Pomegranate Seeds...
 

I've always chewed and swallowed the seeds after they gush their wonderful juice, but some people have told me they are to be spit out.

So the question is...

Spit or swallow?

I've never imagined spitting them out. That just seems odd.

I've always chewed and swallowed them, and always thought that's the way they were supposed to be eaten!

I've never eaten one. I've drunk bottled pomegranate juice. What are the seeds like, hard or soft, chewy or crunchy, zesty or flavorless?

I'm a little worried about the direction this thread could go. How many replies before it gets banned to OMNI?

Duh! If you swallow the seeds, pomegranates will start growing from your body!! :D

I thought the seeds were all there were to pomegranates? There's so little juice. . . .

To answer the OP's question, if the seeds weren't edible, I'd be dead by now. Tell your friends to back off.
:)

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 Sprint:MotoQ (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; Smartphone; 176x220))

Edible part is the juice, the seed isn't . But if you eat the seeds, it's no worse for you than swallowing guava seeds or sugarcane pulp!

Of course the seeds are edible. (I, too, thought that that was all there was.)

A lot of Middle Eastern cuisine features raw pomegranate seeds. For example, many rice dishes in Persian cuisine come with lots of seeds sprinkled on top. Also, often a bowl of hummos or moutabal will be garnished with the seeds. . . delicious.

You have to eat dirt first.

i've always spit the seeds out

You should go out and get some right now. They're much better than any of the bottled stuff I have ever had.

The seeds themselves are enclosed in a thin skin that contains a sac of juice. The juice is what you're after, the skin and seeds don't really add anything (perhaps fiber?). The skin sort of explodes when you bit on it, releasing the juice which is sweet, but a little tart.

Having eaten the seeds since I was a kid, I thought this was such an odd question that I googled it. It seems I am a disgusting, graceless thing for just going 'slice' / 'munch'. People have elaborate, careful ways to open the pomegranate and de-seed it, leaving just the juice.

The seeds are safe to eat though, and I think it's much more fun to just chow down and get messy :)

swallow them.

I swallow them, too. They're much less prone to getting stuck in my teeth than raspberry seeds.

I always used to eat them, however i think theres something to be said for scooping out a huge handful pom, squashing it in your mouth, chewing it around a bit, sucking more juices out, then spitting out a big load of seeds.