生活小常识：香蕉上的白丝可以吃吗？

Bananas are a wonderful source of potassium and are the perfect on-the-go snack.

香蕉中不仅富含钾元素，而且它也是完美的即食小吃。

The only downside to the fruit are those irritating leathery strands - which are actually called 'phloem bundles' - that you get when you peel back a banana skin.
香蕉的唯一缺点是那些烦人的皮革线 - 实际上被称为“韧皮束”，也就是剥香蕉皮的时候拉出来的丝儿。

But while those stringy bits may not be the most palatable, they are in fact very important - and we wouldn’t be able to eat bananas without them, according to Nicholas D. Gillitt, a US academic who shed some light on the mystery this week in a report by Huffington Post.

美国学者尼古拉斯.吉利特认为，尽管这些粘手的白丝可能不是最可口的，但实际上它们非常重要 - 如果没有他们，我们将无法吃香蕉。他在本周赫芬顿邮报的一篇报道中阐明了这个秘密。

The clue as to why those strands are so important is in their name.
关于为什么这些白丝如此重要的线索全部蕴含于他们的名字之中。

Phloem is one of two types of transport tissue that you can find in all plants, and moves nutrients and other substances around the whole plant.

韧皮部是你可以在所有植物中找到的两大类运输组织之一，在整个植物周围运输营养物质和其他物质。

In a banana, the phloem strands are therefore the reason why all the nutrients can reach the whole of the fruit - which allows it to grow into the fruit we know of.

因此，正因为香蕉中韧皮部的存在，所有营养成分才可以输送到整个水果— 这才使得它长成了我们所熟知的这种水果。

Nicholas D. Gillitt, who is director at the Dole Nutrition Institute explained to Huffington Post: ’Phloem bundles are necessary for the adequate disposition of nutrients throughout the plant.’

多尔营养研究所所长尼古拉斯.吉利特在赫芬顿邮报中解释说：“韧皮束对于整个植物中营养的适当分布是必要的。”

The phloem bundles are completely edible and are just as nutritionally rich as the main part of the fruit, according to Dr Gillitt.

根据吉利特博士的说法，韧皮束完全是可食的，并且与水果的其他主要部分一样营养丰富。
 

In fact, the strands probably contain a lot more fibre than the rest of the fruit, he says.

他说，事实上，这些白丝可能比水果的其它部分富含更多纤维。

It is possible to genetically modify the fruit to prevent strands from forming - but Gillitt says there is little point dedicating funds to research this when companies can better invest in coming up with disease-resistant food or fruit with higher nutritional content.

为防止形成白线，从基因上改变水果是可能的，但吉利特表示，当公司能够更好地投资于抗病食品或具有较高营养成分的水果时，用于这些研究的资金将会少之更少。

好啦，今天的每日学英语就到这里啦，希望大家看到这篇文章后再吃香蕉的时候，对于白线能不能吃的问题就不要纠结啦，see u next time！