Asked by: Bet Tellez
food and drink food allergies

Is a Peanut really a nut?

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Peanuts, unlike almonds and walnuts, do not grow on trees. They're actually not nuts at all, but legumes like peas and lentils ? and they grow in the ground. An illustration of how the peanut plant grows peanuts.


Furthermore, which nut is not really a nut?

Almonds, for example, are in fact drupes, not nuts at all. Neither are cashews, pistachios and pine nuts. Many tree nuts are drupes, including walnuts and pecans (although confusingly these are known as drupaceous nuts as they difficult to categorise and are not true botanical nuts).

One may also ask, is a cashew a nut? The cashew seed is often considered a nut in the culinary sense; this cashew nut is eaten on its own, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or cashew butter. Like the tree, the nut is often simply called a cashew.

One may also ask, is the peanut a nut?

The hard peanut shell protects the edible seed as it grows underground. While they sport the "nut" name, peanuts are actually a legume, making them a member of the family of plant-based items that includes lentils, beans and soybeans.

Which nuts are actually legumes?

Legumes are a bit more costly than the nuts. Some of the common nuts include macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, cashews, hazels, almonds, pecans, pistachios, pine nuts and walnuts . The common legumes include black-eyed peas, black beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, pinto beans , kidney beans and lentils.

Related Question Answers

Fedora Mihu

Professional

Is a banana a nut?

Banana typically pairs well with nuts, such as in tasty banana-nut bread. This doesn't make banana a nut, however. Bananas are fruits, although the plants bananas grow on are considered herbaceous, or non-woody. This makes banana plants technically herbs, but no relation to ground or tree nuts.

Jafar Atarskih

Professional

Is Mango a tree nut?

Dr. Sicherer: There are individuals with allergy to cashew and pistachio who tolerate all other nuts. However, some families in this situation feel more comfortable avoidance of “all tree nuts”. You are correct that mango is in the same family as cashew and pistachio.

Svetoslav Molodyh

Professional

Is Avocado a tree nut?

Avocado allergy may also be related to tree nut allergy. Studies show that avocados have similar proteins to chestnuts.

Sigrun Mardi

Explainer

What fruit is actually a nut?

Botanically, most nuts are the seeds of a fruit, while true nuts — such as chestnuts, acorns, and hazelnuts — are fruits in and of themselves.

Aiora Valen

Explainer

What nut is poisonous until roasted?

Why Cashew Shells Are Poisonous
Raw cashews contain urushiol, a resin that is toxic if ingested and can cause rashes or burns if it contacts the skin. To remove this substance, cashews must go through a rigorous roasting or steaming process to ensure they are safe to eat.

Dragana Bonnkirch

Explainer

Is an apple a berry?

Subcategories within the fruit family—citrus, berry, stonefruit or drupe (peaches, apricots), and pome (apples, pears)—are determined by which parts of the flower/ovary give rise to the skin, flesh and seeds. But no, they're actually considered a berry, too—with one, giant seed.

Olaia Dombriz

Pundit

Is a coconut a nut?

Answer. Botanically speaking, a coconut is a fibrous one-seeded drupe, also known as a dry drupe. However, when using loose definitions, the coconut can be all three: a fruit, a nut, and a seed.

Venus Miñana

Pundit

Is a coconut a tree nut?

Coconut is not a botanical nut; it is classified as a fruit, even though the Food and Drug Administration recognizes coconut as a tree nut. While allergic reactions to coconut have been documented, most people who are allergic to tree nuts can safely eat coconut. Nutmeg is a spice that is derived from seeds, not nuts.

Maegan Vigano

Pundit

Why are monkey nuts so called?

The term 'monkey nuts' describes peanuts with the shell or pod intact. Packets affected are marked with the best before date 12 July 2013. In a statement, the supermarket said it had identified the labelling error and issued a warning to customers.

Adel Sieman

Pundit

Is a peanut a fruit or a nut?

The botanical definition of a "nut" is a fruit whose ovary wall becomes hard at maturity. Using this criterion, the peanut is not a typical nut. However, for culinary purposes and in common English language usage, peanuts are usually referred to as nuts.

Lurline Sryole

Pundit

Why are peanuts so cheap?

They are legumes which is the same family that peas are from. They are much easier to grow, and grow faster. Much lower investment in farming peanuts than in farming real nuts. So, those are some reasons why peanuts are cheaper than nuts.

Vivan Olejn

Teacher

Is Almond a tree nut?

Tree nuts grow on trees, whereas peanuts grow underground and are considered legumes. Tree nuts include almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios and walnuts. They also usually tolerate macadamia nut and pine nut, which are also both seeds.

Rocky Veth

Teacher

Is a pistachio a nut?

Although known as a nut, the fruit of the pistachio is botanically a drupe, the edible portion of which is the seed. The oblong kernel is about 1 inch in length and 1/2 inch in diameter and protected by a thin, ivory-colored, bony shell. Under unfavorable conditions during nut growth, the shells may not split open.

Lioudmila Makoaga

Teacher

What is a true nut?

Well, let's start with the definition of a nut.
A true nut, botanically speaking, is a hard-shelled pod that contains both the fruit and seed of the plant, where the fruit does not open to release the seed to the world. Some examples of botanical nuts are chestnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns.

Lehbib Rivadeneira

Teacher

What is a peanut allergy?

Peanut allergy occurs when your immune system mistakenly identifies peanut proteins as something harmful. Direct or indirect contact with peanuts causes your immune system to release symptom-causing chemicals into your bloodstream. Exposure to peanuts can occur in various ways: Direct contact.

Claudio Barranha

Reviewer

Why you shouldn't eat cashews?

It's actually the good fat content of cashews - the Mono Unsaturated fats (MUFA) - that helps. Our diets are traditionally deficient in MUFA, which can be detrimental to our heart's health, and cashew helps fill this gap. Besides, cashews actually have lower amount of fat (13 grams per ounce) than most other nuts.

Allende Pellegrino

Reviewer

Can you eat the fruit of a cashew?

When ripe, the whole thing falls off the tree, and the bottom part is gathered for processing. The false fruit (called cashew fruit or cashew apple) is edible, but it is very perishable. It is often left to rot, but can be eaten raw, cooked, or used to make a liquor called feni.

Faouzi Nejinsky

Reviewer

What nuts are poisonous?

Neither are peanuts, cashews (also poisonous), pecans, macadamia "nuts," walnuts, pistachios, or pretty much every other food you've ever been told was a nut. That's right: you've never eaten a nut. They lied to you.

Qunfeng Serqueira

Reviewer

What are the side effects of cashew nuts?

Side Effects & Safety
Cashew is LIKELY SAFE in normal food amounts. There isn't enough information to know if cashew is safe for use as a medicine. Unroasted cashew can irritate the skin and cause redness and blisters.