Did you Know........?

1. The word banana comes from the Arabic word "banan", meaning finger.
2. The banana plant is not a tree, it is the world's largest herb.
3. The "trunk" of a banana plant is not made of wood, it is made of tightly overlapping leaves, similar to a leek.
4. The leaves of a banana plant can grow upto 4 metres in length & 70 centimetres in width.
5. Each plant produces just a single stem, with between 100 & 200 bananas on it.
6. In Britain people eat over 5 billion bananas each year!
7. Banana plants require twice as much rainfall each year as we have here in Europe.
8. Bananas are now one of Europe's favourite fruit.
9. The English Rugby Team eat bananas every day.
10. Manchester United Football Team eat banana and jam sandwiches before a game.
11. Many world-class athletes such as professional tennis players, footballers and cyclists include bananas in their training diets to boost their energy and stamina. Bananas are also high in potassium - useful in avoiding muscle cramp.
12. The now famous Fyffes Blue Label was introduced in 1929 - the first fruit to be labelled in this way.
13. If you laid all the bananas grown in a year end-to-end they would encircle the globe 200 times.
14. The people of Uganda in Africa each eat 5 kilograms of bananas every day.
15. As well as being eaten as a food, bananas are used to make medicine and health products, and the stalk and leaves to make cloth and even houses!
16. A shipwrecked sailor was rescued in the best of health after surviving on bananas for a whole month.
17. Bananas are known as the energy fruit because they provide a quick-but-sustained energy boost in a natural, nutritious and easily digestible form.
18. A medium sized banana contains only 90 calories - the same ounce-for-ounce as cottage cheese.