The difference between nuts and seeds, oh yeah!

[startootsie]

Hello all!

I was thinking about nuts and seeds. So, I came up with; nuts seem to be grown or living in shells, so it seems that you would not consume a lot of them. Seeds, on the other hand. Are seeds! So this would mean you could eat more seeds then nuts. Is this how nature intended it?

Same goes for avocado's and coconut's, they are in my opinion a fruit, veggie, and fat.

What do you think?

Create a day of love and light!

Christianna

[FirstGarden]

Hello all!

I was thinking about nuts and seeds. So, I came up with; nuts seem to be grown or living in shells, so it seems that you would not consume a lot of them. Seeds, on the other hand. Are seeds! So this would mean you could eat more seeds then nuts. Is this how nature intended it?

Same goes for avocado's and coconut's, they are in my opinion a fruit, veggie, and fat.

What do you think?

Create a day of love and light!

Christianna

Hi

I have often wondered about this, too. Some seeds do come in shells, i.e. sunflower, pumkin, but most of them appear to exist within a thin membrane. Nuts & seeds are so related, that I think of them as the same food category.

BTW, eating apricot pits (minus the shell) would be another example of this category. And it is believed to have healing properties.

RAW
1) Fruits
2) Vegs
3) Seeds

NON-RAW
4) Legumes (An exception - raw green beans, due to high water content)
5) Grains
6) Dairy
7) Meat

I guess a coconut is a nut because it grows on trees. Interestingly, peanuts are classified as legumes because they grow on vines. An avocado is classified as a vegetable-fruit.

:-{) - a smile with a mustache

[Pierre]

Actually the coconut is a fibrous drupe, of which you eat the seed. The almond likewise is a drupe (it's in the same genus as the peach). The Brazil nut is not a nut, the strawberry is not a berry, the alligator pear is not a pear, and I could drive you nuts with all the fruits that aren't what they're called! :p

[JGex]

Interestingly, peanuts are classified as legumes because they grow on vines.

Just for clarification's sake, peanuts grow in the ground... the vine buries itself in the ground after the flowers blossom and fall off.

:D

[jaurequi]

Actually the coconut is a fibrous drupe, of which you eat the seed. The almond likewise is a drupe (it's in the same genus as the peach). The Brazil nut is not a nut, the strawberry is not a berry, the alligator pear is not a pear, and I could drive you nuts with all the fruits that aren't what they're called! :p

Drive nuts? Lol, good one! This is very interesting information, Pierre, thanks. Bananas are an herb, as I understand it. Is a strawberry an herb as well? I know it has its seeds on the outside, which makes it different, but I don't know what category it falls.

Best,

[FirstGarden]

and I could drive you nuts with all the fruits that aren't what they're called! :p

Pierre & JGex, I would like to know more about this. For instance, the tomato is classified a vegetable fruit. Here's an interesting history:

Botanically speaking, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant, that is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. However, from a culinary perspective, the tomato is not as sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and it is typically served as part of a main course of a meal, as are other vegetables, rather than atdessert. As noted above, the term "vegetable" has no botanical meaning and is purely a culinary term.

This argument has led to actual legal implications in the United States, Australia and China. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy in 1893, declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, using the popular definition which classifies vegetable by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. The case is known as Nix v. Hedden(149 U.S. 304). Strictly speaking, the holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and not much else. The court does not purport to reclassify tomato for botanical or for any other purpose other than paying a tax under a tariff act. However, the USDA also considers the tomato a vegetable.

The tomato has been designated the state vegetable of New Jersey. Arkansas takes both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its botanical and culinary classifications.

But due to the scientific definition of a fruit and a vegetable, the tomato still remains a fruit when not dealing with tariffs. Nor is it the only culinary vegetable that is a botanical fruit: eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (including zucchini and pumpkins) share the same ambiguity.

[Pierre]

The strawberry is an accessory fruit (non-ovary tissue turns into fruit flesh, while the ovaries become the hard achenes on the outside). So is the fig (the true fruits are inside the syconium). The raspberry and all other brambleberries are aggregates of drupelets (like lots of tiny plums stuck together). The blueberry, cranberry, and other cowberries, IIRR, are false berries, meaning that they are otherwise like berries but develop from an inferior ovary.

Strawberries and raspberries are in the rose family. So are peaches, apples, pears, and of course roses. Peaches and apples are trees, but strawberries are forbs (aka herbs, but herb also means medicinal plant, so it's ambiguous). But what exactly a tree is isn't quite clear. Bamboo, palm, some kinds of fern, and boojum (a giant ocotillo) are sometimes called trees, but are very different from a typical tree.

[startootsie]

Wow! Very interesting information!

I was also wondering; because seeds are seeds, does this mean they can be consumed more then nuts? Or are they the same? I am asking digestion wise too. I notice that I seem to digest seeds better then nuts even when they are soaked.

Thank you!

Create a day of love and light!

Christianna

[Nini]

This thread is very interesting. RAW FOOD TRIVIA!! I want to know more! Pierre (and all) tell me more!

Thanks~

[FirstGarden]

I was also wondering; because seeds are seeds, does this mean they can be consumed more then nuts? Or are they the same?

I always thought that most nuts were seeds - meaning that is the part you plant for a new tree to grow. Perhaps some of them have seeds in the flowering. Pierre?


I am asking digestion wise too. I notice that I seem to digest seeds better then nuts even when they are soaked.

That might depend on the particular seed & nut, and your own body chemistry. Offhand, the fat content of nuts seems richer. But I find them all very agreeable, and I especially love sunflower seeds.

BTW, what all are the seeds you are eating? I'd like to explore this area more.

:-{) - a smile with a mustache

[SiennaInLondon]

Excellent information Pierre. Keep it coming. And Christianna that is great reasoning that will help me have more seeds than nuts from now on (once I come off the MC that is)

[Pierre]

Nuts are fruits - the shell is part of the fruit, the seed is inside. The seed by itself is commonly called a nut, but technically a nut is a kind of fruit.

The Brazil nut fruit is a coconut-sized capsule containing the "nuts" (actually thick-shelled seeds). It falls from 30 or more meters up, and has occasionally hit a Brazil nut gatherer on the head, with serious consequences.

There are few young trees in areas where many nuts are gathered. I think they should plant one seed for every capsule they gather.

[SiennaInLondon]

I meant the reasoning that what we commonly called nuts have a hard shell and so we are meant to eat less of them. That is a definate motivator.

[startootsie]

I would think that you were meant to eat seeds with some other food, because they are inside food. Like pumpkin seeds, ect. I wonder why stores don't sell apple seeds?

I do very good with sesame seeds, or Tahini. I also do good with pumkin seeds. Come to think of it. I am pretty good with walnuts. But almonds, even if they are soaked seem to be harder to digest. I was getting gas from them for a while!

Seeds have a lower fat content? By how much? Is it even that much of a difference? Next question: do nuts and seeds change when they are soaked? What would happen in nature, would we be soaking nuts and seeds?

Thank you Pierre for all the info! Keep it comin'! So, then what is a durian? I heard it was a fatty fruit, but what would it be? A fruit/fat?

Thank you everyone! Learning new stuff!

Create a day of love and light!

Christianna

[SmilingRawDancer]

Apple seeds have something toxic and harmful about them if eaten in large quantities...

[FirstGarden]

Yes, apple seeds contain a very small amount of cyanide.. obviously safe to eat, unless consumed in large quantities.


Nuts are fruits - the shell is part of the fruit, the seed is inside. The seed by itself is commonly called a nut, but technically a nut is a kind of fruit.

Pierre, you're making me rethink the food hierarchy.

1) Fruits
2) Vegs
3) Seeds/Nuts
4) Legumes
5) Grains
6) Dairy
7) Flesh Food

Perhaps it should be

1) Fruits
2) Seeds/Nuts
3) Vegs...
and so on.

The only reason I placed Vegs higher than nuts was because of its high water content.. thus a higher place in the hierarchy. In my mind, that outweighs my romance with the things-growing-on-trees-being-higher notion.
:-{)

[startootsie]

Are you not supposed to eat apple seeds when you eat apples then?

Thank you all!

Create a day of love and light!

Christianna