Do bananas fart? Well, no, but they do pass gas. Bananas give off a gas called ethylene (pronounced eth-a-lEn) as they ripen.

Bananas change inside and out when they ripen. When bananas are first picked, the peel is still completely green and the inside is almost all starch. As time passes, the starchy insides turn into sugar. This creates ethylene gas which passes through the peel. As more gas surrounds the bananas, they mature faster. That’s why most banana farmers put the green bananas in rooms filled with ethylene gas to speed up the aging process. When bananas sit on your counter at home, they continue to change. Eventually, the banana peels change from green to yellow, to spotted brown, to all brown. The mostly starch insides becomes mostly sugar.

Green bananas are too starchy. If you eat them, you’ll get awful stomach cramps. Yellow bananas are perfect for eating right out of the peel, sliced into a bowl of cereal, or in a peanut butter sandwich. Over-ripe bananas are all spotted with brown. They are sweet and mushy, and are better used in a recipe.

So if your bananas have been farting….um, I mean passing ethylene gas, and are all spotted brown, choose a recipe and turn your bananas into something awesome to eat.

© 2006-2008 Lucie Bouchard Antoniazzi ~ All Rights Reserved