Bananas Are Not What You Think | The Shocking Truth

Bananas are not so innocent as you might think—while usually good for you, these potassium packed fruits have some shocking secrets! Join Hank Green for a new episode of SciShow—it'll make you go bananas!

Hank loves bananas and is worried about their future, so he did some investigating and wrote this episode of SciShow to share some kinda scary banana truths with us.

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[ethelryan]

This was fascinating. I'm in my 60's and I clearly remember bananas in my pre-school days staying a billion times better.
Been told all my life that taste fades, etc.
Nope. Turns out it's a totally different variety of fruit.

[Slashbag]

I've always found it kind of strange that I don't like actual bananas, but I love anything banana flavoured. It all makes sense now.

[melvillecapps]

I remember as a child in the 1960s that all of a sudden bananas did not taste as good. Now I know it was because of the switch from the Gros Mishel to the Cavandish. Same thing with Coca-Cola when they switched from cane sugar to high-fructose corn syrup as the sweetener.

[naturalmystic]

I'm from the Philippines and my tears fell when i learned that you only have 1 variety of banana 😢

[ivanov]

The whole, banana flavored things actually do taste like banana, it's just a once ubiquitous strain that's now extinct, blew my mind. That's honestly amazing. Candies are the fossilized footprints of this banana lost to time.

[thinkcivil]

Having been born in the 1950s, yes there is a distinct difference in taste between the 2 banana types. The type I ate in the 60s was sweeter and had a much more distinct banana flavor to it. Today's bananas are bland and starchy compared to those we ate back in the day. There has to be a way to produce a better tasting banana than what's out there right now.

[zubayeerahmed]

I am from Bangladesh and I have eaten banana seeds before. Big ones. They taste really good. There are dozens of varieties in our country. My fav is the "Shagor kola". It's long and sweet.

[lucyspencer]

I can second just how popular bananas are. I work in the produce department of a grocery store and we receive a whole pallet of bananas every morning. They're usually gone by the end of the night.

[geekay]

and they come with their own biodegradable wrapper - the perfect food

[nekomasteryoutube]

As someone who was born in 1992, it pains me that I'll never get to eat a banana that was possibly tastier then the banana's we have now.

[teenygozer]

The few countries that still produce the Gros Michel today mostly do so under another name: Thihmwe in Myanmar, Johnson in Cuba, Pisang Ambon in Malaysia. In Hawai'i, it is commercially grown as Bluefields.

[sinistral]

I love this channel for just this kind of information that I never knew I needed to know. I've eaten bananas in Africa and South America that are nothing like the 'Cavendish'. They were the size and shape of chubby fingers, sweeter, softer and much, much tastier. I'm wondering if they're more like the original SE Asian varieties.

[glenhomer]

Having grown up in Brazil, we had dozens of different varieties of bananas. each with a different flavor, size, and texture.

[davidtallmadge]

I am an American that moved to the Philippines I remember the old bananas very well but over here there are so many types that I love more cooked plantains and sweet queen types LONG LIVE THE BANANA

[daddy_oh_vekx]

I've never been so jealous of an entire generation until now

[jupekai]

I hope one day science figures out how to bring back the Gros Michael as I'd love to try one, I LOVE banana flavouring!
Oh gosh imagine banana bread made with Gros Michael instead of Cavendish!

[archieloisdelapena]

World: oh no we only have 1 type of banana left!
Philippines: Meh, we have more than 10 types of banana😆😆😆

[effyleven]

Aha! That explains why bananas taste different to when I was a kid. They are DIFFERENT bananas.

[jsalsy]

Thank you for being precise and less time consuming than the other drawn out explanation videos on here 🤟👍

[FloozieOne]

My favorites are the little red bananas that come in a "hand stalk", that is they grow side-by-side like fingers instead of in a bunch like "regular" bananas. They are sweet and have a creamier texture but they do go bad faster so you have to eat them quicker; not a big problem since they are only about 4 bites big. Every now and then I will see them in the produce section but it is becoming rarer and rarer and the quality is descending just like the supply.