Remember swallowing seeds or pits of some commonly consumed fruits or vegetables! How often would you accidentally crush them with your teeth and take them inside… or simply swallow them, with someone telling you, “Now you will grow the fruit tree inside your belly.” Some other advice would also follow: “Nothing would happen because you have acid in your stomach so it will probably melt.”

And this too may have been offered as a sane advice: “As long as the pit made it to the stomach you should be fine as long as the pit passes through naturally within 48-72 hours. If it does not pass, or if you begin to feel ill or have stomach pain, a doctor should be contacted for evaluation.”

Isn’t consuming orange seeds, even today, too common with adults? Well, I was always scared whenever I had them… and I would have them quite often as a kid. Then… most of the time my friends would pull my legs, knowing that I was ‘carrying’ the seeds in my stomach. I would then wait to see some reason or change in my behaviour that would never happen though… and only then I would start behaving normally.

You should generally avoid eating what seems to be inedible, such as the pits or large, hard seeds of fruits or vegetables. And for that you need to chew slowly and carefully and thoroughly… so that it is easily and timely detected — what is to be spit out.

But if you indeed accidentally swallow a seed, do not panic. In the grand scheme of things, I think, you are still better off eating an apple – even with the occasional seed – than eating junk food that is so common these days.

The other day I too joked with a family friend who … of course with me … had some watermelon seeds going down inside: “Now wait and watch,” I warned. He was conscious of my poke, though. “Good,” he quipped, adding, “Wow!!! A watermelon will grow inside me and one day it will explode and I will poop out watermelon. Wow… how exciting… I’m right now imagining branches coming out of my ears!”

Hey, what about swallowing your bubble gum? Is it harmful? One health capsule reads that it’s a myth that swallowed gum stays in your body for seven years. Swallowed gum passes through your intestine intact and is excreted in your stool. (Though) on rare occasions, large amounts of swallowed gum may cause an intestinal blockage and a medical emergency.

Would anyone (reading this) from medical background offer advice if the ‘practice’ of accidentally swallowing the seeds or pits cause illness or indigestion… or if any seed is poisonous… or do they, in any case, block the airway that leads to the lungs?

For a quick reference, may I share a report published in 1998 in the Annals of Emergency Medicine that described cyanide poisoning in a woman who bought apricot kernels at a health food store… she then became severely ill within 20 minutes of ingestion and was close to death when she reached the emergency room. Fortunately, the cause of her illness was identified and she recovered but it was the first report of its kind in nearly 20 years. [Click here to read the report]

To conclude, may I share Lebanese-American poet-philosopher-artist Khalil Gibran’s quote on seeds… though that is in some different context of course: “Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in you seeds.” And an another one: “Oh, heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains.”

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Hello, if you have had enough seeds, it’s time to jump and play as the OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN has just begun. The Olympic flame was lit Thursday in the birth place of the Games — Ancient Olympia in Greece. This solemn ceremony filled with tradition and mystery now signals the final countdown to the start of this year’s summer Games in London.

Will you be there in the city of London which is hosting the Games of the XXX Olympiad? And do you know that nine cities had initially submitted applications to host the 2012 Olympic Games: Paris (France), Leipzig (Germany), New York (United States of America), Istanbul (Turkey), Havana (Cuba), Moscow (Russian Federation), London (Great Britain), Madrid (Spain) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

The London 2012 Games will be centred around the Olympic Park in east London, which will be the site of a number of new sports venues. Up to 180,000 spectators a day will enter the Park to enjoy the Games, making it the principal focus of Olympic activity in summer 2012. [Click here to visit the official website of the Olympic movement]

The London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay (OTR) will last 70 days and will travel for approximately 12,800  k.m. around the UK, passing within 16 k.m. of 95 per cent of the people in the UK, Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey.

The Olympic flame will be transported by 8,000 torchbearers and will use numerous different modes of transport during its journey. This highly visible and symbolic journey, marking the countdown to one of the greatest athletic and cultural events in the world, should unite us all in anticipation of witnessing the fulfillment of human potential and inspire us to be world citizens, bound by the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. Let the London 2012 OTR allow us to celebrate together and be inspired by its message of peace. Amen.