Anyone with experience ingesting AVOCADO SEEDS/ PITS 🥑, do you know of the safety of consuming such seeds 🌰 🌰 ?
[I’m aware of several ways to prepare & consume them ( google.com/search?as_q=eati... ) , my concern is their safety in ingesting them.]
Is it SAFE to eat avocado seeds? 🤔 💭❓
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I’ve poked around Internet (via Google search 🔎 ) for the usual WFPB (Whole Food Plant-Based) leaders that I listen to (Michael Greger, Dean Ornish, Neal Barnard, T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn, John McDougall, Michael Klaper, Joel Fuhrman, et. al.) yet nothing is jumping out at me (from any of them) as ‘mentioning eating avocado 🥑 pits’ or ‘safety in eating the pits’ . . . 🤔
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(Lots of divergent opinions of pros & cons from various other sources though — but none of them from my usual "go-to, reliable" sources. 🙃 )
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Do you have any luck or any insight into finding answers about the safety of ingesting avocado pits from your "go-to, reliable" WFPB sources? 🤔
If so, would you mind sharing links to their information?
Thank you in advance, kind sharer. 🙏 😌
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Much appreciated,
Kai
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Oh, I’d accumulated a nice mound of avocado pits, ready to prepare . . .
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. . . . . . . 🌰 🌰
. . . .🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰
🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰
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. . . until the question of the safety of ingesting them came up! 😳 😬 🙃
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Oh . . . for clarity, I’m not seeking ‘debates/ arguments’ about people’s "opinions" about pros & cons of eating avocado seeds . . . 😳 🙃 😂
I’m merely looking for sources/ references/ links to the views of recognised ‘experts’ from the WFPB community. 😌
[My bumbling search 🔎 efforts are coming up empty handed ✋🤚. I’d greatly appreciate your ‘search 🕵️♀️ 🔎 savvy’! Thank you kindly in advance for your time. 🙏 😌 ]
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19 Replies
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Hi Kai, all plants contain anti nutrients to protect them from predators as plants don’t have the fight or flight ability so their fruits are eaten and the seeds survive and the plant reproduces.
Here’s an article about soaking avocado seeds in water and then boiling them to neutralise/minimise the anti nutrients.
Found these 2 segments from Nutritional and antinutritional compositions of processed Avocado (Persea americana Mill) seeds ( imedpub.com/articles/nutrit... ) (from Pelagia Research Library) interesting:
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🌰 "ABSTRACT
Research has been on-going on many plant materials, especially those discarded as waste, to exploit their nutritional and antinutritional properties. This is as a result of the United Nations’ millennium development goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Avocado (Persea americana Mill) seeds are often discarded after taking the pulp of the fruit. This study is aimed at evaluating the effect of processing methods (soaking and boiling for various periods) on the nutritive values and antinutritional factors of Persea americana seed as a step towards establishing purposeful utilization of the seed. The processed avocado seeds were evaluated for proximate, mineral, antinutritional factors, and vitamin compositions. Raw avocado seed had the lowest moisture content (73.69%) while the soaked seeds had the highest moisture content (80.73%). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in moisture, crude protein, crude fat, ash contents, crude fibre, carbohydrate, vitamins C and E and mineral contents at different processing methods. Boiling of the seeds for 15, 20 and 25 minutes reduced the vitamin A content of the seed by 16%, 13% and 15% as compared with the raw seeds. Soaking of seeds only reduced vitamin A content by 3%. There was high percentage reduction of vitamin C content (81%) in seeds soaked in water as compared with raw seeds. Percentage reduction of vitamin E contents ranged between 4.0% - 7.0%. The raw seeds had the highest content of sodium, calcium and potassium. Soaking reduced the tannin, phytic acid, alkaloid, saponin and oxalate contents of the seeds by 65%, 58%, 64%, 48% and 49% respectively. Boiling for 25 minutes also reduced the tannin, phytic acid, alkaloid, saponin and oxalate contents by 75%, 53%, 79%, 21% and 32% respectively. In general, soaking and boiling of the avocado seeds reduced the antinutritional factors to a large extent."
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🌰 "CONCLUSION
Persea americana is a good source of dietary protein and its high fat content could contribute calories to man and animal ration. The limitation to the full utilization of Persea americana seeds is the high concentrations of antinutritional factors (tannin, phytic acid and alkaloids) which renders it useless for human and animal nutrition. However, processing methods, such as soaking and boiling, reduced the levels of these antinutrients present in the raw seeds."
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Wondering (aloud) if the ‘antinutrients’ concern is why I’m not finding any references to ingesting avocado seeds from my usual WFPB expert’s resources? 🤔 Maybe not worth the trouble/ risk (or ‘preparation effort’) in weighing in balance ⚖️ of nutritional benefits? 🤔 (Merely pondering aloud . . . 🤔 )
[Seems a good thing many of these high ‘anti-nutrient’ foods stuffs are prepared via 💦 , 🌱, 🍞, 🔥💧 , ♨️ . . . . 👍👍 ]
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Like the way they summarised the 5 main anti-nutrients (Phytate (phytic acid), Tannins, Lectins, Protease inhibitors, Calcium oxalate) too & identified what foods they’re found in:
. . . • Phytate (phytic acid): Mainly found in seeds, grains and legumes, phytate reduces the absorption of minerals from a meal. These include iron, zinc, magnesium and calcium.
. . . • Tannins: A class of antioxidant polyphenols that may impair the digestion of various nutrients.
. . . • Lectins: Found in all food plants, especially in seeds, legumes and grains. Some lectins may be harmful in high amounts, and interfere with the absorption of nutrients.
. . . • Protease inhibitors: Widely distributed among plants, especially in seeds, grains and legumes. They interfere with protein digestion by inhibiting digestive enzymes.
. . . • Calcium oxalate: The primary form of calcium in many vegetables, such as spinach. The calcium bound to oxalate is poorly absorbed.
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At ‘ScienceDirect Antinutrients’ reference ( sciencedirect.com/topics/me... ), the ‘High Oxalate Foods’ image, Figure 7.13 (potatoes & yams 🍠 ; beets; raspberries; dark chocolate 🍫 & cocoa powder; black tea☕️ ; buckwheat; wheat bran; beans; nuts & seeds 🥜 ; tofu, miso, & other soya foods 🍲 ; spinach 🍃; swiss chard 🥬 ; rhubarb) caught my eye 👁 .
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(Thank goodness for preparing these foods via 💦 , 🌱, 🍞, 🔥💧 , ♨️ ! ) 😯 . . . . 👍👍 )
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Much appreciated, Jerry!
Thank you for taking time to ferret out both helpful resources. 🙏 😌
All foods need processing. Eg animals must be killed, the carcass stripped and cleaned. Then the meat needs to be stored carefully eg freezer until needed. It then needs high temperature cooking. Reheating of excess must be done with caution. cross contamination is an ever present challenge that when it goes wrong gives humans illnesses including diarrhoea.
I've never eaten avocado seeds, and if it takes two hours to bake them and then the need grinding that means I need a big positive reason to go through that effort, whether that be taste or nutrition. Right nowoI don't see the justification.
Legumes, as an example, on the other hand can be soaked and then cooked meaning that ALL the lectins are gone. The positive reasons for eating legumes are legion. Lots of research shows they are very anti carcinogenic. The fibre leads to good bowel movements which keeps our guts clean and healthy. They are full of protein, more than enough for any human being. The list goes on, all backed by research.
Why go through the effort of 2-hour bake, peeling skins, chopping, grinding, storing . . . . all for questionable benefits?! 😳 🤔 😂
Oy vey! 😯
Your point dovetails beautifully with Agoodenough / Ali’s: ". . . why would you want to eat an avocado seed when there are so many foods to eat?" ( healthunlocked.com/veganfoo... ) 👍👍
🤣 🤪 🙃
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In meantime, I’ll hang onto the lovely mound
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. . . . . . .🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰
. . . 🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰
. . . as gentle, humourous reminder of folly . . . ☺️
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Agreed. Spot on about legumes, Andy!
An overnight soak & hours of slow cooking (obliterating lectins 🦠 ) is well worth the time/ effort for an unquestionably tasty 😋 , delicious, nutritious hot meal 🍲 !
(And, the lovely aroma 💭👃💭 that permeates the house 🏠 is a nice perk along with the meal 🍲 we can feast on for a days 📆 📆 📆 !!)
That definitely tips the scales ⚖️ (of time, effort, nutrition, taste . . .) in favour of legumes. 👍👍
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Aside:
The quantity of pits 🌰 collected, when added up, reveals a surprising 😯 🤯 🤭 amount of money 💰 spent on tasty avocados 🥑 🥑 🥑. Well worth the expense for taste/ nutrition of avocado ‘flesh’. 👍👍 (Yet, would have been nice to have gotten a bit more ‘bang 💥 for the buck 🦌’ via practical use of the seeds. 🙃 )
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Hmm . . . perhaps I should string the pits together like pearls
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. . . . & wear them as an adornment? 🤔 💭
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A sort of ‘fashion statement’ subtly revealing untold wealth as the ’nut necklace’
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. . . . loops around the (other nut’s) neck 🧓 several times
Well I'm glad you popped by, and I'm glad you're ok. Thanks for the lovely things you said, and I think your colourful emojis are great! Yes, here's to keeping our spirits up - it's a good thing!
If you’re ever in the right climate, bexx87, & you’re interested in growing 🥑 from seed, here’s some growing techniques: google.com/search?as_q=grow...
If remembering accurately, I think it’s one those foods that take years(?) to bear fruit? 🤔 😳
[Just checked: 10-15 years according to this text: homeguides.sfgate.com/long-... Oy vey! 😯 We’ll be waiting a looooong time for a tasty 🥑 treat!! 😆 😂 ]
When i was looking up the growth of a blueberry bush i read reports thag said it can take 10 years and when i brought on my friend took the Mickey out me and joked about how i made a silly investment but last year my bush tried 4 times to produce fruit it produced the flowers and cups but couldnt go further in its first year and i found it fascinating to watch and when i brough it indoor out of fear of snow even though its a frost hard plant because my living room is essentially a greenhouse and i keep it at the right temperature i tricked the blueberry bush into coming out of winter dormant mode and into growth i then stupidly put it outside and the leaves are now falling off as its too cold and i feel really bad for my poor plant
People in the office want me to bake cakes and muffins to share with them using the blueberries but i said it depends how many it produces and if i can bring myself to use them as one of my ex boyfriends dad grew gooseberries and would freeze them to use in pies and tarts ect and his wife would constantly be complaining because she had to do all the cooking and couldnt use the freezer as much as there were bags and bags of gooseberries all dated where he had 4 i think and when i was younger i use to go blackcurrant picking with friends in surrounding fields and come back with bags and bags of blackcurrant and my nam would make tarts and pies in the afternoon i miss my nans cooking my mum is a good cook and she and my granddad would grow food i think while i havent inherited their cooking skills i have inherited thier gardening skills as my mum still grows plants in her 9th floor flat and it drives my uncle insane and she grows cat nip for her cats so they eat the plant and run around the flat at speed while is funny and she tried growing vesus fly traps which was fun to watch the cats tease them and they would open the trap and the cats would run off scared
There is a slight amount of persin, a fungicidal toxin similar to a fatty acid, in avocado pits, and the skin, bark, and leaves of the avocado tree. But there is only a very small amount, meaning that the avocado seed is not really poisonous to humans, unless eaten in massive quantities.
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xx
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