Apple is one of the most nutritious fruits that benefit our bodies in a lot of ways. Most people love to juice them and have them as a part of their diet. But while juicing them, many people fall into a dilemma whether to juice the seeds or not.
Consuming a few seeds while eating the whole apple is fine, but juicing the seeds is not. Juicing apple seeds is considered unsafe and poisonous for a reason. Keep on reading to learn about it.
Is Juicing Apple Seeds Harmful?
Juicing or grinding apple seeds is not safe because it contains a harmful substance called amygdalin. Amygdalin releases a toxic compound called hydrogen cyanide in the body during the digestion process.
Apple seeds come with a hard outer coating that acts as a protective layer, so when you grind or chew the seeds, amygdalin is released, which therefore converts into cyanide in the intestines. Consuming a huge number of apple seeds can cause cyanide poisoning that harms your body or can lead you to death.
Does Apple Seed Have Any Health Benefits?
Apple seeds may have some health benefits, but consuming them is a risk to your body and life. The apple pomace is juice to extract out apple seed oil. The oil contains numerous vitamins and rich fatty acids that help in enhancing the texture and appearance of your hair and skin.
How Poisonous Cyanide in Apple Seeds Is?
Cyanide reduces the oxygen supply to the whole body and causes one’s death. However, small doses of cyanide in apple seeds juicing can be detoxified by the human body, but consuming a huge amount of seeds can be harmful.
Having too many apple seeds will cause cyanide poisoning that will result in dizziness, headache, increase heart rate, and vomiting, then followed by a decrease in heart rate, unconsciousness, and causes cardiac arrest. It damages your brain and heart and can lead you to a coma.
An antidote for this poisoning has not been found, so you have to be careful while juicing a whole apple. Make sure to remove the seeds before juicing and don’t let your children consume them.
The amount of cyanide that can be poisonous depends on the body weight of each person. It takes about 0.3 to 1.6mg of cyanide per pound of individual human body weight to lead to cyanide poisoning. One gram of apple seeds contains about 1-4mg of amygdalin.
About one gram of ground, chewed, or finely crushed apple seeds may produce .06-0.24 milligrams of cyanide. It takes about 150-200 grams of ground apple seeds to harm the body of an average person.
Wrap Up
Apple juice is quite nutritious for the body that helps in improving the immune system. I hope this information regarding juicing apple seeds doesn’t stop you from making and consuming healthy apple juice.
All you have to is remove the seeds before juicing the apples. Swallowing few apple seeds is harmless, but do not chew them. Don’t allow your children to consume the seeds, as it can be very dangerous for them.