When it comes to pineapples, people either love them or hate them.
The pineapple’s scientific name is “Ananas comosus,” but it actually goes by two different names in the world.
English-speakers call the fruit pineapple.
Everyone else in the world calls the fruit ananas.
That’s because the indigenous people who originally ate and grew the fruit called it ananas.
In their language, it meant excellent fruit.
Pineapples grow in South America, so it was Christopher Colombus who brought the fruit back to the rest of Europe.
Other Europeans would also try their hand at growing pineapple farms.
However, considering that most of the world calls it ananas and not a pineapple, you may wonder why it’s called that in the first place.
Here’s what you need to know about pineapples.
Why Are Pineapples Called Pineapples?
Pineapples can trace its name back to Christopher Colombus.
When his explorers saw the fruit, they called it “piña de Indes.”
This translates to pine of the Indians.
It wasn’t because the fruit resembled pine trees, however.
Rather, the fruit best resembled a pine cone to them.
They took the name back to Spain with them, and when English speakers translated it, the name pineapple stuck.
It’s also worth mentioning that the term pineapple had been in use since before Colombus found the fruit.
The term dates back to the 1300s.
The English called what we now call pine cones “pineapples.”
When the fruit arrived in Europe, the term came to refer to the fruit instead of pine cones.
That’s also why the term pine cones ended up part of the English vernacular.
It had to replace the term pineapple since pineapple was now in use to describe a fruit.
The term pine cone didn’t appear in texts until 1694 which was 30 years after the introduction of the fruit, pineapple, to Europe.
In short, pineapple earned its name because Colombus’s crew thought it best looked like a pine cone.
In England and other English-speaking countries, the term for pine cone was actually pineapple and thus the name stuck.
Everywhere else, however, continues to use the original name for the fruit, which is ananas.
Where Do Pineapples Come From?
Pineapples grow in South America.
They’re a tropical fruit and thus require a tropical climate in which to grow.
The indigenous people of South America, particularly in Guadeloupe, ate the fruit often.
When Christopher Colombus visited Guadeloupe, his explorers took samples back to Spain.
Interest in the fruit grew, and other settlers wanted to try their hand at farming them.
One of the most successful cases was Sir Walter Raleigh who started growing pineapple in the West Indies.
He used it as a food source but also to make wine.
It was the Portugueses, however, who helped spread the fruit even further.
After finding the island, they started growing the fruit at Saint Helena.
They’d then take the seeds and start growing the plants in Africa and India.
The success of its growth eventually led pineapples to grow in the modern countries of Brazil, Costa Rica, India, China, and Thailand.
It is unable to grow outside of tropical climates.
Because of that, all pineapple plantations are in tropical areas.
What Do Pineapples Look Like?
It’s a little confusing as to why Colombus and his explorers thought that pineapples looked like pine cones, but there are some very vague similarities.
Pineapples start as 30 to 40 succulent leaves.
The leaves eventually grow and fuse.
They start to form an inflorescent mass on their flower stalks.
The purple flowers grow fleshier over time, and once they fuse, they form the fruit as we know it.
It takes five to six months for pineapples to ripen.
They tend to weigh between two and four pounds.
Because the pineapple grows out of a fusing of fleshy leaves and flower stalks, its formation makes it an odd-looking fruit.
It has a thick, almost lattice-like, pattern on its body.
At its top is a series of thick leaves.
Colombus’s explorers likely named it after a pine cone due to the shape of its body and its lattice pattern.
Pine cones have a similar pattern, though their conformity is quite different from a pineapple.
They’re also remarkably smaller than a pineapple.
Pineapples and pine cones are also similar in that you have to get to their center to eat them.
Pineapples have a hard exterior that needs cutting to access the fruit inside of them.
Pine cones have a nut at their center which requires delicate handling and crushing to access it.
If it receives too much pressure, then the pine cone will shatter and the nut will break.
Pineapples have a unique appearance that does have some similarities to a pine cone.
However, its leaves and shell make it a wholly unique fruit.
Is A Pineapple An Apple?
One of the reasons that some people may think pineapple has its specific name is because it’s some type of apple.
That’s true to an extent.
To understand the nomenclature, one has to dive into ancient history.
Back in the day when Latin was a dominant language, the word for apple was primarily associated with tropical fruits or fruits as a whole.
It even spread to include vegetables and nuts.
As an example, the Latin word for peach was “persicum.”
It meant Persian apple.
Another example is the word for pomegranate.
In Latin, it was “pōmum grānātum,” which meant apple of many seeds.
As Latin eventually gave way to other languages built on it, such as English, the naming scheme remained.
English speakers gave nicknames to certain fruits and vegetables in a similar way.
They called tomatoes and eggplants love apples because of their aphrodisiac qualities.
They gave the name cashew apple to cashew nuts.
Even potatoes had the nickname of earth apple.
It’s clear that there was a firm practice of naming or nicknaming any type of foreign fruit, vegetable, or nut as some sort of apple.
Because the pineapple stems from a foreign country, it qualified for the nomenclature.
It’s also worth noting that, like actual apples, pineapples also grow on trees.
While pineapples are not a variant of an apple, they do share some similarities with the fruit.
Did Pineapples Come From Hawaii?
Hawaii is often associated with pineapples.
You can find plantations all over Hawaii.
At one point, the island even supplied the world with 80% of its canned pineapples.
However, pineapples did not originate in Hawaii.
They grew solely in South America before eventually making their way to other tropical locations for planting and farming.
Pineapples didn’t get their full-scale farming in Hawaii until the early 1900s.
Although Hawaii used to produce most of the world’s canned pineapples, they closed their last cannery a few years ago in 2006.
Instead, the island focuses on producing fresh pineapples.
Part of the reason they’re able to produce more fresh pineapples is the use of a flowering method used by Azores Islanders.
They were able to use smoke to trick the pineapples into flowering.
This method allows plantation farmers to get their pineapple trees to flower even if it isn’t the season for it.
The Hawaiian people call pineapples “Hala Kahiki.”
They gave it this name because the pineapple resembles the Hala fruit which is native to Hawaii.
Kahiki means foreign in the Hawaiian language.
As such, the name for pineapple means foreign Hala fruit.
How Do Pineapples Pollinate?
Pineapples rely on pollination to spread their seeds and start flowering.
However, the actual presence of the seeds can negatively impact the quality of the fruit.
The best way to pollinate pineapples is with traditional pollinators.
Honeybees, hummingbirds, and pineapple bees are the best pollinators to use for pineapples.
They’re able to spread the seeds without impacting the quality of the fruit.
However, they also need control.
If they’re allowed to run amok among the fruit, then there’s a chance that some seeds may end up left behind.
In Hawaii, it’s one of the reasons hummingbirds aren’t allowed onto the islands.
They wouldn’t be able to control the pollination process.
Due to the tricky nature of pollinating pineapples, the cultivation of pineapples can be difficult for those who are inexperienced with the particulars of the fruit.
Can Pineapples Remove Your Fingerprints?
One of the most interesting aspects of pineapples is the fact that they contain bromelain.
This is an acidic enzyme that breaks down proteins.
When you eat pineapple, the enzyme is actually at work in your mouth while you’re chewing.
It’s destroying the proteins in your mouth.
A way to think about it is that while you’re eating the pineapple, the pineapple is also eating you.
It stops, however, when you swallow the pineapple.
The acid in your stomach is stronger than bromelain.
As a result, it breaks it down and keeps it from eating away at the proteins in your stomach.
That means eating pineapple is safe but it isn’t surprising that some people have an allergic reaction to pineapples.
Another interesting aspect of pineapples is that bromelain can, temporarily, remove your fingerprints.
That’s because the enzyme breaks down the exterior layer of skin on your hands as you work with them.
Touching a pineapple won’t do much.
However, if you’re a pineapple worker handling pineapples all day, then bromelain can start to wear down your fingers.
With some time, your fingerprints will grow back since it only ever removes the top-most layers of your skin.
There hasn’t been enough research on bromelain to determine if it’s usable as a healthy alternative to dealing with pain, inflammation, or burns associated with wisdom teeth removal.
However, it’s good to keep in mind that the enzyme is capable of destroying proteins.
Are Pineapples Healthy For You?
Like many other fruits, pineapples are a great way to stay healthy.
They’re packed full of different vitamins and other nutrients that can help your body stay healthy.
Here are a few reasons pineapples are healthy for you.
1. 131% RDI Of Vitamin C
One of the most potent vitamins in pineapples is Vitamin C.
Eating one cup of pineapple chunks gives you 131% RDI of your Vitamin C.
This vitamin is an essential part of your health.
It helps keep your immune system strong, which means it’s harder for diseases and viruses to invade your body.
By reinforcing your immune system, your body is able to fight off the germs before they have a chance to infect you.
It isn’t only your immune system that Vitamin C protects, however.
It’s also an important part of growth and development.
Children and teenagers who eat enough Vitamin C can grow into healthy adults.
Even adults who eat plenty of Vitamin C can grow into healthy seniors.
It also plays a role in the absorption of iron in your diet.
If you’re someone who suffers from an iron deficiency, then increasing your Vitamin C intake can help your body process iron better.
Pineapple, because of its huge amount of Vitamin C, can help you stave off sickness and grow healthy.
2. 76% RDI Of Manganese
It isn’t just Vitamin C that pineapples contain a lot of.
They also have a high amount of manganese.
Manganese is a mineral that occurs naturally in the world.
Fruits and other vegetables soak up manganese in the soil and then contain it within their fruit.
When you eat a cup of pineapples, you receive 76% RDI of manganese.
That’s almost your entire recommended daily intake.
Manganese plays two important roles in your health.
The first is that it helps boost your metabolism.
This is helpful in a few different ways.
Your metabolism controls how well your body is able to break down energy from the food that you eat.
If your metabolism is slow, then it takes longer for your body to break down the food.
This means you usually end up using more energy to break down your food than the energy you get back.
It can lead to weight gain and a series of other health problems.
When your metabolism receives support from a nutrient like manganese, your metabolism can operate efficiently.
You can store energy instead of burning it up to break down more food.
This makes you feel more energetic and helps you lose a little weight, too.
The other great property of manganese is that it acts as an antioxidant.
Antioxidants are important for your body because they remove free radicals floating in your body.
Free radicals can cause damage to your body if left unchecked.
They can even cause cancer.
Antioxidants remove them from your body.
Eating pineapples is healthy because of their high amount of manganese.
3. Ease Digestion
As stated before, pineapple also contains bromelain.
Because bromelain breaks down proteins, it can actually be useful for your digestive system.
Eating pineapple with a protein-heavy meal like certain types of meat can help your digestion later.
That’s because the enzyme gets a head start on breaking down the food for your body.
This means your body has to work a little less hard to digest it all.
This is especially helpful for people who have problems with their pancreas.
The job of the pancreas is to produce enzymes used in the process of digestion.
If the pancreas is unable to do so, then your body may face digestion problems on its own.
Eating pineapple when eating a high-protein meal can help your body digest it.
4. Fight Cancer
Some studies have also shown that bromelain may be helpful in fighting cancer.
When researchers added bromelain to cancer treatment, they found that bromelain helped stop the growth of tumor cells.
It also encouraged cancerous cells to terminate themselves.
Its digestive nature, particularly of proteins, likely played a key role.
Bromelain has particularly helped stop certain types of cancer like skin cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer.
It’s also suppressed cancer in the gastro system and the bile duct.
While bromelain does exist in pineapples, some supplements contain more bromelain.
As such, eating pineapple alone usually isn’t enough to fight off cancer.
However, it can be a great addition to existing cancer treatments to help further the treatment’s effects.
Conclusion
Pineapples have a strange name considering they don’t grow on pines nor do they resemble apples.
It received its name from Christopher Colombus and his crew who believed the shape of the fruit resembled a pine cone.
Pineapples are considerably healthy fruits and they make for a great ingredient in high-protein diets.
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