Friday, April 18, 2014

Protecting your banana

Like a lot of cyclists and walkers we enjoy eating bananas when underway.  They give a quick boost of energy, are fibre rich and less sugary than energy bars as well as being a good source of potassium, although there are better sources: See (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/potassium-foods-banana_n_1898078.html). Surprisingly these include squash, potatoes, beans and dates. However eating a baked potato or a plate of beans on the road might be difficult when powering over the Alps.
The big problem with bananas is that although they come ready packed, the packaging disintegrates under pressure. You are quite likely to end up with a soggy mess at the bottom of a rucksack or in the rear pocket of your expensive cycling jersey. Protection is called for and the best banana packaging we have found is called Banana Guard (bananaguard.com). Banana Guards are plasticiser-free and dishwashable. There are retailers all over the world. We bought ours from Lakeland Plastics in the UK: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/10380/Banana-Guard.
The one thing we don't understand is that the Banana Guard company is Canadian and can only think that it is so difficult to grow bananas in Canada that somebody felt it necessary to develop protection methods for the fruit.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive