Yes, Apple Seeds and Cherry Pits are Poisonous
Wednesday September 12, 2007
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Symptoms of mild poisoning include headache, dizziness, confusion, anxiety, and vomiting. Larger doses can lead to difficulty breathing, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and kidney failure. Reactions can include coma, convulsions, and death from respiratory arrest. There are several treatment options, but the main thing is to limit the absorption of the chemicals from the seeds. Basically, this means it's important to seek immediate medical attention if a child or pet is known to have eaten several seeds. Usually, the plan of action is to pump the stomach or induce vomiting. Antidotes are available, but they are somewhat controversial. If you or someone you know eats a seed or two, don't worry... as I said, your body is well-equipped to detoxify small quantities of cyanide compounds. They naturally occur in several foods. However, if you were wondering whether or not it's true that the seeds and pits are toxic and potentially lethal... yes, apple seeds and cherry pits are poisonous.
What Is the Most Poisonous Chemical? | Food & Cooking Chemistry
Photo: Scott Liddell, morguefile.com
Comments
Impressive! I didn’t know that, but I always remember this quote: “Dose makes poison”
Are you serious? As long as I remember I ate the cherry and swallowed the pit. I grew up in the country. I was never told by my parents both of whom are medical professionals that it could poison me; and I’m very sure they knew about this habit. I still eat the pit and almost never spit it out. Hm something to remember next time I have cherries.
so how do you explain all the folks that have eaten apple and apricot seeds to cure their cancer? it’s my understanding the cyanide is bound and requires a particular enzyme to release it. cancer contains this enzyme so when it attaches to cancer the cyanide is released killing the cancer cells. plenty of people eat these seeds and don’t seem to be dropping dead, in fact, quite the opposite.
I’m not sure how you see that as an argument against their toxicity. Many chemotherapeutic substances are highly poisonous. If you are implying the cyanide compound in the seeds is only active against cancer cells, I believe you are mistaken. People die every year from eating too many of these seeds. Is it possible cancer cells are more susceptible to the toxin than healthy cells? Certainly, but that doesn’t mean it’s categorically safe to eat the seeds.
Eh? What is this “people die every year” stuff? The AMA report that always comes up when anyone talks about apple seeds reports on a single case of fatal seed poisoning. Am I saying people should eat apple seeds constantly? No (although I eat the whole apple, which includes the seeds–though without chewing them). But “people die every year” seems rather… alarmist, ne?
“In fact, if you eat enough apple seeds or cherry pits, you could die.”
Anne, Anne, Anne…..
WOW….Odiously you did not do ANY research on this, except for listing to the A.M.A. or a Doctor that
read this somewhere years ago.
My God women….do some real investigative reporting!!!
NO, NO, NO. Eating apple or cherry seeds will not kill you!!! That is, unless you plan on eating
a bunch of them. But then again, it seams like eating anything in large quantities will kill or make you real sick.
Example, Salt….Your body needs it….eat to little and you will get sick….eat to much and you will Die….its kind of like that.
Also, for the bible thumpers, like me. It says in several places to eat the fruits, nuts and SEEDS of the earth.
For a last thought. Try, just try and find any research that has been done on what quantity of cyanide is in apple or appricote seeds. I dare you.
Below is more info and a hyperlink:
“Everyone should know that most cancer research is largely a fraud…” – Linus Pauling PhD (1901-1994) Two times Nobel Prize winner.
—————————————–
“Eat you apple seeds” —– > http://surfingthetao.vox.com/library/post/eat-your-apple-seeds.html
—————————————–
Vitamin B17 (also called Amygdalin or Laetrile) is one of the most controversial substances in cancer research. It is a nitriloside, which occurs naturally in fruit seeds, some berries, flax, millet, and some beans, leaves, grasses and nuts. Touted as a cure for cancer several decades ago by Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, it has since been discredited by orthodox medicine as “quackery.” Respected researcher Dr. Kanematsu Sugiura was fired after refusing to publish false test results on Laetrile – he stood firm in his belief in it. One of the most famous proponents of B17 is G. Edward Griffin, whose book, video and articles attempt to explain what the fuss is all about.
These and other researchers contend that cancer is little more than a deficiency disease, much like scurvy or pellagra. In cultures that eat foods high in nitrilosides such as the Hunza or the Eskimo, cancer is unheard of. But today, our modern diets have all but eliminated this vital nutrient. The medical establishment, on the other hand, has worked hard to undermine confidence in this substance. Their “official” reason? Because it contains a molecule of cyanide. But Mr. Griffin’s video and many other articles and websites explain how the molecule is uniquely absorbed and used by the body: the only enzyme that can break it down exists only in a tumor cell, so in a sense it becomes a kind of “cancer smart-bomb,” and is neutralized in the body’s other healthy cells.
Of course many also contend that the pharmaceutical industry has a lot of financial incentive to ensure that vitamin B17 remains illegal and unacceptable by the medical establishment. Unable to patent a naturally occurring substance (and thereby in risk of losing a $200 billion a year industry), a war is being waged on the forefront of cancer research – each side supporting various studies on its effectiveness. In fact it is even illegal to sell Laetrile as a cure for cancer in the U.S. – and some have gone to jail for it. Despite this I found information online about proper dosages and “The Little Cyanide Cookbook” which explains how to prepare foods high in Vitamin B17. Foods containing B17 include berries, beans, nuts (especially the bitter almond), and various veggies – but the most is found in apricot seeds (the little seed found inside the pit) and apple seeds – in fact it’s said three apples a day, including the seeds, could prevent cancer.
What’s that old saying, an apple a day? Could be more important than we know.
“…when government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures;…all this is robbery and chaos. It is not in keeping with the Tao.” -Tao Te Ching
Thanks,
Lee
“In fact, if you eat enough apple seeds or cherry pits, you could die.”
Anne, Anne, Anne…..
WOW….Odiously you did not do ANY research on this, except for listing to the A.M.A. or a Doctor that
read this somewhere years ago.
My God women….do some real investigative reporting!!!
NO, NO, NO. Eating apple or cherry seeds will not kill you!!! That is, unless you plan on eating
a bunch of them. But then again, it seams like eating anything in large quantities will kill or make you real sick.
Example, Salt….Your body needs it….eat to little and you will get sick….eat to much and you will Die….its kind of like that.
Also, for the bible thumpers, like me. It says in several places to eat the fruits, nuts and SEEDS of the earth.
For a last thought. Try, just try and find any research that has been done on what quantity of cyanide is in apple or appricote seeds. I dare you.
Below is more info and a hyperlink:
“Everyone should know that most cancer research is largely a fraud…” – Linus Pauling PhD (1901-1994) Two times Nobel Prize winner.
—————————————–
“Eat you apple seeds” —– > surfingthetao.vox.com/library/post/eat-your-apple-seeds.html
—————————————–
Vitamin B17 (also called Amygdalin or Laetrile) is one of the most controversial substances in cancer research. It is a nitriloside, which occurs naturally in fruit seeds, some berries, flax, millet, and some beans, leaves, grasses and nuts. Touted as a cure for cancer several decades ago by Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, it has since been discredited by orthodox medicine as “quackery.” Respected researcher Dr. Kanematsu Sugiura was fired after refusing to publish false test results on Laetrile – he stood firm in his belief in it. One of the most famous proponents of B17 is G. Edward Griffin, whose book, video and articles attempt to explain what the fuss is all about.
These and other researchers contend that cancer is little more than a deficiency disease, much like scurvy or pellagra. In cultures that eat foods high in nitrilosides such as the Hunza or the Eskimo, cancer is unheard of. But today, our modern diets have all but eliminated this vital nutrient. The medical establishment, on the other hand, has worked hard to undermine confidence in this substance. Their “official” reason? Because it contains a molecule of cyanide. But Mr. Griffin’s video and many other articles and websites explain how the molecule is uniquely absorbed and used by the body: the only enzyme that can break it down exists only in a tumor cell, so in a sense it becomes a kind of “cancer smart-bomb,” and is neutralized in the body’s other healthy cells.
Of course many also contend that the pharmaceutical industry has a lot of financial incentive to ensure that vitamin B17 remains illegal and unacceptable by the medical establishment. Unable to patent a naturally occurring substance (and thereby in risk of losing a $200 billion a year industry), a war is being waged on the forefront of cancer research – each side supporting various studies on its effectiveness. In fact it is even illegal to sell Laetrile as a cure for cancer in the U.S. – and some have gone to jail for it. Despite this I found information online about proper dosages and “The Little Cyanide Cookbook” which explains how to prepare foods high in Vitamin B17. Foods containing B17 include berries, beans, nuts (especially the bitter almond), and various veggies – but the most is found in apricot seeds (the little seed found inside the pit) and apple seeds – in fact it’s said three apples a day, including the seeds, could prevent cancer.
What’s that old saying, an apple a day? Could be more important than we know.
“…when government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures;…all this is robbery and chaos. It is not in keeping with the Tao.” -Tao Te Ching
Thanks,
Lee
I hope that you did your research in regards to death by ingestion of seeds that you put forth. It seems to me many more people die from large doses of chemo then by seed pits each year. If indeed you are surpressing a possible helpful benefit of the seeds or pits of a fruit/s which is high in B-17 and a possible health benefit to dreaded cancer, then shame on you. What is your research based on, is it through years of unbiased testing by you or your fellow MD’s.? I don’t buy into much, but I do feel it’s easy to shoot down a possible benefit/cure when it doesn’t go with the status que of your studies. Being that the medical community as a whole has had decades of research done in regards to cancer but is still in it’s baby stages when dealing with the disease, maybe you should refrain from comments. As you and your fellow doc’s have basically done garbage thus far. Keep studying, find a cure, and I’d be more then happy to appologize to you, write a wonderful retraction, send you roses, and vote you in as one of the worlds greatest humanitarians that ever lived. ~Gods Blessings upon you~.
Give me a break. Eating apple seeds are not going to kill you. Dont scare people with bad information.
Nowhere did I ever say eating a couple of seeds would kill you. I would guess most people who have eaten apples and cherries have eaten some seeds. However, I’m sticking to my guns here, people… if you eat too many fresh seeds you risk your health and your life. That is documented fact. Believe me or not, your choice.
Instead of saying that it is documented, please state your sources, because if what you say is true, I want to know.
Thanks,
Can somebody provide pro and con studies concerning weather or not apple seeds are poisonous? There’s gotta be some medical journal, some article, something in writing? Give me a break. This is probably a question for Kevin Trudeau to answer on his natural health website. He has ironclad resources.
I included a link to a reference that cites peer-reviewed publications in this year’s warning post.
Please cite one medical example of death or illness caused by apple seeds.
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1414841
The use of Amygdalin (Laetrile/Vitamin B17) in the treatment of human cancer dates back at least to 1843, although the ancient Chinese are reported to have used bitter almonds containing significant quantities of it in the treatment of tumors some 3,000 years ago.
NATURAL SOURCE
Laetrile is not a miracle drug . It is simply a concentrated form of Nitriloside. Amygdalin (Laetrile/ Vitamin B17) is particularly prevalent in the seeds of those fruits in the Prunus Rosacea family (bitter almond, apricot, blackthorn, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum.) It is found in natural foods which contain nitriloside and has been used and studied extensively for well over 100 years. It is also contained in grasses, maize, sorghum, millet, cassava, linseed, apple seeds, and many other foods that, generally, have been deleted from the menus of modern civilization. Fruit kernels or seeds generally have other nutrients as well, some protein, unsaturated fatty protein, unsaturated fatty acids, and various minerals. The most common source of B17 is the apricot kernel and is present in about a 2-3 percent levels of concentration within the seed kernel.
So there is no confusion please note; there are 3 names which are interchangeable being Vitamin B17, Laetrile and Amygdalin. Vitamin B17 was the name given to the purified form of Amygdalin by a Bio Chemist named Ernst T Krebs in 1952. He also called it Laetrile which is simply short for Lavo-mandelonitrile and was awarded its vitamin status officially in 1952 after advice from Dr Dean Burke who was the co-founder of the National Cancer Institute. Amygdalin on the other hand is said to have been first discovered and used by a German chemist Leibig as far back as 1830. So, laetrile/Vitamin B17 on the other hand is simply a more soluable and concentrated form of amygdalin which allows it to be administered in a much greater concentration. Either way all 3 are essentially the same thing.
Vitamin B17 / Laetrile is probably one of the most controversial medical topics in the last 30 years. You may remember back in the 50’s – mid 70’s there was a lot hype in the medical world regarding a new natural cancer treatment that was discovered that killed cancer cells. This was the result of Dr Ernst Krebs findings and his research in a book called World Without Cancer. Well after several years of court cases and controversy regarding Laetrile it was finally stamped out by the FDA and reported to the mass media in the US as a fraud and failure. They called it Quackery in those days.
TODAY the hype has and is starting again as a result of THE INTERNET. The internet has allowed us to gain information from all over the world on what perhaps really happened.
So how does B17 kill cancer?…… Here we go….
Firstly we need to understand that our bodies use several enzymes to perform many tasks. Our body has one particular enzyme called Rhodanese which is found in large quantities throughout the body but is not present where ever there are cancer cells. Yet, where ever you find cancer in the body, you find another enzyme called Beta-Glucosidase. So, we have the enzyme Rhodanese found everywhere in the body except at the cancer cells, and we have the enzyme Beta-Glucosidase found in very large quantities only at the cancer cell but not found anywhere else in the body. If there is no cancer in the body there is no enzyme Beta-Glucosidase.
Now the following is what scares most people. You see, Vitamin B17 is made up of 2 parts glucose, 1 part Hydrogen Cyanide and 1 part Benzaldehyde (analgesic/painkiller). So its very important you understand the following:
When B17 is introduced to the body, it is broken down by the enzyme Rhodanese. The Rhodanese breaks the Hydrogen Cyanide and Benzaldehyde down into 2 by-products, Thiocyanate and Benzoic acid which are beneficial in nourishing healthy cells and forms the metabolic pool production for vitamin B12. Any excess of these by-products is expelled in normal fashion from the body via urine. Vitamin B17 passes through your body and does not last longer than 80 minutes inside your body as a result of the Rhodanese breaking it down. (Hydrogen Cyanide has been proven to be chemically inert and non toxic when taken as food or refined pharmaceutical such as laetrile. Sugar has be shown to be 20 times more toxic than B17.
Good & Bad Cyanide?
We all know that cyanide is bad for you, yet here we are jumping up and down saying its good for you because it kills cancer. Lets look at the real story.
Hydrogen Cyanide must be FORMED!! There is no free Hydrogen Cyanide in laetrile floating around freely in our body waiting to harm us when we eat apricot seeds or take laetrile. The enzyme Beta-Glucosidase, and only that enzyme is capable of manufacturing and forming the Hydrogen Cyanide from Laetrile. If there are no cancer cells in the body, there is no beta-glucosidase. If there is no beta-glucosidase, no hydrogen cyanide will be formed from laetrile. Even if there were some other way to manufacture cyanide from laetrile in the body, the amount would be so minute it would have little, if any toxic effect.
Laetrile does on the other hand contain the cyanide radical (CN-). So does Vitamin B12 , Cassava and strawberries and a host of other foods we consume. You never heard of anyone getting cyanide poison from vitamin B12 or from eating strawberries because it just does not happen. Lets also look at table salt which is made up of sodium Chloride (NaCl) and is very common in most households. Yet, did you know pure sodium (Na+) is one of the most toxic substances known to man? Yet in their form locked together they are not toxic. Any good toxicologist will tell you sugar is 20 times more toxic than laetrile and salt is also much more toxic.
Now, here is the irony of all of this. Milligram for milligram, the chemotherapeutic agents which are commonly used in the treatment of cancer today, are hundreds of times more toxic than laetrile.
The best way to prove or disprove the vitamin B17 theory of cancer, would be to take several thousands of people, over a period of many years, expose them to a consistent diet of B17 rich nitriloside foods and then check the results. Fortunately this has already occurred by the study of the following cultures; The Hunza, aboriginal Eskimos, Hopi and Navajo Indians, Abkhazians.
HUNZA
In the remote recesses of the Himalayan Mountains, between West Pakistan, India and China there is a tiny Kingdom called Hunza. These people are known world over for their amazing longevity and health. They live well beyond 100 years and have commonly been known to still father children at the age of 110. One of the first medical teams to study the Hunza was headed by world-renown British surgeon Dr Robert McCarrison. Writing in the AMA Journal Jan 7, 1922 he reported:
“The Hunza has no known incidence of cancer. They have an abundant crop of apricots. These they dry in the sun and use largely in their food”.
It is interesting to note that the traditional Hunza Diet contains over 200 times more nitriloside (B17 Rich food) than the average American or Australian Diet. There is no such thing as money in Hunza. A mans wealth is measured by the number of apricot trees he owns. And the most prized of all foods was considered to be the apricot seed. It is very common for the Hunza to eat between 30 – 50 (ie. about 30mg of B17) apricot seeds as an after lunch snack. The thousands of seeds they do not eat they store or grind them very finely and then squeezed under pressure to produce a very rich oil used in cooking and to apply to the skin. The apricot is staple food in Hunza. They use the apricot, its seed and the oil for practically everything. In addition to the ever present apricot, the hunzahuts eat mainly grain and fresh vegetables. These include buckwheat, millet, alfalfa, peas, broad beans, turnips, lettuce, sprouting pulse and berries of various sorts. All of these with the exception of lettuce and turnips contain vitamin B17.
It is important to know when the Hunza leave their secluded land and adopt the menus of other countries, they soon succumb to the same diseases and infirmities including cancer as the rest of man kind.
ESKIMOS
The Eskimos are another people that have been observed by medical teams for many decades and found to be totally free of cancer. The traditional Eskimo diet is amazingly rich in B17 nitrilosides that come from the residue of of the meat of caribou and other grazing animals, and also from the salmon berry. Another Eskimo delicacy is green salad made out of the stomach contents of caribou and reindeer which are full of fresh tundra grass. Tundra grasses such as Arrow are have shown to be contain the highest content of B17 than other grasses.
Alaska’s most famous doctor Dr Preston A Price claims that, “In his 36 years of contact with these people he had never seen a single case of malignant disease among the truly primitive Eskimos, although it frequently occurred when they were modernized.
An interesting point to note is that when an Eskimo leaves his traditional way of life and begins to rely on a western/modern diet he becomes even more cancer prone than the average American.
HOPI & NAVAJO INDIANS
The Indians of North America are another people who are remarkably free from cancer. The AMA went as far as conducting a special study in an effort to discover why there was little to no cancer amongst the Hopi and Navajo Indians. The February 5, 1949 issue of the journal of the American Medical Association declared that they found 36 cases cases of malignant cancer from a population of 30,000. In the same population of white persons there would have been about 1800. Dr Krebs research later found that the typical diet for the Navajo and Hopi Indian consisted of nitriloside-rich foods such as Cassava. He calculated that some of the tribes would ingest the equivalent of 8000mg of Vitamin B17 per day from their diet !!!
ABKHAZIANS
The Abkhazians are found deep in the Caucasus Mountains on the Northwest side of the Black Sea. They are a people with almost the exact same health record and longevity as the Hunzakuts.Their food and lifestyle having to live in a harsh rugged terrain are almost identical. They follow a diet which is low in carbohydrates, high in vegetable proteins and rich in minerals and vitamins, especially vitamin B17.
Im dead. And I’ve been dead for years, according to you. I have a disease that makes me very suseptable to cancer. yet, I am cancer free and feeling much better sense my change in diet. p.s. I was not a real junk food eater before my change in diet. & I work around hexavalent chromic acid and other wonderful cancer causing chimicals.
If you read or watch a little film clip called “A WORLD WITHOUT CANCER” you will hear another side to this debate. Thank you
Anne, Anne, Anne … quit quacking, lolol U speak with a ‘forked tongue’ jus like your lying gov/ama masters! how much $$$$$$ ?
i’ve eaten apricot kernals, apple seeds, etc… no harm. i save the seeds from various fruits and eat kernals. i eat the apple 1 or 2 a day chewing the seeds – VeRy gOOd!
i’ll stay natural an live by example of the Hunzas, Eskimos, etc … you live by gov/ama standards and enjoy your drugs and chemo!
ignorant modern people!
My dad is in the hospital right now because he at too many cherries with the pit! My dad was complaining of headache, dizziness, and weakness all over. He couldn’t stand up and his body began shaking so much. He was vomiting and felt like he was going to die. He was barely able to dial 911. When the paramedics got there, they said he was vomiting up cherries with the pit. My sis thought that was weird and after some research we found this article!! He has no other medical problems and is very healthy. He felt fine prior to eating the cherries. After a few hours, all these symptoms began. He has had many tests, Ultrasound, Ct, Mri, and lab tests which all came back normal. I will try to find out today in regards to his kidneys. He’s feeling better now after a day, but is still in the hospital until tomorrow…
I see the brain washing machine has claimed another victim. In the same way that fire can be dangerous or a great benefit when used in a controlled environment to provide cooked food heat etc. The same is the case with various substances found in nature such as B17 containing foods (I take 12 apricots seeds crushed and added to other foods and also eat a couple of whole apples a week and have never felt better). Whilst it is true that to much of anything can poison you including B17 even to much water can dilute the blood and kill you! there was a case a couple of years ago where this happened. What frustrates me is that the “Pharmaceutical Industry” is so hell bent on protecting it’s ill gotten gains and through the main stream continues to brainwash the masses with scare stories about natural foods and the likes. Remember this, that while there are substances in nature that are totally dangerous, We are a biological walking thinking machine and therefore need to be serviced and maintained with an array of vitamins, minerals, amino acids etc. in their natural state, some in larger amounts and some in smaller & trace amounts. What our systems do not thrive best on is the artificially created chemical compounds known as drugs, even though these have their place in the case of pain relief and a few other situations.
If people do their research with an open mind in a un-biased way they will find our that there are several community on planet Earth that ingest B17 foods well in excess of even what I say I take every week and they do not get cancer, heart disease or other aliments that we in the western world suffer from – that is FACT.
If I had posted a caution on the potentially lethal nature of ethanol I doubt I would have been lambasted, so why assume I categorically disapprove of ingesting prunis species seeds?
What I said was, if you eat too many of the seeds you can get sick or die. That’s fact. To those of you posting about healthful benefits and therapeutic uses: it doesn’t help your case to twist my words or flame me or make assumptions. I’d much rather see references that support your claims so that other people reading this blog post can make informed decisions.
My goal is to prevent sickness and death of pets and kids, since they are the ones most likely to overdose on the seeds. Is exposure to trace amounts of chemicals in the seeds beneficial? Maybe, maybe not. That is not what I posted about, was it?
I eat an apple a day, and chew up and swallow the seeds. They contain nitrilisides(sp?) which prevent and can even cure cancer. The cyanide they contain can only be released by cancer cells which are then annihilated by the cyanide. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO0I2jWthko
If you doctors are so smart, then why do 1 in 3 people now get cancer? Hmmm? They didn’t in the 1950’s. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT LADY!
You have failed us. Why should we believe you? The cancer treatment industry is hundreds of billions per year. If a simple, natural preventative were discovered, billions would be lost by pharmaceutical companies and doctors. So you just keep trying to keep your scam going. I will continue to eat my apple seeds, and
NEVER GET CANCER!!!! HOORAY!!!
btw, are you a eugenicist?
Just asking.
-A Truthteller
I wish i could believe apple seeds and such were the miracle cure, but then how do you explain babies and children with cancers?
Also asbestos,smoking,radiation etc have all been proved to cause cancers. And i’m sure people with cancer have tried this miracle cure and still died!
I’d love to believe it,but there are just too many unanswered questions.
Anne you’re speechless, I wonder why…
Most of us would be if we took to time to read.
I know this is a bit off the topic, but my mother was given an almond that was broken up into small pieces by one of her friends. Her friend had told her that this almond had worked wonders for her because she shed a few good pounds in a month or so. I took a look at the almond pieces and it they did not look like your average sweet almond. I did some research and I think that my mother was given was a bitter almond.I was concerned at the time. My mother did say that she would only have to take a small piece each night before she went to bed. Learning that this almond is rich in B12, I am now more at ease. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could shed some light on the benefits( or harm?) of eating bitter almonds in small quantities.
Those without a sense of logic or literacy will flame Anne and attack the straw man of B17’s efficacy on cancer.
Read a little bit, people. She did not say anything about B17 or cancer. She said “enough” seeds. In the opening line. Can you understand that?
As in: “If you eat enough salt, you could die.” NOWHERE in the article does it say that eating a certain amount DOES NOT prevent cancer.
If you want to post about B17, go ahead. Just don’t attack the author over something she did not write. Unless you want to look like a fool.
The title is rather misleading. In the interest of warning the public against potentially toxic substances, perhaps we should have a closer look at conventional prescriptions. The likelihood of overdosing on one of these is far greater than the likelihood of overdosing on apple or cherry seeds. Whilst you would have difficulty tracking down fatalities resulting from cyanide toxicity, you won’t struggle to find fatalities linked to the overdose of prescription toxins.
I think it’s important to note that the ingestion of a whole cherry pit would result in little more than a fecal deposit that contains something that appears strikingly like a whole cherry pit.
The tale of the father who ate too many cherries can be disregarded as having anything to do with acute cyanide toxicity.
Now – I just happen to not only be a bit of a science type, but also a proponent for the cyanogenic glycoside theory. Steve above has a reasonable understanding of the process, but it would be irresponsible not to clarify a particular detail I’ve noticed to be off, and I’ll add a thing or two in the interest of public safety.
I’ll begin by saying that most fruit seeds are potentially toxic in that, it’s possible to overwhelm the body’s natural ability to process the inherent HCN (cyanide); however, it’s highly unlikely that a person would consume any of these seeds in this sort of quantity. For instance, the average apricot kernel contains between 2 to 3 mg/kernel of BOUND HCN. The lethal dose of FREE HCN is considered to be in the vicinity of 3 mg/kg of body weight. The cyanide, as it’s contained in the seed, is not free cyanide, so the quantity containing this dose wouldn’t have the same impact as the liberated HCN.
In order for a 70 kg man to ingest a lethal dose of apricot kernels, he’d have to consume upwards of 85 seeds in a sitting. But because this isn’t free cyanide, that number would be considerable, given the time-release nature of the bound glycoside, which would be directly proportional to the presence of enzymes to metabolise the compound. Because the effect of HCN isn’t accumulative, a rather massive quantity of these seeds could, technically, be eaten over the course of a day with little or no signs of toxicity and without damage to the body, as long as the individual doses weren’t greater than the body’s capacity to process them.
Steve – you should make this correction to your spiel for future presentation.
Beta-glucosidase IS present in the body outside of cancerous tissue. Cancer needn’t be present for the liberation of cyanide. What’s more relevant here is the absence of rhodanese within cancerous tissue.
Because beta-glucosidase is present within healthy tissue, the free HCN can indeed pose problems if the body isn’t able to process it faster than it is being delivered. In unusual circumstances where a person presents with symptoms of cyanide toxicity as a result of eating these seeds, the issue is likely not with the quantity ingested, but the failure of the body to process it at a normal, healthy rate. In order for the rhodanese system to function adequately, it needs to draw from a source of sulphur – usually in the form of sulphur-bearing amino acids, such as L-Cysteine. If these are deficient, there will likely be an issue with neutralisation of the HCN. For this reason, should anyone using amygdaline for therapeutic benefit experience symptoms of excessive cyanide, it’s a good idea to begin supplementing with NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine)or even whey protein isolate. Chances are also good in this event that your glutathione levels are struggling, in which case, either or both of the above supplements will be of great additional benefit.
Unless someone has been collecting them over time, I think it is highly unlikely an individual will be presented the opportunity to overdose on apple seeds. You’d have to eat a hell of a lot of apples in one sitting, and the seeds will have had to be chewed very well.
It is really very excellent to discover harmful matter in the things used daily. It means we should never drink apple juice untill we know about it whether seeds were separated or not.
It is excellent as it is beneficial for everybody to warn about the things of daily use. It means we should never drink apple juice as it may be harmful becuase most of the people don’t separate the seeds. Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!
Well if apple seeds contain cyanide it must be in very small amounts.
When I was a teenager (many years ago) I had an insect collection and had a cyanide jar ( a bit jar with some potassium cyanide in plaster at the bottom , bought from the local drug store ). It was used to kill the insects so they could be mounted in a display case.
As such I KNOW what potassium cyanide smells like . It has a very heavy sweet smell. Break open a fresh peach pit and smell it … same smell … ditto for sour cherries , but not as much as peach pits .
I have been eating apple seeds for a while, and heard thru the grapevine that they are poisonous,now I am sure,thankyou…
How poisonous are plum seeds? How many do you have to eat before you start feeling sick?
Also, where is the poison? The seed has a hard cover which can be cracked, and then the “real” seed is inside. Is that what’s poisonous?
That’s pretty interesting. You learn something new every day.
That is the biggest crock of garbage you will ever read. I wonder how much the writer of this article was paid by the FDA to write this. Pits of plums, peaches, etc contain vitamin b17 shown to kill cancer. Google or youtube Jason Vale + b17
I think that some of us who believe the goodness of Vitamin B17 are concerned with your post because:
1. It suggests that the seed does not have any benefit and we do not have any reason to eat it at all.
2. The title and the last sentence would imply to general public that they should avoid the seeds at all time.
3. There is no strong proof to support the theory.
In my opinion, you should include something like “eating too much of anything will do harm”, “may be there are some benefits below certain amount”.
It is good that you included that eating a few seeds is ok and there is this comment section.
What make me laugh is the sponsored links at the bottom of this page is selling Vit B17/Laetrile products. ;D
Echizen,
I’ve given this some thought and I may write a separate post about the potential health benefits of eating small quantities of the seeds to get laetrile and other healthful compounds. However, my biggest concern is with the general public, who may be unaware that eating too many of the seeds is dangerous or potentially lethal. Yes, it’s true that eating too much of anything is dangerous… even water will kill you if you drink enough. It’s a matter of dose. The seeds are more like iron than water. It takes a relatively low dose to go from beneficial to harmful or lethal.
~ Anne
Frankly, I find it incredible how strongly medical Morons seek to hype up the toxicity of natural food supplements such as Apricot, plum, apple, and other seeds. . .
[[[These are less toxic than coffee (a true poison). They contain vast amounts of Vitamin B17, laetrile, and are used in Asian medicine to improve circulation, and aid the digestive tract. Oh and guess what, Plum and Apricot kernel extract is what they use to make almond extract with. Taste one and you’ll see.]]]
. . . Yet at the same time, these Same Medical “Professionals” FAIL to reveal the toxicity of Fluoride Tooth paste. It’s the same fluoride they use to kill rodents with in Rat poison. So, either they are saying poison is ok (even essential) in small, non-lethal doses, or we are lied to about whatever saves/makes the FDA the most money.
I chew up the apple seeds and flower petals that I know to be safe and full of life. I often take a hammer to other flavorful, but slightly bitter hard seeds like plum. Brewing peach kernels makes a great decoction that is very soothing and stimulating to the stomach enzyme activity and also relaxing to the nervous system. I chew cartilage and suck the marrow from chicken bone ends. I love the taste of apricot seeds.
Egyptians and other civilizations did these things for Centuries. The Asians continue these ancient practices with expertise and to date no one has died from such edible sources. At lest not short of choking or mistake in poisonous plant species.
It’s also interesting how “detox” is never contributed to symptoms experienced from natural remedies. They are all passed off as harmful and “unfounded”. I wish I had a penny for every time I’ve heard that word. Why won’t someone spend some of your millions of embezzled dollars meant for studying cancer and try to “found” some of this stuff????
Apricot seeds use to be readily available in health stores across America. I won’t mention why they were removed from shelves but it wasn’t because people were dying. If that was the case, they would have removed fluoride toothpaste a LONG time ago.
Only in our bizarre world today do we try to find “cures” in packaged pills rather than seeking health and “prevention” through Gods natural garden.
Prenten Frazier, thanks for saving me the trouble, I was going to go into a reply along similar lines as you have done.
However I would like to add, that as a researcher into health and political agendas that always seems to support power and wealth generation, all roads always seem to lead back to BIG BUSINESS and their protection, rather than to protection of the people. I have submitted a link regarding this B17 subject, just like anything (even the consumption of water) people should always be aware that TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING can be health & life threatening. Be responsible but don’t scaremonger (as the writer has done at the beginning of this article) is the motto here.
…my God, the lack of intelligence and surge of inflated ego in these posts astounds me. She is NOT trying to discredit your “panacea”, nor inspire a panic! And as for using youtube and google as a source…are you serious? Use an actual credible source, not a social site festering with idiots or a search engine.
However, I do agree that natural food is very healthful- BUT you guys are going too far and treating it like some cure-all. Check the National Cancer Institute for info- there are actual studies done with the Laetrile.
Also for those of you claiming that cyanide can cure cancer, you are wrong. In those studies I just mentioned, none of the patients were cured by Laetrile. Several had decreased pain and tumor size WHILE they were taking Laetrile. In others the cancer progressed, and two had symptoms of cyanide poisoning. Look it up at that website if you want all the info.
Another thing I’d like to point out. The Laetrile is a MODIFIED form of amygdalin (the cyanide), meaning it’s not really natural. Unless you want the one from Mexico…yeah.
Anyway, the point is that eating some seeds won’t kill you, unless you have a death wish and ingest a pound or more of crushed seeds in one sitting. There is a reason why cyanide poisoning is called cyanide poisoning.
Oh and as for medical “morons”…I find that laughable. I guess going through eight years of schooling and studying human anatomy and physiology makes them less reliable then someone who plucked their info from random websites in a few minutes, hm? PLEASE guys, use reason and good judgment, rather than trying to preach to anyone who passes by. You’re not doctors, don’t pretend to be.
im confused. i eat apples whole all the time but nothing bad has ever happened to me.
why is this
What an ill-informed debate this is on more or less all sides. Try this: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/laetrile.html
How many seeds does it take to be lethal? I had a college professor who claims he knew someone who ate an entire cup at one time and died.
How many apple seeds you need to eat to get poison, Jack Lalanne’s juicer can juice the whole apply, he is still healthy and I would like to live to his age …
How many apple seeds in one half cup?
Beware of my comments – I am no scientist – just someone who has had some experience with the topic – and has done some research on it as well. I would suggest anyone who wants to learn about this do much more research prior to believing the author’s ’scientific’ view or my own ‘layperson’s’ opinion.
First to the author of the article:
You could be honest and tell the entire scientific truth about your answer respecting the actual dose of peach or apricot pit one would need to consume before any symptom is noticed. (for humans not dogs!!)
While you are at it, you might also follow up by informing the public of the complete contents found in a peach or apricot or apple pit/seed. You know…the compound that neutralizes the toxic effect of cyanide in the food substance.
If you oppose this degree of truthful disclosure you may also need to start a scare campaign against water…it contains hydrogen you know. And come to think of it, we all know that hydrogen ignites if exposed to a flame….somebody better tell those firemen that before they actually attempt to extinguish another fire by using explosive H2O !!!
I have been eating peach pit seeds and whole apple and pear seeds with the fruit for some time now. Perhaps the ’scientist’ who wrote this article can compare for us the ACTUAL amount of peach pit seeds one would have to eat prior to any (if any)harmful effects compared to the amount of Tylenol one has to eat prior to any harmfull effects. (Someone please look up the amount of deaths per year caused by Tylenol consumption)
In fact there has recently been discovered an entire population whose main food intake is apricot seeds…and the average lifespan for that community is 150 years old. (But the FDA would not tell us that.) Somebody better tell those folks that they are eating poison!
God gave us the entire fruit for food – and you can read that in Genesis. He also uses the simple things to confound the ‘wisdom’ of the world. The love of money is truly the root of all evil – what would the pharmicutical companies say if the general public found out the actual healing elements found in simple fruit seeds?
Well they already have…thanks to lobbying the FDA you cannot sell vitamin B17 or apricot seeds or peach seeds legally !!!
Would the author of the article care to research the true findings of case studies involving volunteer patients treated by a diet including apricot seeds? That would be good for the folks to see.
Like the rest of you, I have done vast amounts of studying on this topic in an attempt to prove everyone else wrong.
I have come to the following conclusion:
Toy Story 2 was OK!
READ THIS AND PASS IT ON: Yesterday, for my birthday I received a VERY POWERFUL BLENDER. The cookbook that came with the machine said to remove the seeds on one particular recipe, but never said REMOVE ALL THE SEEDS AS THEY RELEASE POISONOUS TOXINS WHEN PULVERIZED AND EATEN IN NUMBERS.
I heard how the person demonstrating the unit put whole grapes in it and how nutritious the seeds are. I had no grapes but I had apples. I washed and quartered them and dropped them into the blender….8 of them and I ate my fresh applesauce as I took all my morning medicines and got sicker and sicker.
I am blessed to be sure, for I am a senior citizen and I live all alone. I felt so ill, I slept 6 hours and I could not shake it off. I had no idea, until this evening, what had really happened. SPREAD THE WORD !!
What a bunch of nonsense ! Must be employed by Big Pharma.
As long as one chews and swallows less than one pound of apple seeds (or any other seed containing nitrilosides) each day, you’ll be just fine, and if you had cancer before you started chewing and swallowing the seeds, you will NOT have it after.
virgina helgelson.. or whatever your name is. if you are a senior citizen i’m sure your chances of getting sick are a bit higher then they used to be and it was probably coincidence.
anyways. TRADER JOE’S sells apricot kearnels now. They are are rather tasty too! But maybe everyone should hurry and buy them now because if it is true that the benefits are so good then they might not be sold for long!
Man that was fun to read. Pseudo science rules ok by the looks of things, a few of you people even quote the bible in an attempt to refute the toxicity of cyanide compounds! Only in America would you read such hysterical, paranoid nonsense, hope youv’e all wound that tinfoil round your head before “they” get you.
“In fact there has recently been discovered an entire population whose main food intake is apricot seeds…and the average lifespan for that community is 150 years old”
/facepalm
Wow. This is my first time here but I think there is a lot to learn about cancer and its alternative treatments. There is always risk involved when it comes to treating a disease. I am sure politics is involved and at the end it’s all about money. I and you are the victims.
But anyway, I try to eat about 8 to 10 apple seeds a day without any problem and I also eat other fruits. They are always good for you. Now we know that some seeds are toxic because of all the technology we have but I am sure people back in 1800s didn’t think the way we are now thinking about seeds.
We also can’t say some Indians or groups of people never had cancer for hundreds of years because we don’t know if they had or not. Now we can detect cancer in our body by doing a test and still sometime it’s hard to detect them on time and we die. Detecting cancer with technology 100 years ago? I am sure you can’t just look at the person and say you have cancer. LOL I am sure lot of them died of cancer and no one knew why the person died.
On the other hand, more people die faster from CEMO than cancer itself. In the case of vitamin B17, i am sure there are benefits since we all are talking about it for years now. Talking about B17 is like talking about UFO. Some people believe and some people don’t.
I believe on both and I may be wrong but personally, I would like to see it happen too!!!!! My two wishes:
1. Seeing UFO with my eyes on the sky.
2. Seeing a cancer patient getting treated with B17 (eating seeds).
Many of those who flame this article don’t realize that both they and the author are correct. Dosage determines poisoning. Small amounts of many poisons are actually beneficial to living organisms. The other side of the argument is that feeding an infant crushed cherry pit paste is probably not a good idea. To those who say that B17 cures cancer seem to be small minded about human pathology. No one thing alone cures or prevents cancer, and this actually has no relevance on whether it is poisonous or not.
apple seeds have cured cancer also apricot seeds why not mention this? is it becuse cancer is a billion doller industry? dont get me wrong dont go mad by eating lodes of them but a small amount in your diet can only be a good thing it contains vitamin b17 just google it if
I’ve eaten lots of apricot seeds (about a handful a day), and I always eat the apple seeds (core and all – even the stem sometimes). It is true that anything is toxic depending on the dosage. The “toxins” found in apricot seeds are less toxic than table sugar.
I am amazed that so many people would post their replies without bothering to do any re-reading or correction of grammar errors. Most of you write like children. This also suggests that the research behind the “proofs” that are presented is equally poor. There may well be benefits to the compounds found in such seeds, but the fact remains that am unsupervised child, with access to a large bag/basket of apples, cherries, etc. COULD potentially kill themselves by eating TOO MANY seeds.
At the same time I do agree that the author seems to have had somewhat biased motives in what she wrote, as the whole story was not presented. Then again, anyone living in the US should be used to this as virtually every media outlet in the country presents a very biased and Government censored view of EVERY event that takes place. It is time that the individual writer or reporter is no longer attacked for this, we must all start blaming those who insist that only the view of Big Business (and thus their puppets, the government) is to be heard. There USED to be a Constitution in America. This has been replaced with a Patriot Act and other nonsense that allows them to do tell us whatever they want us to know and deny us the right to have the real truths.
I am a nurse. I can tell you first hand that patients die more from Chemo than fruit seeds. I have known sick people who have prolonged their lives with fruits, including the seeds, but I have yet to see ONE person survive cancer who had METS.
I had the pleasure (cough cough) of seeing drug companies like Pfizer bring in their pens and goodies, meanwhile our patients couldn’t even afford their medications.
By the way, here is a former Pfizer worker who blew the whistle on how studies are done, who is told to hush, and if you don’t hush, you can lose your job.
PETER ROST former PFizer worker speaks out about how doctors were paid by drug companies to push a drug that killed a child
http://peterrost.blogspot.com/2008/06/cbs-news-drug-companies-pay-doctors-57.html
If you question the proof that it may prevent or help cancer, then you should question why the FDA could not prove that Tobacco caused lung cancer for the longest time (even though they make mega bucks to perform studies)
http://www.cancertutor.com/Other/BogusScience.html
Your time could be much better spent on sharing testimonies from those who praise the natural, God given fruits, than scaring people from eating healthy. Shame on you!
I have semi-retired from nursing because I can’t stand to see all of the side effects from drugs, all in the name of greed!
I agree with the bulk of the comments that your information is a bit overstated. While apple seeds are, in fact, slightly poisonous, very little of it can ever reach your system unless you chew the seeds up as the seeds are well equipped to survive the trip through your intestinal system completely intact. Since, as you note, your body will break down small amounts of the poison without effect, you would have to eat a whole lot of seeds to show any effects of poison. I eat typically eat the whole apple (core and all) so I ingest seeds frequently without effect. In case your wondering why anyone would eat the core, it’s simply convenient – by consuming it I don’t have to find a trash can or leave a core laying around to make a mess, attract bugs, etc..
My goodness. When will it end? Anne,the attached title on the end of your name doesn’t give you the right to out right misinform or provide biased information to the public. If you want to help save lives, write articles that teach HONEST proper nutrition and not frighten others. Write an article on how others should enbrace the Bibles teachings on proper nutrition and not what labs and drug company sponsored reports have to say. It’s a disgrace really. Do your research.
Seeds contain cyanide (the bitter taste), this is persumed dangerous, however this is only when in a compound. On its own, in apple seeds, this contains a rare vitamin B, which people in Thailand eat having a life expectancy of 90 years and almost non existant of cancer. The bible suggests to eat fruit seeds and nuts with good reason, if we did this rather than eat burger chips and coke, many illnesses parent today would not occur.
Dosage…
… Never take anything from the Bible as more than suggestion…Teachings on proper nutrition from writings that say people used to live 900 years when in reality back then they were lucky to live into their 30s or 40s? and that was old age…
… I’m not saying one way or another… sure there are arguments for both sides but to believe that you can be CURED totally by just eating these seeds is lunacy. Just as believing that whatever doctors say will work will work.
And where is the documentation for this group of people who average a 150 year lifespan?
Wow – this topic sure brought out the fringe element, huh? So far I’m seeing such compelling arguments as:
1) I eat seeds and don’t have cancer, therefore it must prevent cancer.
2) I eat seeds and I’m not dead, therefore it must not be toxic.
3) I read info refuting this on , so you must be wrong.
Always amazed at how many people want to believe in conspiracies of the medical profession hiding this miracle cure and prevention of cancer. Better yet, I’m amazed at how “knowledgeable” commenters are about these subjects yet can’t spell their way out of a paper bag.
You can safely ingest as many seeds as you would normally eat fruit in a day. In fact, you could eat a lot more than that. Go ahead and stick to your guns on this one but you are flat out wrong! C’mon, do the research. Don’t just parrot what you read, actually look for facts that back up what you say. Facts – not AMA junk.
does regular drinking of large amounts of alcohol make it more difficult for your body to naturally process the cyanide?
it is true…apple seeds contain cyanide which if ingesting enough of it deprives your blood cells the ability to deliver oxygen. Although the outing of an apple seed can withstand the digestive track so you would have to purposely chew and swallow ALOT of seeds for you to die from it.
The reason babies get cancer is because of them and their parents being bombarded from womb to grave with carcinogens in the environment. Fluoride, chlorine, heavy metals etc in the water supply for instance, which are most harmful when inhaled whilst in the shower. Don’t even get me started on all the goodies in the vaccines they feed us. There are plenty of ways people get cancer, and in my informed opinion it is by design. No doubt good old Anne has her hand in the designer’s pocket to come out with this blatant violation of the truth.
i am a cancer patient. had 2 bouts of chemo (8 cycles in 2006-2007 and 6 cycles in 2008) and a 38 day radiation after my chemo last year. still having herceptin. t’was tough. it’s tough. my life has been on a standstill for over 2 years now. i still have this fear that my cancer might return and i’m not even done with my treatment yet. at this point, i’m not gonna lose anything if i start eating my apples with the seeds and start taking vit b17 both in its natural and pill form. i’m fighting for my life and i welcome every and all suggestions that will help me win this fight. i’ll start with the apple seed.
All you people trying to use the Bible as a credible source of nutritional information are idiots. If you want to base your food choices around a book that was written hundreds of years ago, you go right ahead. I’ll keep on eating my apples and throwing away the cores.
Also, “Eat the fruits, nuts and SEEDS of the earth?” Funny, but nowhere in that line did I see the words “apple,” “peach,” “plum” or “apricot.” Nor does the passage say that you should eat the poisons of the earth, but since you apparently think that it means apple seeds and peach pits in particular, I guess it probably means that you should in fact poison yourself too. Sound advice in my opinion.
But hey, I’m just a sinful unbeliever bound for the eternal flames of hell so what do I know right?
what a funny investigation, someone there says correct, cherry pits and apple seeds is not poisonous, you know why? and what she said? you will only die if you eat bunch of it. correct, ryt?
The last comment by Michelle shows the ignorance of the “layperson”! As a physician for many years, I know for a fact that apple seeds are poisonous. With spelling errors that she committed it is no wonder at her knowledge-base!
I am confused about you lady!!!
Do you work for the FDA?
what is your interest in taking people away from eating natural seeds, if that is known for a long time to cure and even prevent cancer?
We are in different times now? we are not innocent anymore! People want answers, true answers and helps, true cures!!!! no confused people which add more confussion!
It s about lives! saving lives! not about defending an institution nor personal interest!
May God Help us all!
I think the important part of what Anne Marie said is that if you chew up the seeds you will release the toxin and too much of anything is bad for you but too much water and too much dynamite are two different things altogether. The real info that applies to me that only one person who repied to the article stated is regarding someone who juices. A juicer will pulverise the seed and release the ‘toxin’ or ‘cancer killer’ much more so than chewing(while swallowing probably will not release anything). The question that I need answered is what is the crux point of benign or cancer killing and making me feel ill or dead? How many whole Apples can I send through my Jack Lalaine Juicer before I will feel ill? This is a real question as I am a juicer and I routinely send 4 to 6 apples through my juicer. Now I always mix it with other fruits but if all I had was Apples how many could I use?
I have read about apple seeds being poisonus since summer. Ever since I have now about 6-7 months of apple seeds collected in a sandwich bag. Apple seeds from Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden, and Gala’s. To get an idea how much they are its only a handful, not worth for both hands. Everytime I open the baggy it gives out a woody aroma from all the seeds. I doubt its potent yet. Maybe for a small bird(sparrow) but I think it will die of over feeding.
You clearly have not read the book “A world without cancer” by G Edward Griffin. It is foolish of you to speak on a subject you are not an expert on. These seeds are not poisonous and do cure cancer as the poison (hydrogen cyanide) is only unlocked by a certain enzyme the cancer cell produces thereby killing only the cancer cell. But I am no expert on these matters either. You’ll just have to read for yourself what experts on this matter say. Please retract your statements until you have researched this further.
hey
Apple seeds are good for you they contain B17 which is a vitimin which cures cancer in some ways it attacks the cancer cells which to then it sends out acid to kill the cels
The author of this article is either purposefully blowing this out of proportion or is ignorant. As she has a p.h.d, I assume the former. Vitamin B17 is essential to good health in the correct ‘dosages’.
Anything can be considered poisonous in too little or too much quantity (such as water, sugar, and salt). It would take an unnatural amount of seeds to cause one to be ill (refer to a commenter’s post above corresponding to body weight and amount of seeds ingested).
Eating a ‘normal’ amount of apples a day along with their seeds will be beneficial (say three apples a day).
Anne,
You have been continually blasted for providing information that has a basis but which stands in the way of what I and many others see. Eating the seeds of many fruits can be beneficial if not over done. You can step up to the plate and help save lives in many ways by providing some realistic toxicity data.
I have researched and found only one legitimate case where someone was hospitalized from ingesting laetril. The child died, not from the laetril but from a dangerous antidote given in haste.
As for attacks on suppliments such as laetril, I have read many booklets published by the ACS on various cancers and treatment. Nowhere can I find any ACS support of any nutritional or suppliment for the treatment of cancer. In fact, they take every opportunity to subtly demote any such efforts. Almost all funding that the ACS receives goes to big pharma studies.
You should be aware that the FDA ignorantly outlawed tryptophan for years to help big pharma sell SSRIs. Tryptophan is a necessary amino acid and is important in serotonin production. In light of this, the FDA has outlawed laetril to help Big Pharma make more money. There is little danger in taking reasonable amounts of laetril, just no profit for big pharma or the FDA.
Also, I saw someone mention quackwatch … the last place that anyone should expect to find reliable information.
I was just researching the theoretical concentration of amygdalin in apple seeds when I ran across this gem. Don’t know anything about leatrile or B17 or anything else, but I love apples, have degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering, and don’t care much about the controversy… this is dialogue hilarious. Our PhD friend needs a tune up.
What I get out of it is that apple seeds do contain amygdalin – with a molecular weight of 457.4 – Amygdalin contains a single CN functional group (that would be a cyanide group, molecular weight of 26). It appears that the metabolytes of Amygdalin are mixed when decomposed by HCl in stomach acids… The plot thickens!
Oral doses with NO ADVERSE AFFECTS (EPA, 1990a-e; 1991a-e)* are about 10mg of straight cyanide per kg of body weight per day. Since I weigh a healthy 90 kg, I can eat about 100 mg of cyanide – straight cyanide – per day with no adverse affects. Don’t try this at home. Let’s further assume that apple seeds are a whopping 1% amygdalin (no reference yet). To get to 100 mg of CN, and assuming all of the CN in the amygdalin is metabolized to cyanide, I need to eat 176 GRAMS OF APPLE SEEDS PER DAY. By my eyeball, that means I’d have to eat 706 APPLE SEEDS PER DAY TO SHOW NO ADVERSE AFFECTS. Please note that I still have not found the refence amygdalin concentration. If you find it, please post. The granny smith I’m eating right now has six seeds. I think I’m safe.
*This my friends is a foot note. Try it. Its FUN.
Thanks Michael J before me for clearing up the estimated amount of Apple seeds you would have to consume before they are dangerous.
I think the article has merit and is undoubtfully has truth in it but is an article I find that leaves out an important factor…What is the amount of seeds one would consume for it to be deemed as toxic?
The same can be said about most things…I once upon a time in my youth ingested 500grams of dark chocolate and funnily enough became violently sick! hehe. Maybe I should write an article about the toxicity in chocolate!!!
Noone has written an article on this funnily enough and so I wonder why an article like this one was written? I can understand why others are linking this to the AMA cover up of the benefits of Vitamin B17 as its a well known fact that these seeds are some of the richest sources of amygdalin.
To (39) Michelle. Your comments were so contradicting telling people to use a “credible source” of information then you quote “The National Cancer Institute”. How ridiculous is that?? Thats like asking the AMA themselves what they think of Vitamin B17 as they are funded by drug industries.
To (57) Nurse95. Thank you for writing in and getting a person with real life experience on the matter. Thank you for the links also. Now if we could so something about all this Bureaucratic bullshit!!
For the people who say the seed won’t release its poison as long as it in not chewed or crushed, that kind of defeats the whole purpose. It would seem the seed should be broken to get the benefits inside, otherwise what is the point. B17 needs to be released to attack the damaged cells.
To the physician who says that apple seeds are poisonous, so is the mercury that we give patients in flu shots (>200 times toxic dose).
To the girl, michelle, who is making fun of u-tube and google sources, I think everyone on here besides you realize these are good sources when they show the DOCUMENTATION and research. The b17 video on utube does just that. No one is watching you tube and taking a stranger’s opinion as truth.
To those who support the medical studies, I would suspect and have heard the doses were to low. However, doses were never evaluated and all the medical studies used the SAME DOSE which was low to prove their point. Most of the physicians I work with now acknowledge the conflict of interests with FDA, drug companies, etc. The drug companies are the ones who put up the money to have their drug studied and amazingly they always seem to get the results they wanted. If one actually reads the studies from a analytical approach and possesses a statistical background, they would see that the majority of these studies are crap. Laypeople and the medical field just skip to the conclusion and read the results and rarely does someone notice the flaws in the method of the study.
To the arrogant atheist, gloat now and gnash teeth later. There are many of your type in the Bible and all eventually realized their ignorance hate for Truth.
To the jokers who doubt the conspiracy, I will give you some stuff to look-up. First find a study that shows that adding fluoride to water is good for you. Not topical fluoride but systemic like in the water supply. Why does Europe not do this? Why was communist Russia using it? Did you know the same doctor who proposed leaded gasoline also gave the fluoride idea? Why is it in rat poison? Why is there a poison alert on your toothpaste?
Look up how Baxter was caught with live virus flu vaccinations. What was there intention? Also look-up how Baxter was administering a hemophyliac drug that contained HIV. I know you won’t believe that but it is a fact, look it up. There are people in prison in France because of this but no one at Baxter is in trouble.
To the guy who posted a link to an article blasting Krebs and others for profiting off of this, what do you think big pharm is doing. They give us expensive poisons that kill all cells and tell us not to eat cheap seeds cause they are poison. How many of you seed eaters lost your hair and vomited the rest of the day? Ask your doctor about the benefits of ______, while we give your doctor free samples to get you on it for good or until the patent runs out. When it does they will just add a small branch to the molecule and give it a new name like Nexium, the new purple pill. Why doesn’t the FDA hold them accountable for such deception? You think the criminals are in banking only? These same international bankers own controlling interest in the big pharm companies also, look that up. The executives just bounce around from the FDA, to company A, to company B. This sounds just like how banking executives go from the banks to the treasury to the Fed. Clinton passed some laws that significantly lessened the overseeing by the FDA over big pharm. These laws have made the corruption even worse.
The only proper response to this original post is that the pit of a cherry is designed to be eaten and passed, and then it grows int he ground some ways away from the original tree. Birds do it, squirrels do it, and so do people.
Eating a cherry pit, or an apricot pit, or even 20 of them, won’t kill you, nor will it in any way harm you. True, it wouldn’t be good to CHEW up 20 of them, but even then it would pretty much only make you barf.
Seeds surrounded by tasty fruit are desinged to be eaten and passed, so that new trees can grow everywhere.
So, don’t be afraid. Also, you have to chew up a pound of apple seeds before you might even be remotely in danger of poisoning.
I think everyone read the OP wrong. She’s correct in that the pits, if chewed in enough quantity can cause problems, but you actually have to try hard to ingest enough to do so.
ahh i just chewed like 10 cherry pits
i guess cherimoya pits are more toxic than these kinds/
Lets go back to school Doc. What you are speaking of is B-17. Each molecule of B-17 contains one unit of hydrogen cyanide, one unit of benzaldehyde, and two of glucose. In order for the hydrogen cyanide to be released it must encounter the enzyme called beta-glucosidase. Beta-glucosidase is present in every human cell in very small quantities but in very large quantities in cancer cells. Another enzyme, rhodanese, always present in much larger quantiteies than the unlocking enzyme beta-glucosidase in healthy tissues, completely breaks down both the cyanide and benzaldehyde into a thiocyanate and salicylate which are harmless. Cancer cells do not produce rhodanese so they are f@#ked. So doctor, thats why they trained you to think such foolish, unfounded things. How much money would be lost if people cured their cancer with seeds as opposed to the lethal chemo? Let me put it in a way you might comprehend; For every match you burn you have a bucket of water to put it out. Unless you’re a cancer cell of course, than you have no water to put it out. Hope that PHD didn’t cost too much lol. I’m glad to see that many people that read your B.S. are alot more intelligent than you!
I am pregnant and swallowed a wax cherry pit. Is there any risk to the baby?
… I’ve eaten 6 apples today, 3 yesterday, 4 the day before, and I chew and swallow the seeds. Why do I remain alive? It takes more seeds and pits than is even reasonable to die from cyanide by eating fruit. Those who still want to eat their beloved fruit, eat away. Your body can easily detoxify cyanide if in small amounts, and apples, cherries, etc. seeds/pits are EXTREMELY small amounts. I wouldn’t be worried, folks.
I see you have a lot of substantial evidence in your article to back up those claims. Basically you are saying – If you eat this plant seed from the earth you will die! Ahh Scare tactics! Scare tactics! I’ve been eating Amigdalyn ( green apple seeds ) for a year now quite regularly and they provide not only great energy and concealed vitamins (B15) as well as (B17) but also as mentioned above has been proved to be an effective cancer prevention if used in early stages, and there after.
You should also know that one of the most common and essential vitamins to human kind vitamin B12 ( cyancobalamin ) has a cyanide molecule as well – notice the Cyan? Hmmm i think that may be a cyanide molecule Anne Marie?
God I hate dumb scum – ie: You
Hey Anne Marie water is poisonous if you drink to much you can die. Everyone for the love of god stop drinking water!
Anne, in your last comment (#10) you say:
“…if you eat too many fresh seeds you risk your health and your life. That is documented fact.”
Ah, the old unspecified “documented fact” that is never cited.
Instead, you immediately follow this up with the standard of all would-be leaders in error:
“Believe me or not, your choice.”
Why should we believe you, unless you cite your documented fact for all to see?
In fact there is nothing you can cite that has not already been thoroughly discredited as bogus propaganda on behalf of big pHARMa!
I, for one, have eaten apricot pits, and apples (even oranges), by chewing the seeds and swallowing it all, for over 35 years.
I’ve also taught my children and grandchildren (those willing to listen and learn) to do the same, and none of them has ever come near suffering your fearful fate pronounced on all of us healthy heretics!
I’ve only heard anecdotal evidence of one man who died from eating a whole cup of apple seeds, but then you really shouldn’t eat more of the seeds or pits than you can safely consume the same amount of the fruit from which they come.
Even too much water can kill you! So what next, an appeal to avoid drinking water lest you die?
But then nobody ought to listen to me either, because I’m just one voice (of reason, I hope) among many.
Or perhaps you should, and save yourself a world of ills and troubles suffering the results of the average American malnutrition diet (which the emphasis on “die”).