Here are some useless facts about nuts that you might find interesting. Walnuts are the oldest known tree food — they date all the way back to 10,000 BC. Almonds can’t grow on their own. They need bees to help them pollinate. The shell of the cashew is toxic and can’t be eaten. Cashews are in the same plant family as poison ivy and poison sumac and their itchy oil is primarily contained in their shell. Macadamia nuts are never picked. They are harvested from the ground after they fall off the tree. They also have the hardest shell of any nut, taking 300 PSI of pressure to crack it open. Americans spend almost $800 million a year on peanut butter and there are six cities in the US named Peanut. The Americans are my kind of people. Ancient Greeks believed hazelnuts could treat coughing and baldness. Macadamia nuts are poisonous for dogs. I hope you enjoyed reading these new facts, because I did! Follow me on Twitter: @BustNut4
As tasty as they are, p eanuts are among the most common allergy-causing foods, and they often find their way into things you wouldn't expect. Take chili, for example: It may be thickened with ground peanuts. I think as a nut reviewing website owner, I should bring attention to this topic, as it can be very, very dangerous. Peanuts aren't actually a true nut; they're a legume (in the same family as peas and lentils). But the proteins in peanuts are similar in structure to those in tree nuts. For this reason, people who are allergic to peanuts can also be allergic to tree nuts, such as almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, pecans, and cashews. So what happens during an allergic reaction? When someone has a nut allergy, the body's immune system , which normally fights infections, overreacts to proteins in the nut. If the person eats something that contains the nut, the body thinks these proteins are harmful invaders and responds by