The banana peel looks golden, but it is hard and astringent to eat, obviously ripe. Some people say that eating these ripening bananas may lead to premature puberty in children, so many parents dare not buy them for their children to eat. Is there any scientific truth in this statement?
Let's first look at why people ripen bananas. Bananas ripen on their own, so why use drugs to ripen them? Is it the producer's desire for profit? If you think like this, you will be wronged. Tropical and subtropical fruits are actually very delicate, extremely difficult to preserve for a long time, and difficult to transport. Long ago, eating bananas outside the South was a rarity, and even if they were, most of them had deteriorated. Later, it was found that bananas ripened by special agents had little loss of nutrients compared with naturally ripe bananas, and such bananas were stored for a long time and were easy to transport. As a result, bananas can easily cross the Yellow River into the north. In this way, this ripening agent is actually "kind" to northerners.
What exactly is this ripening agent? The medicine commonly used by growers is called "ethylene", and it is said that this medicine has been used since the 1960s. Although at first glance this potion sounds scary, it is only a plant growth regulator. It releases ethylene during use, which plays a role in regulating plant growth. In fact, most plants produce ethylene when they grow, so there is nothing to be afraid of the ethylene released by ethylene.
Moreover, although Vinyl can ripen bananas, it does not mean that it can "ripen" children. After all, it is a plant hormone that basically cannot act on animals. Whether it is ethylene or ethylene, it cannot produce the same effect as sex hormones in the human body, nor can it participate in the synthesis of sex hormones. It can be said that Ethylene has nothing to do with precocious puberty in children.
Although ethylene can not "ripen" children, it still has certain harm to the human body. However, this damage only occurs when ingested in large doses. For everyone, the residual vinyl on various fruits and vegetables, including bananas, is almost impossible to poison people. According to the current regulations in the mainland, the surface ethylene residue of tropical and subtropical fruits, including bananas, should not exceed 2 mg/kg. Even if this residue exceeds the standard by 100 times, an adult may have to eat hundreds of kilograms of such bananas before being poisoned. In addition, the water solubility of vinyl is so good that it can wash off most of it by simply rinsing it with clean water.