# Is it safe to swallow cherry pits?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-swallow-cherry-pits/495960>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 10, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-swallow-cherry-pits/495960 "2009-05-10T18:02:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-swallow-cherry-pits/495960/1 "2009-05-10T18:02:02Z")

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I have a habit of eating my cherries whole, pit and all. I read that cherry pits have cyanide in them, and now I’m worried. Can you die from cherry poisening? (Then again, I’ve been swallowing pits my whole life, and I have yet to drop dead).

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-swallow-cherry-pits/495960/2 "2009-05-10T19:01:52Z")

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Cherry pits do NOT normally have cyanide in them. Neither do almonds. HCN (cyanhydric acid, hydrogen cyanide) is described as smelling “like almonds gone bad,” and it turns out that the smell of almonds gone bad is due to… the presence of HCN.  
Both cherry pits and almonds can have cyanide if they’ve started to rot, as a normal decomposition product. If a cherry or almond taste or smell funny, spit it, but you shouldn’t be able to get sick from them unless you eat a lot of “bad” ones. And of course if you’re chopping almonds to cook and you notice a funny smell, throw them away. The cyanide is anesthetic, so don’t bother trying to find the specific culprit.

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**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-swallow-cherry-pits/495960/3 "2009-05-10T19:26:31Z")

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Apricot and Cherry pits, among others, contain Amygdalin which breaks down into cyanide during digestion. They can be very poisonous in sufficient quantity (which would have to be a pretty big quantity) and can give you a bad case of indigestion in smaller amounts. Cecil mentioned this in a recent [Column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2861/does-beet-sugar-contain-a-wwii-poison) and you can read more about it [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdalin).

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**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-swallow-cherry-pits/495960/4 "2009-05-10T21:22:30Z")

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The shell of a cherry pit is hard and indigestible. As long as the pits you swallow are unbroken you are in no danger from cyanide poisoning.