yellow (mangoes don't count - they're odd too). And they grow on banana trees - but it's not a tree, it's actually a shrub.

Bananas are evil, and I suspect they may be trying to kill me.

Your roommate is Satan.
Bananas have potassium. That's good for you, Famine. They also have a funny name to spell.
 
People actually open them from the bottom? How the heck do you even grab the bottom to pull it out?
 
I open them from the stem, and go down the "inside" of the curve. I don't eat them much. If I do, it'll be in cereal, or a milkshake. Mmmmm, chocolate milkshake with a banana in it, :drool: !
 
wtf....heres how i eat my bananas...

open from the stem end...hold just above where the little pit at the bottom would be. when you get towards the end, squeeze whats left from out of the peel with your holding hand. the put should still be attached to the peel this way.

yeah. your friend is a hamster.
 
skip0110
Bananas have potassium. That's good for you, Famine.

Oh, sure. Try this:

Step 1: Get a bowl of water.
Step 2: Get a lump of Potassium - about 0.5cm across.
Step 3: Add the Potassium to the water.
Step 4: Retrieve eyebrows.
Step 5: Realise that the banana contains potassium and that the human body is 80% water.

And that's GOOD for you?

I'm on to you, evil banana-pusher and your evil banana-pushing ways. Out to destroy mankind, eh? Hah!
 
i hate it when the stem doesnt want to budge, it doesnt want to come off. but im too stubborn to open it at the black end, so i just bite them stem off and peel it from there
 
I open if from the stem. But I think I'll try it form the black end later. I tend to have a bannana a day.

Oh, sure. Try this:

Step 1: Get a bowl of water.
Step 2: Get a lump of Potassium - about 0.5cm across.
Step 3: Add the Potassium to the water.
Step 4: Retrieve eyebrows.
Step 5: Realise that the banana contains potassium and that the human body is 80% water.

And that's GOOD for you?

I'm on to you, evil banana-pusher and your evil banana-pushing ways. Out to destroy mankind, eh? Hah!
:lol:
My chemistry teacher for triple Science spent half a lesson showing us 'potassium wars'. Very Fun:lol:. Even better when one jumps onto his sleeve :scared: and another onto the floor after he forgot the safety shield. :dopey:
:lol:
Drives the lab techies mad.
 
Famine
Oh, sure. Try this:

Step 1: Get a bowl of water.
Step 2: Get a lump of Potassium - about 0.5cm across.
Step 3: Add the Potassium to the water.
Step 4: Retrieve eyebrows.
Step 5: Realise that the banana contains potassium and that the human body is 80% water.

And that's GOOD for you?

I'm on to you, evil banana-pusher and your evil banana-pushing ways. Out to destroy mankind, eh? Hah!

Obviously this post is ironic. A Biochemist would not makes such an elemental (pun intended) mistake without it being deliberate.

Anyway, here some info on Potassium and its effects on the body.

Zinc & Potassium: Both elements share left / right-sided cell receptors and are essential to human health. Potassium (K) and zinc (Zn) values represent - and at the same time affect many aspects of the genitourinary system, whereby normalizing their levels will normalize many common medical problems associated with the urinary and reproductive system.

Potassium is one of the electrolytes that with sodium is involved in the maintenance of normal water balance, osmotic equilibrium, acid-base balance, and it is crucial to cardiovascular and nerve functions.

It is the primary positive cation found within the cells, and along with calcium serves an important role in heart muscle contractions, skeletal muscle contraction, nerve impulse transmissions, and the release of energy from food. Potassium is involved as a cofactor in several enzyme systems which include protein synthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, and it affects uptake of amino acids into cells.

In addition to calcium and magnesium, potassium helps maintain normal blood pressure, and next to iron, potassium is one of the most commonly prescribed minerals since some amounts are frequently lost when diuretics (water pills) are prescribed. For the same reason, serum potassium is commonly measured as part of routine lab tests, although White Blood Cell, Red Blood Cell, or intracellular tests (Acu-Cell Analysis) are much better and more accurate indicators of a patient's potassium status.

Potassium supplements in health food stores are frequently sold as gluconate or citrate, and they are usually limited to 100mg (or 99mg) per tablet, while those dispensed in pharmacies are generally the inorganic types (i.e. potassium chloride), which may be measured in milliequivalents (mEq), whereby 1mEq equals about 74.5mg. When high-potency potassium chloride tablets need to be taken, they should only be supplemented in a slow-release form (Slow K), since the high amounts of chloride in the tablets could otherwise trigger gastrointestinal distress or bleeding ulcers.

Similarly to zinc, there is no storage of potassium in the body, and it is easily lost in cooking, canning, and processing of foods, some is lost through perspiration, and the adrenal hormone aldosterone also stimulates the elimination of potassium by the kidneys. The intake of potassium is recommended to be twice that of sodium, however since there are indications that optimal dietary potassium may reduce the risk of stroke, those individuals who are already in a high risk cardiovascular category may want to make sure to meet or exceed that ratio.

All fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts are a good source of potassium, however the potassium / sodium ratio of these foods varies considerably, which can be used to one's advantage - not only for those who require more potassium, but also for people who lack sodium and retain too much potassium.

Sources with the highest potassium / sodium (K/Na) ratio include beans, peas, potatoes, grains, nuts and fruits - where for instance navy beans or bananas contain over 1000x more potassium than sodium, and Brazil nuts or corn contain over 700x more potassium than sodium. In contrast, spinach, celery, or beets contain only about 2.5x to 4x more potassium than sodium, with the same ratio applying to whole milk, chicken and lamb, while eggs, beef and fish contain between 6x to 10x more potassium than sodium. For the same reason, choosing potassium chloride to season one's food instead of sodium chloride (common table salt) may also be a better choice if it benefits someone's particular chemistry.

Problems associated with low potassium levels (hypokalemia) include high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, palpitations, muscle weakness, hyperthyroid, elevated blood sugar, mental apathy, depression, fatigue, and general weakness, while severe potassium loss can cause death. Temporary loss of potassium can result from profuse sweating (heavy exercise, viral infections), or diarrhea and vomiting, which can also be a concern in infants. Long-term potassium loss may result from working in a hot, humid environment, hormonal and kidney disturbances, prescribed medications or over-the-counter (OTC) remedies, including nutritional supplements (licorice), or high intake of sugar.

Serum potassium does not usually go up with high dietary intake of potassium, so toxicity is not much of a problem in healthy individuals, as the kidneys readily excrete any excess of potassium. Only renal failure, heart or liver disease, certain drugs, metabolic acidosis, Addison's disease, major burns or muscle trauma, gastrointestinal bleeding, etc could lead to hyperkalemia (elevated blood potassium).

Supplementing too much potassium may affect the balance of other electrolytes such as magnesium, sodium, chloride, etc, or it may cause irregular heartbeat, vomiting or diarrhea.

In contrast to serum potassium, intracellular potassium levels are much more diet-dependent and increase on a linear scale according to dietary intake, specific medical conditions, and the levels of interactive minerals such as sodium, magnesium, lithium, calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, chromium, and others, so serum and cellular potassium levels only coincide when both are at a low to normal range.

As a result, if too much potassium is ingested or retained, intracellular measurements readily pick up excessive levels even in otherwise healthy individuals (where there is no change in serum potassium), and they can thus be used for diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventative purposes.

In addition to medical situations that can lead to hyperkalemia, cellular potassium covers aspects of bladder functions, as well as right-sided ovarian and testicular properties. Cellular zinc covers aspects of prostate / uterine functions, and left-sided ovarian and testicular properties. Elevated potassium is invariably found with acute or chronic cystitis (bladder infections) or right-sided ovarian cysts (but not dermoid or chocolate cysts), whereby right-sided ovarian and/or testicular cancer will always result in excessively high potassium levels, which can also serve as a high risk indicator to be suggestive of a pelvic scan. Lowering potassium with any of several antagonists will resolve most bladder infections or (right-sided) ovarian cysts without any other intervention. In contrast, left-sided ovarian and/or testicular ancer is always associated with excessively high zinc levels. (see also Acu-Cell Disorders "Cancer").

Low potassium - particularly in the elderly - frequently results in weak bladder muscles and subsequent ncontinence when coughing or laughing. Under those circumstances, bladder infection-like symptoms can also be experienced (including cloudy, or smelly urine), however they are somewhat different from a conventional bacterial cystitis that goes hand in hand with high potassium levels, in that symptoms readily improve by raising potassium to normal levels, provided there are no structural causes such as bladder prolapse. Interstitial cystitis frequently falls into this same low-potassium category.
Source: http://www.acu-cell.com/znk.html

One thing that is worth noting is that spiders often lay their eggs in the tail ends of bananas.
 
Famine
Oh, sure. Try this:

Step 1: Get a bowl of water.
Step 2: Get a lump of Potassium - about 0.5cm across.
Step 3: Add the Potassium to the water.
Step 4: Retrieve eyebrows.
Step 5: Realise that the banana contains potassium and that the human body is 80% water.

And that's GOOD for you?

I'm on to you, evil banana-pusher and your evil banana-pushing ways. Out to destroy mankind, eh? Hah!
You should try it with Cesium or even Francium! :eek: You'll then have a mess to clean up.

I would think you would smash the banana by opening it from the black end...
 
francium is cool. i saw a video on it. as soon as it even touched the water it went off like a bomb and shot into the roof of the studio lab thing.
 
Given that Francium is highly unstable and doesn't persist for more than 0.5s, and there's no more than 0.0000004g of it on the planet at any given time, no you didn't.

You probably saw Rubidium or Caesium.
 
Neon_SRT
i heard monkeys hold onto the stem and fling 'em open :lol:

i have yet to see that

Monkeys fling, but I don't think they're opening bananas.

GilesGuthrie
One thing that is worth noting is that spiders often lay their eggs in the tail ends of bananas.

If I had any inkling of changing the way I open a banana that just closed the door on that one. No spidey-nanas for this boy.

Stem end. Or pre-opened in split-form.
 
Famine
Given that Francium is highly unstable and doesn't persist for more than 0.5s, and there's no more than 0.0000004g of it on the planet at any given time, no you didn't.

You probably saw Rubidium or Caesium.
Oh yeah, Famine? Well I saw a video where this scientist dude put a bowl of water on the table, and added about a teaspoon of this one substance that he called

stupidoforumaboutonothingium

and the whole thing just kept sitting there, refreshing itself every day with yet another post. You see, this particular chemical has the ability to "persist" for days, and sometimes even weeks, with no regard for human sensibility.

Next I'm going to open a thread about the exciting activity of watching water boil.
 
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