Recent conversation with a patient alerted me to the fact that a Strawberry is technically a nut. At first I thought this was Trump “fake news”. But this is actually true as the strawberry has seeds that are on the outside of the fruit and not on the inside as in most fruits (surrounded by flesh and the seeds in the middle). By the same logic, raspberries and blueberries are also nuts. Although they don’t grow in trees’ as we expect with most nuts such as almond, Brazil and cashew nuts. But there is no link between having a nut allergy and developing a strawberry allergy. It’s just a quirk of evolution that a “fruit” that looks and grows nothing like a nut should be related to nuts. Peanuts grow on the ground and are technically not nuts either but legumes. Another quirk is that a banana is technically a herb as the seeds are contained in the middle of the fruit pod. But again there is no link between allergies to banana, strawberry, vanilla and sesame.
