I'm Not Nuts

For work today I had to write two pages about almonds.

Almonds are my favorite nut. I enjoy them on ice cream, and I enjoy them on their own. I would probably use almond butter.

But almonds, much like peanuts, are not really, truly, nuts. (Peanuts are legumes.)

Almonds are actually closely related to peaches. Peaches! The almond tree is a species of tree native to the Middle East. The seeds of this tree are “drupes.” Drupes. (Say that out loud.) So they're the opposite of peaches, basically. The fleshy shell is removed, and what we're actually eating is the “pit.” I won't eat peach pits, but I will eat almonds.

How did they figure out how to eat almonds? And how did they figure out that it was the opposite of a peach? The fruit part of wild almonds contains the glycoside amygdalin, and that actually becomes deadly prussic acid (or hydrogen cyanide) when the seed is crushed.

Oh my God! How many people died trying to figure out how to eat almonds?

Almonds were domesticated in the early Bronze Age. (Almonds are older than Jesus.)

Almonds and the amygdala in the brain actually have the same root word. The amygdala plays a function in emotional learning.
Am I more emotional because I enjoy almonds?
Or do I enjoy almonds because I am emotional?

Regardless, I just ate a handful of almonds. And I feel pretty good about it.

Almonds are not exactly what they seem. I like to think I'm the same way. They aren't nuts, but they aren't peaches, either.

I'm not nuts.