Dear Lowdown -
Is there any danger is swallowing watermelon seeds (are there any actual cases of watermelon seeds growing inside someone)? Also, what is the difference between the white seeds and the black seeds, and is one type more "dangerous"to swallow than the other?
Ryan Smith (Chicago)
Mr. Smith:
I hope this response finds you well. Maybe you’re sitting on the porch at home on a warm summer day biting into a nice cold juicy slice of watermelon. Are you letting it slide down your tongue, through your throat, and into the pit of your stomach? Flustered by those big black seeds (or the smaller white ones) that just don’t have the same east down your throat? They seem unnecessary and excessive as you’re struggling to pluck them out with your tongue. In fact, watermelon seeds are actually incredibly beneficial to your health. So take a big bite from the watermelon and don’t worry about the seeds, but make sure you chew.
Watermelon seeds have extreme nutritional value, but only if you bite into them, chomp down, crunch them, and make sure to grind them with your teeth before they proceed down your throat. Through the plentiful source of proteins, fats, and other nutrients, watermelon seeds supply the body with many healthy calories. A cup of watermelon seeds contains more calories than a cup of brown rice. It also provides seventy-nine percent of the recommended daily value of fat suggested. This does not include Trans fats (the unhealthy type), but provides the body with the ability to reduce blood cholesterol and high blood pressure. Surprisingly enough, the protein in watermelon seeds makes up thirty-five percent of nutritional value of the seed. Eating a cup of watermelon seeds provides the body with sixty-one percent of the daily recommended value of protein. Other nutrients found in watermelon seeds include Thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, foliate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese. They’re healthy, so don’t worry about those icky pills in your pillbox. Just go ahead and eat those watermelon seeds whether that means biting into a watermelon or eating a spoonful. As long as you chew, the same thing will happen to them as happens to all the other food you eat daily. They will be processed through the digestive system.
Have you ever been told that if you eat a watermelon seed, a watermelon will begin to grow in your stomach? That is a common old wives tale, and is not true. Do not believe it! Mya Kagan, a writer for Whyzz online says, “While a seed in your stomach might be able to get some water, it wouldn’t be able to get the sunlight, carbon dioxide, or nutrients that it needs and so it would not be able to turn into a plant” (12). Swallowing a watermelon seed is just like swallowing anything else. It goes in through your mouth and out through your anus. Well, actually, a lot happens between your mouth and your anus, but do not worry about any watermelon plants growing. After being swallowed, the seed first enters your esophagus. In the esophagus, the muscles contract in the top of the esophagus, and push the seeds down. The muscles on the bottom loosen to let the food into the stomach. If you feel nauseous, stop! If you do what most people do after an initial feeling of nausea, and expel the seeds, you really must stop! Don’t do yourself the burden of chewing and swallowing these seeds, if they’re going to come right back up where they came from! If indeed these seeds made it down your esophagus without an after-affect feeling of nausea, they will proceed to enter the stomach where they are mixed and broken down by your stomach juices. From the stomach, the seeds continue into your small intestines. The small intestines take the nutrients from the food. In this organ, danger may indeed occur if you have been diagnosed with a syndrome by the name of Diverticulosis or Diverticulitis. This suggests that there are pockets along your intestines in which the seeds could get stuck. “This condition is very rare” (4). So, unless you’ve already been informed by a doctor about having either, I’m sure eating watermelon seeds will not create havoc in your small intestines. The next stop is the large intestine, where water is collected for the body. Finally, just like any food, the body disperses the watermelon seeds whether black, white, pink, purple, or yellow, through the anus. Don’t worry, it isn’t dangerous!
You may have noticed as you eat your watermelon, that the seeds are different colors. In comparing the difference in danger between the two, there is no difference, and there are no dangers in swallowing either color seed. The only difference between the different colored seeds is that the black seed is a more developed version of the white and therefore is more nutritionally rich. The black seed, if put into the ground, would be effective in growing a watermelon, while the white seed would not be because it is not fully matured.
The mere fact that you asked this question propels me to believe you are a huge watermelon fan. You may be one of those people who as a child, was tricked to believe that if you swallowed a black or white seed, a watermelon would soon invade your stomach. If after reading this, you continue to be convinced by this myth, and fail to understand the immense health benefits of the seed, you may desire an alternative approach to eating that juicy flesh of a watermelon. You may consider germinating your own seedless watermelon plant! To do this is a scientific art. Many conditions must be monitored such as the water, temperature, soil type, and planting.
Let’s start with the science behind the planting of a seedless watermelon plant. It is started with triploid seeds, the term “triploid” suggesting three sets of chromosomes. “The seedless condition is actually sterility resulting from a cross between two plants of incompatible chromosome complements” (3). This cross is between tetraploid seeds (considered the seed plant) with four sets of chromosomes, and diploid seeds (considered the pollinator) with two sets of chromosomes. The two types of seeds must be alternated in the soil.
The germination of the triploid seed requires specific soil quality without pathogens which are organisms that may cause disease. Luckily, this type of soil isn’t hard to find. It can be found sold in a bag at a local plant store. Commercial potting soil mix in a bag is the best type of soil because it has most likely been pasteurized and therefore will not carry disease. In order to grow to its full potential, the watering of the seeds and the monitoring of soil temperature is imperative. Without extremely hot weather conditions and proper watering techniques, the seedless watermelons you have worked so hard to enjoy, may be smaller than ideal and less tasteful. Even before planting, the soil must maintain a temperature of ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit during the day and seventy degrees Fahrenheit at night. As for the watering of these seeds, you know the soil is healthy if it keeps its shape after you grasp a handful of soil, and squeeze. If it falls apart, it’s too dry, and if you squeeze out water, it’s too wet. Periodically spraying the surface of the soil will lend itself to magnificent seedless watermelons!
So Mr. Smith, despite the many times you may have been told as a child from your mom, dad, cousin, or whoever, to spit the seeds out, you can confidently chomp down on them and swallow! Even if you eat the seeds, nothing will happen and I can guarantee that no watermelon will grow inside of you. There have never been any cases of such a finding in any person, not to mention that it’s scientifically impossible. Unlike the Earth, the human stomach cannot offer the natural essentials needed to germinate a watermelon such as soil, water, and sunlight. Your stomach is too acidic to support the growth of a watermelon plant (13). Therefore these seeds will enter through your mouth, make their way through your body, and make a pit stop in the stomach, but eventually come straight out the other end. So don’t worry about all the scientific details about what happens when you eat the watermelon, what kind of soil is required for seedless watermelons, or the difference between the white and black seeds. Just remember, whether, white, black, seedless, or full of seeds, it is healthy, so soak up the sun and take another big bite!
Sincerely,
Ana Scholnick
