# Don't Swallow That Lemon Seed... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 18, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778 "2008-12-18T18:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/1 "2008-12-18T18:26:13Z")
I was on the bus and a mother and a kid were sitting in front of me. It looked like the kid was eating a cake or cookie and he says “Look” and holds up something to his mother. She says “It’s a lemon seed” So like a kid he procedes to eat it. The mother says “Don’t eat that lemon seed, you’ll get tiger stripes.” I am pretty sure that is what she said. But I have never heard that before. Anyone else heard that? Or did I mishear, if so what do you think the mother might have said. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/2 "2008-12-18T18:38:00Z")
My wild guess is that either you, or she, had misheard “diverticulitis” and reinterpreted it as “tiger stripes.” There was an [old wives’ tale that eating seeds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverticulitis#Controversy) or similar things could lead to this, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence for that. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/3 "2008-12-18T18:42:05Z")
If I was a kid, and my mother told me I’d get tiger stripes from eating a lemon seed, I’d swallow it in a flash! ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/4 "2008-12-18T18:57:12Z")
I would assume you heard correctly and she was joking around. We had all kinds of stuff like that in my family, mostly made up and in some cases based on stories out of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books (i.e. radishes growing in your ears, cherry trees growing in your tummy, various things putting hair on your chest, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/5 "2008-12-18T19:01:27Z")
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle! Damn, I haven’t thought of her in years! Decades! ---
**Author:** ![Finally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/67e7ee/32.png) [@Finally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finally)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/6 "2008-12-18T21:23:52Z")
I used to tell my son if he held in a sneeze his brain would come out of his ears. He told me about 6 months ago (he’s 13) that he believed me for a long time. Heh. Those days are long gone! ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/7 "2008-12-18T21:36:34Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Mrs. Piggle Wiggle! Damn, I haven’t thought of her in years! Decades! Then I suggest it’s time to bring her back into your life! I just re-read a couple of the books for the first time since I was a kid, and they’re still delightful and funny. ---
**Author:** ![Gwyen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/858c86/32.png) [@Gwyen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gwyen)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/8 "2008-12-19T03:01:18Z")
My mother always told me not to swallow any seed, or I would grow a tree. I still won’t swallow a seed. ---
**Author:** ![dawson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@dawson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dawson)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/9 "2008-12-19T05:02:59Z")
> [@Gwyen](#): > > My mother always told me not to swallow any seed, or I would grow a tree. > I still won’t swallow a seed. Your poor husband. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/10 "2008-12-19T05:26:49Z")
> [@Gwyen](#): > > My mother always told me not to swallow any seed, or I would grow a tree. > I still won’t swallow a seed. How do you eat a blueberry? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/11 "2008-12-19T13:04:43Z")
With the proverbial twinkle in her eye, my grandmother always warned us against eating watermelon seeds because we’d get pregnant. FTR, I’m a dude. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Am\_The\_Lorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19adc/32.png) [@I\_Am\_The\_Lorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Am_The_Lorax)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/12 "2008-12-19T13:09:30Z")
My great aunt is quite a large lady, and my grandma always said it’s because the tadpoles she accidentally swallowed when she was a kid turned into frogs. Not that I was going to eat any tadpoles anyway…but for years I believed it. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-swallow-that-lemon-seed/477778/13 "2008-12-19T13:38:08Z")
There’s a line in Dylan’s “Idiot Wind” that sounded to me like “Beware of light little lemon stripes” when I first heard it. Of course, that wasn’t it, I just misunderstood his [crystal-clear articulation](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/idiotwind.html)