Seeds: Edible Types and Bitter Melon | Generated by AI

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Question: What are seeds, which ones are edible, and are bitter melon seeds soft/safe to eat?

Answer:

“籽” basically means seed — the reproductive part of a plant that can grow into a new plant. From a food perspective, seeds vary a lot:

Edible seeds (common examples)

• 瓜类 seeds

  • 西瓜籽 (watermelon seeds): edible; usually roasted because the shell is hard.
  • 南瓜籽 (pumpkin seeds): very common snack.
  • 苦瓜籽 (bitter melon seeds): edible when mature; younger ones are softer.

• Grains are technically seeds

  • Rice, wheat, corn, oats — all are seeds.

• Nuts are also seed-like structures

  • Almonds, walnuts, cashews, etc.

• Other edible seeds

  • Sesame seeds
  • Chia seeds
  • Flax seeds
  • Lotus seeds

Seeds that people usually don’t eat

Some are:

• too hard to digest,
• contain toxins,
• too small/low nutrition,
• or simply not traditionally eaten.

Examples:

• Apple seeds: contain amygdalin, which can release cyanide compounds when crushed and eaten in large amounts. Accidentally swallowing a few whole seeds is usually not a concern, but don’t eat them deliberately.
• Cherry/apricot/peach pits: similar issue; the hard pit protects the seed, but crushed seeds can release cyanogenic compounds.
• Some ornamental plant seeds can be poisonous.

What about bitter melon seeds?

Yes, 苦瓜籽 is relatively soft when the bitter melon is young.

There are stages:

1. Young bitter melon

   • Seeds are white or pale.
   • Soft, tender.
   • Can be eaten together with the flesh.
   • Many people don’t remove them.

2. Mature bitter melon

   • Seeds turn yellow/orange/red.
   • The outer coating becomes harder.
   • The red pulp around seeds becomes slightly sweet.
   • Usually people remove the hard seeds.

The red part around mature bitter melon seeds is actually edible too. Some people eat it because it is mildly sweet.

A simple cooking rule:

• Soft, white seeds → eat them.
• Hard, mature seeds → remove or roast/process them.

Similar to vegetables: the “seed” itself is not automatically edible or inedible; it depends on the plant and maturity stage.

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