It is said that bananas are the most popular fresh fruit in the United States. While some fruits, like apples and oranges, are also      41      as juice and in other ways, almost all bananas are eaten      42      right out of the peel.

     What is so great about bananas ? Well, for one thing, they are rich in nutrients and      43      like potassium and iron. For another, they have no cholesterol and      44      any fat. And most important, for people watching their food bills, they are      45      .

     But this was not always the      46      . For many years, bananas were so expensive in America that most people      47      a rare delicacy. The first bananas were brought over here in 1516 by a Spanish priest. They grew well in Central America, but could not       48      in the colder North America climate. The Puritans got their first      49      of bananas in the 1690s, but they hated them ! This is not      50      , for they boild them and then ate them - skins and all.