Seeds and nuts are nutritious food packed with plenty of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and healthy fats that make them excellent ingredients in a balanced diet. But are sunflower seeds considered a tree nut? For instance, can you safely eat them if you are allergic to tree nuts? And what more should you know about them? Keep reading this essential guide to clarify all of your doubts on the subject.
Are Sunflower Seeds Considered a Tree Nut?
Let’s get things straight: tree nuts, as their name suggests, grow on trees. So, Brazil nuts, pistachios, pecans, walnuts, and cashew all fall under the tree nut category.
Nuts are fruits with hard shells, and each fruit usually contains one or more seeds. Their hard shell (also known as pericarp) does not crack open when mature.
Instead, sunflower seeds come from the flowering plant with the same name. So, to clarify, sunflowers seeds are not tree nuts.
If you are still unsure, think of nuts as the fruit of a tree, containing both the shell and the seed.
When you eat cashew, what you are eating is the seed part of the fruit, not the whole nut. On the other hand, sunflower seeds are the outer layer of fruit. For this reason, while nuts can be seeds, not all seeds can be nuts.
What are Sunflower Seeds?
Sunflower seeds grow from the mature flowering head of the plant that gives them their name.
There are two types of sunflower seeds: oilseeds and non-oilseeds. Logically, the first is the main ingredient for the oilseed, while the latter are the ones you would eat raw as snacks.
Both are rich in nutrients, vitamins, and minerals such as phosphorous, potassium, and calcium.
Their harvest season typically falls in late summer, when the seeds are mature and dry (and the flower brown, with no petals). Interestingly, a single sunflower might contain up to 2,000 seeds.
After all, the plant can grow up to ten feet tall, and its bloom can be as much as one foot in diameter.
Can You Be Allergic to Sunflower Seeds?
Tree nut allergy is one of the most common food allergies, but what about seeds? Since they are not nuts, you can still eat sunflower seeds if you are on a diet free of tree nuts.
But the truth is that despite them not being nuts, it is possible to be allergic to sunflower seeds. Still, such allergies are less common than tree-nut or peanuts.
Before we continue, it is worth mentioning something that you might not know: peanuts aren’t technically nuts. Instead, they are legumes. Yes, you have read that right: legumes!
So now you have a curious fact that you might want to bring up with family and friends to surprise them!
But while it is not impossible to be allergic to seeds, it is a rare condition that tends to be more common in parts of the world where people eat a lot of them.
Symptoms of an allergy to sunflower seeds can include upset stomach, eczema, itchy mouth, vomiting, and anaphylaxis.
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