Apparently you should cut off the ends of bananas before eating them

[emkana]

...about 2 cm each end. Because of pesticides which get in at the tips.
So I just read on a German discussion board.
Is this madness? Or has anybody heard this as well?
It wasn't just one person saying this, it was lots. I've never heard this before!

if there is that black thing in i usually squidge it out too... but aside from that...eat the whole thing!

SL - re-the black bit, i heard that you can get spiders in that part(???! i'm v. gullibe me, so that cd well be nonsense ...but i didn't much like the thought, so not eating the black bit here )

i have heard of spiders being found in bunches of bananas!

still... if you chew it well i'm sure they'll be dead by the time you swallow! lol

banana w. added minced spiders???

moondog - I totally agree with you about supermarkets. I have been reading recently: "Shopped" by Joanna Blytham, "not on the label" by Felicity Lawrence; "Meat" by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (River Cottage guy); and "the Food our Children Eat" also by Joanna Blytham. I have totally changed the way I shop now. I do buy organic sometimes, but not always. It is about buying direct from the farmer where possible. I live in central london, but have a great farmers market once a week. We get our fresh produce there as well as meat from the people who farm it. SOme is organic and some is free range. I buy my fish frmo a fishmonger. I buy my toiletries from my local independant chemist (NOT boots) and support my local green grocer who also sells lots of lovely health foody bits. I still do a large supermarket shop once every 1.5 weeks, but it is from Ocado and for heavy stuff only - soft drinks, water, etc. Anything I can buy locally I do. The books make shockng reading. Its not just about pesticides and health, but also how supermarkets treat their suppliers, how they have killed off local communities, and how they have taken away our freedom of choice. Tesco is a dirty word in our household now! And my son has benefited enormously (besides health of course). He shops with me and sees whole fish in the fishmonger and listens to the discussions about how to cook it etc. He watches in the butcher as they take down the hung carcasses and cut off what we need. And he sees that carrots actually grow in the ground and have lots of green leaves on the end when pulled up (how they come in our market) rather than in plastic bags from the supermarket.

Sorry to hyjack this thread, but it is a real area of interest for me right now!

i wish there were proper shops where i live.

i am in a pretty big town, there is one butcher which isn't much help as i am veggie! afaik we have no greengrocers or anything

ilana, that sounds great, i shd prob get myself some of that reading material...well done you.

there was a debate on organic/non organic on the radio a few weeks ago. the non organic guy said there are more carcinogens in one cup of coffee than in one years worth of eating non organic food (this doesnt include all the other chemicals obviously).

my microbiology lecturer at uni (proper research scientist type) says he never buys organic because he cant understand why people would rather ingest chemicals made by plants to kill off nasties which have not been thoroughly tested in a lab rather than manmade chemicals which have been thoroughly tested and shown to be safe. he also refuses to buy free range chickens or eggs because he says they are riddled with salmonella

totally believe in the free trade stuff tho

lots of carn chickens have salmonella too. That's why we cook it! anything that is cooked properly isn't a problem....

do you know what conditions are like for barn hens? they're the reason i became vegetarian

We don't eat bananas because my son is allergic to latex and eating a banana could kill him because of a cross reaction. I think the Germans who cut the ends off should get out more.

Your microbiology lecturer is misinformed gg. British hens, organically fed, free-range or otherwise, are pretty much salmonella free. And, as starlover says, all you have to do is cook them properly. Bit of a no-brainer really.
His PhD funded by an agrochemical business, by any chance?
We get organic bananas at Waitrose because they come from small producers on the good old Windward Islands. Support your former colonies and eat delicious little curly bananas, say no to crappy dollar bananas, as others have said.

hear, hear Marina. Also, salmonella is never inside the egg but on the outside of the shell. Eggs, free-range or otherwise, are washed before going on the shelf.
Yes, there is more salmonella on the outside of freerange chicken carcasses because they don't get the chemical bath that battery broilers get - but really - considering salmonella is killed off by cooking and raw poultry doesn't appeal, I know what I prefer.
Being a hen-keeper I never, ever buy or eat non-free-range poultry.

Lol bobbybob (at the German comment, not your son's allergy obviously)

Roosmum, I'm not working at the moment and my dh is abroad,so do have more time in the day (one great argument in favour of supermarkets used by many is I know that they are open after hours.)

I buy meat and fish and bread and stuff from the healthfood shop (such a madly 70s epithet!)in town. Fruit &Veg guy with a van comes to the house once a week,as does a fishmonger. Choice is limited but I do buy from them for the moral issue of putting my money back into the community.

You wouldn't believe how different meat frrm a butcher tastes,it's incredible.

I buy my wine (big indulgence from a place about 20 km away-but about 24 bottles at a time. I don't want to drink Blossom Hill and Jacobs Creek-would rather have a glass of water.

I'm in north Wales about a 1/3 of the time (and in Turkey for the other 2/3 where it is a joy to buy stuff.)Stop wherever and whenever to buy eggs,potatoes,stuff from pick your own places,support the fledgling farmers' market in the carpark of Safeways (how grimly ironic is that-in a rural area to boot??????)once a month.

Yes,those books you mention Ilana bring it home in so many ways. Noone ultimately benefits from huge supermarket style shopping.

What amuses me is that we talk of choice and consumer powere,yet the stranglehold that Tesco have over us will ultimately reduce our choice. We will all end up wearing their clothes,eating their food,drinking their wine (note how the selection shrinks every year),using their shampoo.

Having lived in Russia for a while and the idea of the choiceless Eastern bloc, I realise that capitalism leads to the same destination.

(Bit heavy for a Tuesday morning???? Note to self;lighten up!)

i dont buy or eat chicken anyway so salmonella isnt something i am particularly worried about, just thought id put his argument across

I believe that waisting food is sin.
Organic is someting i want to buy but cant afford really. I am happy to read that some people avoid shopping from supermarket. Do you know the fruit and veg from fruit market is organic? Maybe i too make some changes in my shopping.

pomi are you in uk ? morrisons (who have taken over safeways ) have reasonably priced organic veg-after reading this thread i am so glad i buy organic bananas-love organic baking spuds too i can let my kids eat the crispy skins without worrying whats on them

Not to complicate the issues, but buying organic fruit and veg from the supermarket may address health issues, but it does not address the issues of how supermarkets treat their suppliers - its the same for the organic farmers. So, if you are interested in the wider issues, going supermarket organic does not work.

Also, its worth asking at your local farmers market about the fruit and veg. To get registered organic is so stringent that many farmers don't do it. HOwever, you may find by speaking to them that although they are not organic, they do not use pesticides or chemicals. Their fruit and veg may be just as nice, but less expensive.

With meat, if you want to go organic or free range, learn about the different cuts and how to cook them. Supermarkets have brain washed us into thinking that we need to only buy prime cuts of meat. From my pork farmer (all free range), I buy bacon off cuts instead of actual bacon slices. Much cheaper and just as yummy. From the organic beef farmer, I get the cheapest cuts he has each week for stewing. I use a slow cooker, some organic veg, the chicken stock I make from the chicken carcass after we have eaten it, and the stew tastes absolutely amazing. I highly recommend learning new ways to cook!

I bought my fruit and veg from the market a few weeks ago - yes it was an awful lot cheaper, but I had to throw half of it out by half way through the week as it had gone off - the apples (which at first glance looked lovely) were ALL inedible.......afraid I stick to the supermarket again now.

Was that ordinary market or farmer's market though, QoQ? I don't like ordinary market either because I've had some dodgy stuff but farmer's market shouldn't do that.

QoQ - Me too.

I used to get a bag of organic veg straight from the farm. It was fine in the summer, but the Winter was TERRIBLE and was often left with no edible Veg!

farmers market PMSL - you ARE joking - I don't even know where our closest Farmers market is

Actually - I think there's one held in a town about 20 minutes drive away (I don't drive) on a thursday once a month.

i agree totally ilanak but im not always pleased with the quality of my locally grown organic veg shop and its v expensive feel bad that i am enjoying org veg shipped in from africa and other far flung places
am trying to shop more locally and i am lucky as i live in a town with an excellent market (so do you janh !) i can buy a lot of stuff that doesnt have the organic stamp but for all intents is organic
theres a family of butchers on our market who (in their own words) grow it ,feed it,kill it but its nice to know that the cow im eating has only seen a field near here and not much else they are organic too but cannot afford the rigmarole of getting the stamp
so its always worth asking

also read once that their is a super disease of bananas which threatens to wipe them out dont know how true this is

Where do you live, lunachic? Have you been to our market? I know it's very popular but the few times I tried it (years ago) I always felt the produce I got wasn't as good as what was on display; and these days I'm too disorganised and usually end up shopping at 5pm or later.