You Can Only Eat One Nut for the Rest of Your Life ...

[mr_lebowski]

42. Actually, all but one on this list can be argued to 'not be nuts'

Cashews are Legumes like Peanuts, though they grow in trees, unlike Peanuts.

Pistachios, Pine Nuts, Macadamias, Brazils are all Seeds.

Walnuts, Pecans, and Almonds are all drupes.

I looked all this up after I posted.

The only actual, 100% undeniable nuts by the biological definition on this list are actually Hazelnuts.

A couple of other bona-fide nuts are Acorns and Chestnuts.

Interestingly I also learned that with real nuts like the above, the nut part we eat is actually considered 'dried fruit'.

And to be a proper nut, you must have a very hard shell that does not open up on it's own during the plants growth (though there's more to it than that, that's a bare minimum), and this shelled structure contains both fruit (aka nut) and seed(s).

So what's a drupe you ask? A drupe is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell (what we sometimes call a pit) with a seed inside. Some examples of drupes are peaches, plums, and cherries—but walnuts, almonds, and pecans are also drupes. They're just drupes in which we eat the seed inside the pit instead of the fruit!

I also voted Pistachios ... in fact I was eating them when I made this poll!