Oh. I love a vegetable. I eat a lot of them. But do they mind?
Well. Based on current scientific understanding, we have found that plants can sense damage, communicate stress, and defend themselves. But all in all, they do not appear to feel pain.
That’s good news to me.
I eat a lot of cauliflower. And broccoli. And Brussels sprouts. And more. It made me wonder what the most popular vegetable in the United States might be.
I looked around and found out that Americans love the potato the most.
We Americans eat potatoes in many different ways. Like these.
French fries
Potato chips
Mashed potatoes
Baked potatoes
Hash browns
Tater tots
Potato salad
Potato soup
The average American consumes well over 100 pounds of potatoes and potato products per year. All that spud eating makes potatoes the nation’s favorite vegetable by a wide margin.
Vegetables that rank near the top include:
Potato
Tomato
Onion
Broccoli
Carrot
Sweet Corn
Lettuce
But it isn’t from the United States. You see, the potato originated in the Andes Mountains of South America. It was first domesticated thousands of years ago by Indigenous peoples in what is now Peru and Bolivia.
When potatoes were introduced to Europe in the 1500s, many people were suspicious of them. Some even believed they caused disease. But look how far they have come. Today, they’re one of the world’s most important food crops.
But look what we have done. Americans eat far more potatoes as French fries and chips than as baked or boiled potatoes. Sure, sure. The potato may be America’s favorite vegetable, but we load it up with oil and salt.
So potatoes are the favorite vegetable. What about the number one fruit? I’ll give you a hint. This fruit is appealing.
Yessirree. The most popular fruit in the United States is the banana.
Americans eat more bananas than any other fresh fruit. The average person consumes around 25–30 pounds of bananas each year.
The most popular fruits in the U.S. are generally:
Banana
Apple
Strawberry
Grape
Orange
Watermelon
Blueberry
The banana plant is the world’s largest herb, not a tree.
Most bananas sold in the United States belong to a variety called the Cavendish Banana.
Wild bananas contain large, hard seeds. Modern bananas have been bred to be mostly seedless. I’d like to try a wild banana.
Bananas are naturally slightly radioactive because they contain potassium, including a tiny amount of potassium-40. Don’t worry or pull your Geiger Counters out of the closet. The amount of potassium in bananas is completely harmless.
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“Life is a combination of magic and potatoes.” — Federico Fellini
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“The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.” — Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
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“There are few things better than a good potato, properly cooked.” — Laurie Colwin
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