Busting the watermelon seed myth: No, they DO NOT grow in your stomach

Graphic by Annie Liu

Munching on the watermelon seeds is now a lifelong habit.

Imagine sitting in a hospital room, feeling nauseous as the bright neon lights blur your vision. You look like you’ve gained 40 pounds in the past week, but actually, it’s caused by the big, round watermelon in your stomach. The lights glare down at you while doctors look at you with deep concern.

“Did you eat a watermelon seed?” asks one doctor, as she menacingly holds a giant scalpel and prepares to make an incision.

This used to be my greatest nightmare as a child. I was a naive elementary schooler, prone to believing the wildest tales spun by me and my classmates. 

The myth started when I walked into the science lab one day in elementary school, and we were planting bean sprouts. The teacher told us that plants only needed a little water and sunlight to grow, and most plants didn’t even need dirt.

With this knowledge, I somehow got a twisted version in my head that watermelon seeds could grow in stomachs; after all, I drank water and was often standing under the sunlight.

So, I hatched a brilliant plan. If I chewed every watermelon seed before swallowing them (there were too many seeds to spit out), the seeds wouldn’t be able to grow. From that day onward, I meticulously chewed every single watermelon seed for fear that one would take root and grow. 

While chewing seeds in this way was excessive, my elementary-school-mind rationalized it by saying that at least I didn’t have to deal with going to the hospital with a full grown watermelon in my stomach.

Eventually, the inevitable happened: I forgot to chew the watermelon seeds. At that point, I felt full panic. What if the watermelon seed became a watermelon? Would I be stuck with a bloated watermelon stomach for the rest of my life?

Then the wait began. When, I wondered, would I wake up with a full-grown watermelon in my stomach? 

Fortunately, there never came a day where I woke up with a watermelon in my gut. I then knew the myth held no water. 

These days, I still chew the watermelon seeds, but that’s because they’re crunchy and not because I’m scared they might grow into a watermelon. Still, every time I munch on a watermelon seed, it reminds me that I’ve grown from a gullible kid to a slightly less gullible teenager.