RE: Food: Viability of bananas (WAS: questions for Elchanan) [s]

[Guest guest]

Chase (bleucadenza ) [bleucadenza] Sunday, April 24,

2005 12:44 PM [Raw Food] Re: questions for Elchanan

I hope you don't mind me responding to this even though I'm not Elchanan

Bananas

have two things going against them, 1) they are genetically weak

(cross-breeds between

diploid and tetraploid strains, meaning they are incapable of reproduction

on their own,

and thus unable to adapt and modify in response to their environment) and 2)

they are

members of the ragweed family which cause allergic reactions in many people.

They could

certainly cause mucus in someone who is sensitive. I ate many nanners my

first 2 years

raw and then became increasingly drawn away from them, especially the big

cavendish

types. I now only eat baby bananas once in awhile.

Hope that helps

_____

Hi Chase,

 

Thanks for jumping in and sharing the foregoing information. What you write

is correct to my knowledge, most of the bananas available to consumers have

indeed been hybridized intentionally so that their seeds are nonfunctional,

and this does imply that some (not all) avenues of biological adaptive

capacity have been cut off. But this hybridization is a recent event, and I

am also aware of no natural threat to the banana family that presently seems

to require any such adaptation. So while you are correct, I am not sure how

to use or apply what you have shared. Perhaps you would be kind enough to

elaborate further???

 

It is also correct that bananas are related, albeit somewhat distantly, to

the ragweed family. But this means nothing at all with respect to

" allergies. " The term " allergies " is a medical invention, an attempt to

classify a variety of similar physiological responses arising from overall

nutritional deficiency and corresponding loss of vital capacity among the

general population.

 

As I wrote a day or two ago, no substance " causes " mucus production in the

body. Rather, the body creates mucus in response to certain forms and

quantities of what it perceives as foreign matter. Bananas, as a general

rule, evoke no such reaction in healthy people. However, there are clearly

reports of some people experiencing mucoid responses in the presence of

bananas. Whether or not the response is actually to the bananas per se, or

the bananas simply showed up at the " wrong time, " is difficult to determine

systematically, because most of the data are anecdotal, i.e., not " studied

formally. " I say this, not to discredit anyone's personal experience, but

rather to suggest that further inquiry and more " organized " observation

would be beneficial to us all.

 

Best,

Elchanan

 

 

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