Have You Ever Wondered What Those Nasty Strings on a Banana are For?

I have been eating a lot of bananas lately and this last batch seemed to have an unusual amount of those gross strings hugging my banana. I know they are meant for something besides grossing me out, but what?

Yes this is how my mind works, I overthink things like this because all my life I have been disgusted by the strings on a banana. When our kids were little I would make sure I got every last one off before I gave it to them or I might barf If I saw them accidentally eat one.

So I decided to do a little research on this and my conclusion is they are like basically the veins of a banana. Whew gross factor just escalated. According to The Huffington Post the scientific name for them is Phloem Bundles so these nasty strings distribute nutrients up and down the banana helping it to grow.  I had a pretty good idea that they served a purpose just like the gross stringy goop you find inside a pumpkin, but all I eat from them is the seeds so I am safe.

I don't know if I feel comforted by this or scared off by this but apparently a group of people actually have a very sarcastic blog site about this exact subject. The few that I read were very funny, but a side of me was thinking what if they are serious? This is getting weird. So If any of you eat these Phloem Bundles all I ask is please don't do it around me.

Are you grossed out by these strings? Let me know In the comments below.