“What would happen if you swallow a whole cherry stone? “ – a question written on the Google search bar by multiple Internet users, perhaps curious or sometimes frightened by having accidentally committed the accident of the century: having “mistakenly” eaten a kernel of cherry . This can happen because the cherry, compared to many other fruits, has a stone characterized by particularly small dimensions and therefore potentially ingestible. The problem, however, is linked to specific aspects that must be recognized in their entirety to avoid spreading wrong messages or even real fake news:
The alarmism linked to the accidental ingestion of cherry stones is also linked to rumors and real events which, however, must be interpreted in the context in which they take place. Among the episodes often mentioned on the web, there would be that of a British man who, at least according to what was told by the Anglo-Saxon media, would have risked his life after ingesting this natural product. As told by The Independent , in fact, after about ten minutes from ingestion, the man was overwhelmed by a sudden state of fatigue , headache and even fever . The rush to the hospital was inevitable and the diagnosis was disturbing: cyanide poisoning. The man was treated and saved thanks to the timely intervention of the health staff. The news is true but it is necessary to make some clarifications about it: First of all, the verified news is that the man was in fact intoxicated but eating a large quantity of cherries . The “myth” of kernels containing cyanide should also be dispelled:
In fact, cherry pits contain another substance – called amygdala – which, once ingested, is converted into hydrogen cyanide (or cyanitric acid ) which can only be lethal in some cases, i.e. when more pits are ingested and when these they break, releasing the substance kept inside them. In the known media case, the patient told of having eaten a lot of cherries in a hurry and chewing them , regardless of the presence of the stones. How this could have happened is not easy to imagine, but it is also true that the world is beautiful because it is varied and it may happen that someone may turn out to be unprepared to eat certain foods correctly. In summary, then, what could happen if we were to ingest a cherry stone? Most likely, nothing to worry about because the kernels, if ingested in small quantities and whole, will naturally be expelled from our body through the feces without any negative consequences. Of course, the most important thing remains to avoid eating cherry pits. In this regard, we report below the link to a video broadcast on YouTube:
