Innocent Drinks// Back Four// Facts!

This idea I came up with out of the blue but I feel is very suitable for a back of pack design. All I want to communicate is funny and interesting facts about these two fruits. Looking through some now I had no idea how much information there is about the two fruits! 

STRAWBERRIES!

• Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.
• The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
• The ancient Romans believed that strawberries alleviated symptoms of melancholy, fainting, all inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, attacks of gout, and diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.
• To symbolize perfection and righteousness, medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals.
• In parts of Bavaria, country folk still practice the annual rite each spring of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They believe that the elves, are passionately fond of strawberries, will help to produce healthy calves and an abundance of milk in return.
• Madame Tallien, a prominent figure at the court of the Emperor Napoleon, was famous for bathing in the juice of fresh strawberries. She used 22 pounds per basin. Needless to say, she did not bathe daily.
• Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.
• There is a museum in Belgium just for strawberries.
• Strawberries are a member of the rose family.
• Ninety-four percent of US households consume strawberries.
• Americans eat 3.4 pounds of fresh strawberries each year plus another 1.8 pounds frozen per capita.
• Strawberries are low fat, low calorie; high in vitamin C, fiber, folic acid, potassium
• Strawberries, as part of a 5 a day fruit & vegetable program, can help reduce the risk of cancer & heart attacks.
• In medieval times, strawberries were served at important functions to bring peace & prosperity.
• Folk lore states that if you split a double strawberry in half and share it with the opposite sex, you’ll soon fall in love.
• n France, Strawberries were thought to be an aphrodisiac.  A soup made of strawberries, thinned sour cream, borage, & powered sugar was served to newlyweds.
• Over 53 percent of seven to nine-year-olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.
• Eating strawberries, which are rich in nitrate, can increase the flow of blood & oxygen to the muscles by 7%.  This prevents muscle fatigue, making exercise easier.
• In a test, subjects who ate nitrate rich foods like strawberries, before exercising burned 100 more calories than those who did not.

Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.

Current research suggests that eating just 8 strawberries a day can improve heart health, lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation, reduce the risk of cancers and even improve cognitive function.

BANANAS! 

• The scientific name for banana is musa sapientum, which means “fruit of the wise men.”
• More than 100 billion bananas are eaten every year in the world, making them the fourth most popular agricultural product.
• About 75 percent of the weight of a banana is water.
• More than 100 billion bananas are eaten every year in the world, making them the fourth most popular agricultural product.
• Americans eat an average of 27 pounds of bananas per person every year.
• More than 96 percent of American households buy bananas at least once a month.
• 51 percent of bananas are eaten for breakfast at home.
• The highest average per capita consumption of bananas in the world is in Uganda, where residents eat an average of 500 pounds of bananas per person every year. In fact, the Ugandan word matooke means both “food” and “banana.”
• India produces more bananas than any other country on the planet, accounting for about 28 percent of the worldwide crop. (China is number two, with ten percent.)
• A man in India once ate 81 bananas in a half hour.
• More songs have been written about bananas than about any other fruit.
• The scientific name for banana is musa sapientum, which means “fruit of the wise men.”
• Bananas float in water, as do apples and watermelons.
• Hawaii is the only place in the U.S. where bananas are grown commercially, although at one time they were also grown in southern California and Florida. The overwhelming majority of the bananas Americans eat come from countries in Latin America and South America, including Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, Panama, and Guatemala.
• The type of banana you see in the supermarket is called a Cavendish banana. The preferred variety was originally the Gros Michel, which essentially became extinct by 1960, thanks to a fungus called Panama disease.
• Some cultures (most notably Japan) use the fiber in the banana plant to make fabric and sometimes even paper.
• The fastest marathon ever run by a competitor dressed as a fruit was 2 hours, 58 minutes, and 20 seconds—recorded at the Barcelona Marathon on March 6, 2011. The runner was Patrick Wightman from the United Kingdom, who dressed as a banana.
• The Banana Club Museum, located on Highway 111 in Mecca, Calif. (just south of Palm Springs), houses the world’s largest collection devoted to any one fruit. It contains more than 17,000 banana items, most of which have been donated by members. (To join the club, visit www.bananaclub.com.)