No one said we HAD to pick a fruit.

WOOO!

James Hilton wrote “Shangri-La” (pub. 1933) after visiting the Hunza valley.

The compound in the seeds is amygdalin. Laetrile, AKA Krebiozen AKA “Vitamin B-17″ is a partially synthetic compound derived from amygdalin. The study of amygdalfor cancer prevention goes back to the 1800′s. At present there is no ‘accepted’ evidence of its efficacy.

There is only anecdotal evidence about the long life spans.

That’s where the factoids get interesting. Snopes (http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/apples.asp) is a good start for the trail. The cyanide compound is believed by certain people to be an anti-cancer treatment, called Laetrile or Krebiozen (sp?). The way it is supposed to work is that hungry cancer cells have a preference for sugars, and so ingest the laetrile more than regular cells. When they break off the sugar, the cyanide kills them. That’s the theory.

But wait!! There’s more!! This theory got its start from a very interesting trek into the Himalayas by, intrepid explorer (and TV star) Art Linkletter in (IIRC) 1948. Linkletter and his team went to visit the Hunzas, a very long-lived tribe who live in a high valley (8000 ft/2940m) in the Himalayas. At the time, they were reputed to be the longest-lived people on Earth, with some Hunzas supposed to be alive into their 120′s. The Hunza valley was supposed to be the inspiration for the legend of Shangri-La.

The Hunzas at the time, who may have been descended from elements of Hannibal’s army, had no road to the outside – only a very dangerous humans-only trail (read the Geography section of Hunza on Wikipedia if you want to be scared), and had no words for heart attack or cancer – these diseases were unknown. Their life was incredibly hard but healthy. However if anyone left they generally died quickly as they had no immunity to many common diseases.

One of their major food sources was apricot seed oil that contained this cyanide compound…

Finally, this valley is now connected to today’s news – it was historically one of the routes into the Swat Valley.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=ROmDu-bYMRYC&pg=PA92&vq=apple&source=g bs_search_r&cad=1_1

One important fact is that apple seeds do not “spring true”. In other words, if you plant a red “Delicious” apple, the resulting tree will almost certainly just bear sour-tasting crap apples. In fact, very few apple trees bear fruit that is sweet and edible. In other words, there is enormous genetic variability in apples.

There are several important consequences of this fact. One is that “Johnny Appleseed” (a real person) who planted apple seeds in the USA in the 1800s was probably NOT aiming to produce sweet fruits. His apple trees were probably meant to produce sour apples that could be fermented into alcoholic cider. No wonder he was so popular!

Another consequence is that, once a good apple tree is found that produces sweet fruits, the only way to get more of those fruits is to take cuttings from it and graft them onto ordinary apple tree root stock. In other words, all apple tree that produce a particular variety of edible apple (eg “Delicious”) is a clone of the original.

Nature is an arms race, and insects develop ways of overcoming the natural defenses of plants. Plants, in turn, produce different offspring which may produce new chemical defenses. If all plants are genetic clones (as all commercial apple trees must be), they are not evolving any more, and begin to fall behind in the arms race. That’s why HUGE quantities of pesticides are needed to get an apple tree to get past creatures that attack the bark, the blossoms, and the fruit.

When I was a child we had an apple orchard and never sprayed the trees with chemicals. In the spring, all the trees were covered with caterpillars, and in the fall the apples all had worms in them. You just had to cut away the bad bits.

Alejo

B is for The Brain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_(platform)

The Qu’ran suggests that the forbidden fruit might have been a banana. The text refers to the forbidden tree as one whose fruits “grow piled one on top of another, in long extended shade, and whose season is not limited.” In other words, a banana plant.

I’m a bit surprised that Mr.Kris didn’t pick on it as Mr. Koeppel spends a relatively long time on it in his book “Banana.”

I agree, though, bananas would be a fantastic “B.” Lots of crazy facts about bananas.

For “B” I would suggest “Bicycle”. Or “Brassiere”. (Anything but bacon…)

My suggestion for B: barbers.

I would also suggest bread.

Great list.

i’d avoid doing bananas next, as one person suggested, unless you want it to be perceived as a fruit-related feature.

maybe make the next one about a place? boston perhaps?

I’ll link back to ur post.