Those Annoying Banana Strings Actually Serve A Purpose

Peeling a banana isn't much of a hardship, but there's something so much more frustrating about having to peel those bitter little strings that live in between the peel and the banana itself before eating it. What are those things exactly, and why are they there?

As it turns out, they do in fact serve a purpose, and they even have a name: phloem bundles.

As bananas grow, nutrients need to be moved around throughout the fruit, and just like veins deliver nutrients throughout our bodies, phloem bundles serve the same purpose for plants, delivering the food the plant needs to grow.

If these phloem bundles are full of nutrients, then logic would lead us to believe that they're more nutrient-dense than the rest of the banana, and shouldn't in fact be removed. But the nutrient density of phloem bundles hasn't actually been tested, so we'll just have to go with it for now. That said, there's not much of a reason to remove them; they're probably actually quite good for you. You can learn all about the surprising history of the banana here.