Apple juice and seeds

Are Apple Seeds Poisonous? Yes, But Only If You Have Too Many

If you like to juice your apples core and all and rarely pay attention to removing the seeds, listen up. You have probably heard that while apple reduces your risk of a variety of diseases and gives you a healthy lifestyle, apple seeds are poisonous because they release cyanide. 1 So is there any truth to it? Let’s find out.

Apple Seeds Are Poisonous: Amygdalin Releases Cyanide

Amygdalin or laetrile was once used for cancer treatment. But it was banned in the US after reports of cyanide poisoning. 2

Apple seeds, as well as peach and apricot seeds, contain a sugar and cyanide-based compound called amygdalin, also called laetrile. It is sometimes called vitamin B17 though it’s not a vitamin. When the amygdalin comes in contact with your digestive enzymes, the sugar is digested and hydrogen cyanide, a lethal chemical, is released. Depending on the cultivar, apple seeds contain about 1–4 mg amygdalin. People have died, though not many, of amygdalin poisoning after chewing fruit pits. 3 4 5 6

Amygdalin content in apple cultivars

• Golden Delicious: 3.9 mg/g
• Royal Gala: 3 mg/g
• Red Delicious: 2.8 mg/g
• Russet: 1 mg/g

The more common symptoms of cyanide poisoning can vary from weakness to lightheadedness. In cases of severe poisoning, they could include seizures, Parkinsonism, brain damage, impotency, and cardiac failure and sometimes even coma and death.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1–2 mg/kg is a fatal oral dose of cyanide for a human weighing 70 kg/154 lbs. 7 But a 1938 study had fixed the lowest fatal oral dose at 0.56 mg/kg. So erring on the side of safety, about 39–140 mg cyanide when taken orally is fatal for a 70 kg individual.

But You Need To Eat Over 150 Seeds To Cross The Safe Limit

Remember, the dose makes the poison, and what the correct dose is depends on a number of factors like body weight and health status. It’s unlikely that you would chew on apple seeds like they are candies. After all, apple seeds are bitter and inedible. So if you’ve accidentally swallowed only a few, don’t worry. Apple seeds have a tough outer cover, which makes them indigestible. You may even pass those undamaged through your stool. Even if you have chewed a few, your body can flush out the toxin. The concern is when you have them in a large number, thoroughly chewed or crushed. Since juicing involves crushing the seeds, it’s risky, but only if you’ve been using a lot of cores.

Here’s the calculation

• 1 g apple seed contains 1–4 mg amygdalin.
• 1 mg amygdalin can yield 0.06 mg cyanide. 8
• 1 g apple seeds can release 0.06–0.24 mg cyanide.
• 1 apple seed weighs 0.7 g approximately.

Considering 0.56 mg/kg cyanide as the least possible fatal dose, we have found that it takes thoroughly chewing at least 232 apple seeds to cause lethal poisoning in an adult weighing about 70 kg. If we assume there are roughly 6–8 seeds in an apple, eating more than 29–38 apple cores can cause you serious harm!

Here’s a table for how many apple seeds are fatal across age groups. While doses lower than this may not be lethal, they can cause several side effects. Pets and children may be especially vulnerable.

Weight of person (kg)	Lethal number of seeds	Weight (g)	Cup measure for crushed seeds (1 cup = 140 g)
10	32–132	23–93	1/6th–1/2 cup approx.
50	165–665	116–466	4/5th–3 cups approx.
70	232–933	163–653	1–5 cups approx.

Like we’ve mentioned already, swallowing whole apple seeds won’t have any effect on you. But crushing them or blending them with juices will. That takes us to the question, how about apple juice?

Apple Juice From The Core Can Be Harmful

A comparative study on the content of amygdalin in apple juice extracted from the core, from the flesh and skin, and from the whole apple found that apple juice from the core contained 75 percent more amygdalin than the juice from the whole apple or apple flesh and skin. 9

Drinking about 500 ml apple juice made solely from the core of the Golden Delicious cultivar can be dangerous even for an adult.

Russet apple juice had the lowest amygdalin content at 0.13 mg/ml, which would yield a minuscule amount of 0.03 mg/ml cyanide. Apple juice made from Golden Delicious had the highest amount of amygdalin at 0.43 mg/ml, which would yield up to 0.1 mg cyanide. Drinking more than 500 ml (17 oz) of this juice could give side effects even to a healthy adult. This quantity would be lethal for a child.

If you have been juicing apple cores, especially for your child, you had better stop. But if you are juicing apple flesh and skin, carry on. Amygdalin content in pure apple juice does not pose any health problem.

But Apple Seed Oil Is Good For Health

Naturally, you would wonder if apple seed oil made from apple seeds and known for its many medicinal and cosmetic use is, after all, safe to use? It has a considerably low amount of amygdalin; so, you can stop worrying.

In fact, one study found that apple seed oil is as good as any other edible oil and is a good source of natural antioxidants. It was also found to have anticancer properties. It also has a good potential for use in the food industry and pharmacy. 10 11

The bottom line is that apple seeds are definitely poisonous but only if you chew them thoroughly and in large numbers. To be on the safe side, discard the seeds, especially when juicing apples for children. And by all means, avoid chewing on apricot, greengage, and cherry pits. These have a higher amygdalin content than apple seeds.

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Apple juice and seeds

Hi there PureJeevan readers! We wanted to let you know that Jim’s new novel CHROO is available on Amazon. It’s a crazy adventure involving a billionaire heiress, her Chihuahua BFF («Chroo») and a host of human and animal characters. Find out more on Amazon! Here are some links:

Should You Juice the *Whole* Apple, Seeds and All?

Jim here. A few months ago, I was in our local food co-op’s juice bar. I’d ordered an apple juice and had cringed when I saw the barista chop up four Granny Smiths and nonchalantly toss the whole lot, seeds and all, into the juicer. That juice was for someone else. So, when my order came up, I politely requested that he cut the seeds out — a request he reluctantly granted, although not without showing considerable annoyance. My thinking was: Hey, those seeds contain cyanide! Why would I want to consume that, even in small amounts

But then. Have you ever known anyone who died from eating apple seeds? ?I know I haven’t. Also, after mentioning this to a few people I know, I found that a number of them regularly ingest apple seeds. And, well, they’re still living. So, is there any truth to the rumors? And, should we be concerned at all about this?

In a word: Yes! ?Apple seeds definitely contain amygdalin , which in turn contains the much dreaded cyanide. Quite honestly, I do not know what the lethal dose is. But I do know that I don’t intend to find out, nor do I personally intend to even flirt with any potential health issue if I do not have to. According to many sources, the cyanide lurks inside the pips (seeds). Much of the time, animals eating the seeds manage to swallow them whole — and then the seeds pass through the animal’s digestive system intact, thus retaining the amygdalin. Of course, the web site Snopes notes that:

Luckily for those fond of their Granny Smiths, the body can detoxify cyanide in small doses, and the number of apple seeds it takes to pack a lethal punch is therefore huge ? even the most dedicated of apple eaters is extremely unlikely to ingest enough pips to cause any harm.

So, either way (seeds passing through you intact or chewed), you probably don’t have much to worry about. ?I suppose it’s a matter of personal preference, in the end. My own personal recommendation would be this: If you’re eating an apple or two, it’s probably never going to hurt you to ingest the pips , if that strikes your fancy. However, if you’re going to juice massive quantities of apples (with pips), or ingest apple juice daily (again, with the pips having been broken down by a juicer), my personal belief is that you may in fact be exposing yourself to somewhat elevated levels of amygdalin — something that, given the choice, you might just as well decline.

After all, it may well be natural for animals to eat a few tasty apples, even as a whole meal. But, is it natural to drink 1 0 of them at once, as can easily happen when you juice Personally, I’ll pass on that scenario, if only as a purely precautionary measure. What’s your take on this?

Original Comments

Below, we have included the original comments from this blog post. Additional comments may be made via Facebook, below.

On August 17, 2010 , Tshook wrote:

my take? I eat the seeds. why? When i eat an apple i eat the whole thing-i’m usually someplace where it’s not convenient to throw an apple core out, so, i eat it all and am left with just a tiny stem to toss.

On August 17, 2010 , Sheryl wrote:

Thanks for this Jim,
I have never really thought about I just push the whole apple in.
I know you should not give your dog the apple core and seeds due to the arsenic in them.
I am doing the green smoothie challenge at the moment with my fresh orange juice, spinach and bananas.

sheryl miller
canberra
australia

On February 17, 2011 , Lizelles wrote:

What if people have been told a great big lie all this time that the pips are poisonous while they actually contain a very important vit B17 that has cancer prevension properties? Go do some research or google this. A World Without Cancer (HQ) — The Story of Vitamin B17 — G. Edward Griffin

On October 16, 2012 , Jim Brown wrote:

Such terrible assumptions are made when only a partial truth is examined. Apple seeds contain Amygdalin which does break down into Hydrogen Cyanide in digestion. Apparently that’s all some people need to know to make it unsafe! This is not pure Cyanide, this molecular compound HCN is rendered completely neutral to the human body when it enters a normal cell, the enzyme rhodanese using sulfate converts the cyanide in the compound into cyanate which coincidentally is completely harmless. However we can even go further than that, cancer cells do not contain rhodanese, instead it uses beta-glucosidase which instead releases the cyanide (and the benzaldlhide in apple seeds)which in turns destroys the cancer cells! So by making a decision based on a partial truth thinking that it might hurt you, your actually missing out on a powerful anti-cancer agent! Of course this is not patent-able, so pharma’s will hide this truth with tooth and nail. Don’t listen to hearsay, actually research things. this can be found on the same snopes article that was so poorly referenced, as well as about a million other cancer remedy and health food references. Just google «benefits of apple seeds» rather than «poisonous apple seed». lol.

On May 5, 2013 , carefulnow wrote:

don’t be lazy ,get the poison seeds out,just because it does not kill you instantly does not mean it won’t damage your liver or something in the future like cause cancer or something.remember your body is important to you.or think of it this way a lot of people smoke cigarette’s and they don’t die instantly but in reality they are slowly killing you.

On May 7, 2013 , bryan wrote:

Wow i had no idea at all that apple seeds contain cyanide. Is this how they make the poison then using apple seeds or is there something else which is easier to create it?

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7 Science-backed Apple Juice Benefits

by John Staughton (BASc, BFA) last updated — May 26, 2021 ✓ Evidence Based

Apple juice is one of the most popular and widely available fruit juices globally due to its several health benefits that add dense nutritional value. Its health benefits can include improved heart health & digestion, detoxification of the body, increased hydration and boosted immunity. Apple juice might provide better cognition, strengthened metabolism, possibly weight loss, and may improve respiratory health.

What is Apple Juice?

Apple juice is made through the pressing of apples, of which there are hundreds of varieties in the world. It takes two medium-sized fruits to make one cup of juice, so these fruits are grown in huge numbers. After the apples are pressed, most juices are further filtered or pasteurized, which helps to remove any particulate matter, resulting in a thinner consistency of the final extract.

McIntosh apples are the most common types of apples used to make this delicious juice and China is the largest producer of apples in the world. Very often, there’s a debate between apple cider vs apple juice. Apple cider is an unfiltered and unpasteurized liquid initially pressed from apples and then fermented. For all apple lovers, here is our detailed recipe on how to make apple juice in the comfort of your kitchen.

Apple juice is healthy and filled with vital nutrients. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Serving Size : Nutrient Value Water [g] 88.24 Energy 46 Energy [kJ] 191 Protein [g] 0.1 Total lipid (fat) [g] 0.13 Ash [g] 0.23 Carbohydrate, by difference [g] 11.3 Fiber, total dietary [g] 0.2 Sugars, total including NLEA [g] 9.62 Sucrose [g] 1.26 Glucose (dextrose) [g] 2.63 Fructose [g] 5.73 Calcium, Ca [mg] 8 Iron, Fe [mg] 0.12 Magnesium, Mg [mg] 5 Phosphorus, P [mg] 7 Potassium, K [mg] 101 Sodium, Na [mg] 4 Zinc, Zn [mg] 0.02 Copper, Cu [mg] 0.01 Manganese, Mn [mg] 0.07 Selenium, Se [µg] 0.1 Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid [mg] 0.9 Thiamin [mg] 0.02 Riboflavin [mg] 0.02 Niacin [mg] 0.07 Pantothenic acid [mg] 0.05 Vitamin B-6 [mg] 0.02 Choline, total [mg] 1.8 Betaine [mg] 0.1 Vitamin A, IU [IU] 1 Lutein + zeaxanthin [µg] 16 Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) [mg] 0.01 Fatty acids, total saturated [g] 0.02 14:0 [g] 0 16:0 [g] 0.02 18:0 [g] 0 Fatty acids, total monounsaturated [g] 0.01 18:1 [g] 0.01 Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated [g] 0.04 18:2 [g] 0.03 18:3 [g] 0.01 Sources include : USDA [1]

Apple Juice Nutrition

Apple juice can retain many of the key nutrients of apples, including possibly vitamin C and various B vitamins, and different minerals, such as magnesium, iron, calcium, manganese, and copper. Some of the fiber is also retained in this juice, as are the phytochemicals, flavonols, and procyanidins. Apple juice concentrates on a single cup that represents about 10% of your daily required carbohydrates is due to the natural sugars found in it. Potassium is the most important mineral in this juice, with a single serving delivering roughly 7% of your required daily intake. [2]

Apple Juice Calories

According to the USDA FoodData Central [3] , 100 g of unsweetened apple juice can contain 46 calories. Given the calorie count, make sure you consume this beverage in moderation.

Apple Juice Benefits

Apple juice offers a plethora of health benefits. Let us discuss them in detail below.

May Improve Heart Health

Potassium might be present in higher concentrations in this juice, which is good news for your heart health. Potassium can be a vasodilator, which means it can lower tension in your arteries and blood vessels. It might help in relieving pressure and strain on the cardiovascular system. Moreover, apple juice might prevent cholesterol formation in your arteries, which is often the major reason for heart attacks and other cardiovascular ailments. [4]

Might Boost Immunity

Apple juice might have a notable amount of vitamin C, a key component of the body’s immune system. Vitamin C can stimulate the immune system, thereby functioning as an antioxidant compound that prevents oxidative stress and reduces inflammation. [5]

Might Give Relief from Constipation

Apples might contain malic acid, which may improve the digestive rate and can support liver function. In combination with fiber and other stimulating minerals in apple juice, this juice might relieve symptoms of constipation, cramping, bloating, and diarrhea. Furthermore, it also might contain sorbitol which may help in smoothing the digestive tract, thereby easing the movement of stool. [6]

Skin Care

Apples can be consumed in a variety of ways, such as fresh fruit and as a juice that is further processed into apple vinegar, apple cider, or distilled. Packed with antioxidants and vitamin C, apple juice is beneficial for the skin. It helps in reducing inflammation, itching, and wrinkles. Furthermore, it also prevents premature skin aging. [7]

Protect Brain Health

Antioxidants are known to prevent oxidative stress in the body. According to a 2011 comprehensive study in the Advances in Nutrition journal, apple juice may have the potential to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s. Another 2010 study showed that antioxidants present in this fruit juice may help relieve symptoms of neurological diseases. [8] [9]

Boosts Metabolism

Long-term research may have linked the consumption of apple juice with smaller waistlines, lower levels of body fat, lower cholesterol levels, lesser risk of diabetes, and lower blood pressure, all of which are risk factors known as metabolic syndrome. For this reason, apple juice can help optimize your metabolism and might protect your heart. [10] [11]

Improves Liver Function

As mentioned, malic acid can improve liver function. Apple juice, when combined with water, might stimulate urination and may promote the release of excess salts and fats from the body. The alkaline content can also help in flushing out toxins, maintaining a good pH balance in the body, which thereby may be acting as a liver cleanser. [12]

Other Benefits

• Eye health:Vitamin A present in apples might help to sharpen vision and is useful for the eye. [13]
• Haircare: Apple vinegar might contain compounds that are responsible for hair growth and adding luster to locks. [14]
• Estrogen level: A chemical called phytoestrogen prevents estrogen levels from being affected. This process may regulate menstruation and reproduction. [15]

Word of caution: We seldom have a question, is apple juice acidic? The answer is yes, apple juice is acidic and may cause acid reflux. It is advisable to consult your doctor before regulating this juice in your diet.

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