Huh: this fruit can contain alcohol
‘Eat plenty of bananas, bananas are healthy…’ Zanger Rinus and Ronnie Ruysdael cheerfully sang to us years ago. And so we eat bananas. For breakfast, as a snack, as an evening snack. We bake with them, make smoothies from them and some people even throw them on their pizza (you can read more particularly unusual food combinations here). But now we’ve started to question the healthiness of bananas. When they’re very ripe, they can contain alcohol. Say what?!
Okay, let me say right away: you don’t need to stock up on hangover remedies just because you want to eat a banana. Or impose a driving ban on yourself after eating a few bananas. It’s really not that serious.
Fermentation
It concerns an alcohol percentage of just 0.1 percent. So there’s nothing to worry about. The question is: how does that alcohol get into your ripe banana? It all has to do with the fermentation process that starts as soon as the banana begins to ripen. Through fermentation, sugars in the banana are converted into alcohol. But that involves such a low percentage that it simply cannot be dangerous for you. In fact, you won’t notice it at all.
By the way, this process doesn’t only happen with ripe bananas. Other ripe fruit, such as an overripe mango, can also contain alcohol. Fruit juice can even contain 0.5 percent alcohol. It sounds more intense than it is. You’d have to knock back quite a few cartons of fruit juice before you’d be standing on your head. By then, you probably already have such a sugar rush that you’ll feel drunk enough.
Ripe bananas in the fruit bowl? Here’s what to do with them
Don’t want to take any risks, for example because you’re pregnant? Eat that banana before bumps and brown spots appear. It’s much tastier too: surely nobody likes a mushy, grubby banana? If you still find some overripe bananas at the bottom of the fruit bowl, don’t throw them away. What a waste! You can still bake so many delicious things with them. This sticky banana cake with syrup sauce, for example: divine. Or go for the quick TikTok version of the classic banana bread. And next time, check out these tips for keeping your food fresh for longer.
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