Apple Seeds: Can you eat them?

Apples are good for you as a snack or ingredient, but is it bad to eat the seeds?

Apples have five pockets for seeds, and each pocket has a different number of seeds. Some people think apple seeds are dangerous, while others think they are good for you.

Most people avoid the bitter-tasting seeds, but sometimes someone will accidentally eat one or two and not bother to spit them out. Or, a person can drink juice that has ground-up seeds in it.

Are apple seeds harmful?

Apples have a lot of good things for your body, like antioxidants, vitamins, and fibre.

Apple seeds, on the other hand, have a plant compound called amygdalin that can be harmful.

Amygdalin is one of the chemicals that protect the seeds. When a seed is whole, it is safe, but when a seed is chewed on or damaged in some other way, the amygdalin breaks down into hydrogen cyanide. This is very dangerous and can even kill you if you eat too much of it.

Amygdalin is found in high amounts in the seeds of apples, almonds, apricots, peaches, and cherries, which all belong to the Rosaceae family.

Cyanide has been used as a poison for a long time. It works by stopping oxygen from getting to the cells, and high doses can kill you in just a few minutes.

However, at least 85 seeds would have to be thoroughly chewed and swallowed before someone would feel bad about it.

Cyanide poisoning:

People can get sick from cyanide poisoning if they eat or drink cyanogenic plant compounds. These chemicals can be found in the seeds of apricots, almonds, cassavas, and apples.

Cyanide poisoning can cause mild symptoms like:

• anxiety
• headaches
• dizziness\sconfusion
• Acute poisoning can make you lose consciousness, have high blood pressure, become paralysed, or even put you into a coma. Some people die from it.

How much someone needs to get sick is based on how much they weigh. The risk is higher for young children.

For the poisonous chemicals in apple seeds to kill a person, they would have to eat a certain number of seeds, which would depend on their body weight, how much they could handle, and the type of apple.

The amount of amygdalin in an apple depends on what kind of apple it is and where it grows.

It's important to remember that even if a small amount of amygdalin doesn't kill a person, it can still make them sick.

Is apple juice harmful?

Apple juice and smoothies mostly use whole apples, along with the core and seeds, that have been crushed.

When the apple seeds are processed, they may release some cyanide, which stays in the juice.

But when scientists looked at how much amygdalin was in commercial apple juice, they found very low amounts.

Conclusion:

When amygdalin, which is found in apple seeds, is chewed and broken down, it releases cyanide into the bloodstream. But small amounts of cyanide in apple seeds are not enough to hurt you. But it's best to spit out the seeds to avoid any possible problems.