Fruitical behaviour

Would you eat a mature, over-sized ovary? Well, that's essentially what a piece of fruit is (which isn't quite as off-putting as considering an egg a chicken's period - which, to all intents and purposes, it is).

On that saliva-inducing note, here's some more fruity food for thought:

• If you munch on 250 bananas in one sitting, you'll die. Not because of potassium poisoning, but because your stomach would stretch to the size of a small banana republic.
• In 2001, there were more than 300 banana-related accidents/incidents in the UK. While the majority of these were clichéd accidental slips, others were mishaps resulting from pre-planned acts of depravity (love him as I do, Julian Alsop was at the centre of one of the higher profile instances).
• Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave. I urge everyone to give this a go, especially if you like annoying your housemates (which I don't, obviously). 
• The largest fruits are giant pumpkins, which weigh in at around 1,000 lbs. This equates to around five John Prescotts and 15 doner kebabs.
• There is only one fruit that proudly displays its seeds on the outside. Answers in the comment box below - the winner, who will be drawn at random, will win a Gloucester City season ticket for 2011-12.
• 3.4 per cent of all patients admitted to the Central Referral Hospital on the Solomon Islands between 1994 and 1999 had sustained a coconut-related injury. Before you ask, coconuts are a fruit and not a nut. I know this because squirrels do not bury them.
• You should only ever eat mangos in the bath (this was double-sourced on the internet, so it must be true).
• The most common reason why people contact the Accident Advice Bureau (…ahem, after they have fallen over. In a supermarket. In the fruit and veg aisle…) is after slipping on grapes and mushrooms.
• According to the World Health Organization, in 2002 each person in Israel had access to an average of 336.4 kilograms of fruit and vegetables. In Slovakia, this figure was just 124.3 kilograms. The CBI says Slovakians "do not eat a lot of fruit". The CBI is well clever, isn't it?
• Belgium has the unfortunate reputation of being a boring country, but it's the only one in the world to have a museum dedicated to the correct answer to the seeds-on-the-outside question above.
• During 2003 and 2004, at least 10 people were referred to the Royal London Hospital's Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery after sustaining serious hand injuries while de-stoning avocados with a knife.
• Cyanide is useful when mining gold and silver, but the toxic chemical compound is also found in apples. Eat too many and you risk a violent death. Cherries can be just as deadly - if the seed inside the fruit is damaged, it releases hydrogen cyanide - and not even the Accident Advice Bureau will be able to do anything about it. Because you'll be dead.

I am bored of fruit now. Next week; vegetables. Maybe.

Pic credit: artour_a