Bitter taste after eating for days - caused by pine nuts?
I started to get a bitter taste in my mouth after eating. At first I thought I was going to die so I Googled on it - how many people a minute go through that process! My scatter gun approach to diagnosis came up with a series of suggestions. I either had jaundice or I was diabetic or I had eaten pine nuts (possibly from China) in the last few days. My skin isn’t yellow and my pee isn’t orange and I am not thirsty all the time but I had eaten a new kind of pine nut in the last few days so the third option looks like it warrants attention. After Googling start blogging.
There is a very short scientific-like paper out there Taste disturbances after pine nut ingestion. In the initial case the pine nuts were oxidized and not fit for consumption but six other cases are mentioned and it is not clear if these were oxidized. A test subject also consumed two portions of nuts which I guess they wouldn’t do if they were oxidized. Importantly there was no fungal contamination, no pesticide contamination and they didn’t know what species of tree the nuts were from but they had come from China.
The wikipedia pine nut page currently summarises and has a few links to discussion groups where the effect is mentioned.
Now I eat pine nuts a lot (I am a veggie) and this is the first time this has happened. It is also the first time I have had ‘Baby’ pine nuts which were sold as being small. My theory is that these are actually a different species of pine nut. This would be fun to investigate.
What candidates do we have among commonly eaten pine nut species ( according to Wikipedia)
Pinus gerardiana, known as the Chilgoza Pine, ‘noosa’, or ‘neoza’, is a pine native to the northwestern Himalaya in eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India, growing at elevations between 1800-3350 m. It often occurs in association with Blue Pine (Pinus wallichiana) and Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara).(Wikipedia) - This is a possible one. Are its seeds smaller than P. koraiensis I wonder?
Pinus koraiensis is Korean Pine. It is native to eastern Asia, Manchuria, far eastern Russia, Korea and central Japan. Korean Pine differs from the closely related Siberian Pine in having larger cones with reflexed scale tips, and longer needles. The seeds are extensively harvested and sold as pine nuts, particularly in northeastern China; it is the most widely traded pine nut in international commerce. - Very likely. (Wikipedia)
Pinus pinea Stone Pine (or Umbrella Pine) Native of Southern Europe in the Mediterranean region (Wikipedia) - not likely contender.
Pinus edulis Colorado Pinyon or Two-needle Pinyo is native to the United States and so not likely contender.
Pinus cembroides Mexican Pinyon - mexican so not likely to bother us.
Pinus monophylla Single-leaf Pinyon - USA native so not likely to bother us.
Looks like there are two contenders. Common things happen commonly so I have probably been eating P. koraiensis for years as it is the most commonly traded. Perhaps these new seeds are P. gerardiana?
I will investigate further.
Hi Roger,
I too have suffered this problem and until this weekend had not made the link to pine nuts. I have to admit to snacking on them whilst cooking in the kitchen. I was fine on Saturday and then ate some Saturday evening while preparing a casserole for dinner. The casserole tasted horribly bitter.The pine nuts I ate were the smaller and cheaper variety form James Grieves. This seems to fit in with your experience. I started buying this smaller variety last Summer and that is when I started to experience the bitter taste. Unfortunately I don’t have the original packaging any more to see whether they came from China. As an ex-chef I was devastated to find that my taste had gone making it impossible to season food.
This morning I think I am a little better - should be over it by tomorrow. The only thing I can eat with relative good taste is muesli but I still get the bitterness afterwards. Water is the only drink unaffected.
We should start a campaign to get these nuts removed from the market.
AT
Comment by AT — November 26, 2008 @ 10:46 am
Sorry - for James Grieves read Julian Graves - the former is of course a sort of apple!!!!!
Comment by AT — November 26, 2008 @ 10:54 am
Hi Roger
I have also just gone through what you have - ate pine nuts (baby ones from Julian Graves) on Sat night and now have a constant bitter taste in my mouth and can’t taste the food I prepare for my 8 month old baby! I am going to contact the people I had over for dinner(!) to see if they are experiencing the same as me and I am also going to contact Julian Graves! I also did think I had something nasty and made a doctors apt then googled it and couldn’t believe what I was reading!
Comment by Clare Tilden — November 26, 2008 @ 3:26 pm
If I may ask, how would you describe the sensation? Was it incredibly unpleasent or merely somewhat disconcerting?
I have a nearly uncontrolable sweet tooth, and I’m wondering if snacking on these nuts from time to time might help me bring that under control to some degree and perhaps lose some weight. If everything tastes bitter for a few days, I’m unlikely to do as much snacking.
Your opinion, given your experience of this?
Comment by TPRJones — December 5, 2008 @ 6:34 am
I have had two replies from Alison at Julian Graves. Firstly she says:
“The pinenuts are from China although specific variety varies from region to region. The pinenuts are graded on the size, to do this they use different sieves to determine if it is classed as a normal pinenut or a baby pinenut.”
I find it fascinating that we don’t know the species that the nuts come from but I guess this is the case for many foods we it. Just another lesson in biodiversity. Alison sent a sample of the nuts I had eaten off for analysis and the technical report said:
“Thank you for your recent comments with regard to the after taste you have associated with pine nuts. We have had experience of sporadic complaints with regard taste and pine nuts. Unfortunately there has been no commonality to enable us to full identify why some people are experiencing this taste as it appears not to be batch related. We have carried out analysis and enquired with an independent food association we are members of, and no one can give a definite reason for the taste. It has been suggested that pine nuts can carry a natural chemical which only a small number of the population can taste and is only present under certain growing conditions or when the pine nuts have been cooked or eaten with another food.”
This is as I suspect. My wife ate these nuts as well and didn’t suffer any ill effect. It could be the variety of nut or some other factor but it doesn’t happen often enough to find a pattern. Possibly it is only the internet (and Google) that lets us discover these things. I have been eating regular pinenuts again without any problem so maybe I’ll just wait and see if it happens again.
From the point of view of eating pinenuts to put you off eating other foods this sounds like it would be pretty unpleasant. The taste really is bad and you get it after eating most foods it just seems worse after refined carbohydrate (in my experience). Because the effect isn’t predictable and may be genetic it would be difficult to isolate. If, however, you isolate a compound that could be turned into a functioning appetite suppressant then I claim my share of the proceeds!
Comment by RogerHyam — December 5, 2008 @ 2:23 pm
Thank you for letting me know I am not crazy or worse yet suffering from some deadly disease. This week I have been munching on a small bag of pinenuts and also have a slight chest cold. I thought maybe the chest cold was really some kind of infection due to the taste of in my mouth each time I ate anything.After googling and finding this info. I looked on the package and they are from China. The nuts are now in the garbage. Thanks again for the heads up.
Comment by Debbie — December 12, 2008 @ 5:54 am
Thank you for this!!! This is the second time I suffer from this bitter metallic taste in my mouth after eating… When I got it last year, my doctor told me it was an infection and gave me some anti-nausea medication. (The bitter taste left only 3-4 days later, so I couldn’t really tell if it was the medicine that made it really go away). This time, I decided to google it and you are so right!!! I ate a salad (at a restaurant) 2 evenings ago that had a handful of pine seeds… And the bitter taste started yesterday noon.
What a relief to know this! I was starting to get worried about a recurring infection…
Thanks again!
Comment by Hanaa — December 15, 2008 @ 11:44 am
I bought some pinenuts from Sprouts and was eating them on Saturday while I was cooking. Sure enough the last few days I have been tasting an awful bitter burning taste in the back of my mouth. My daughter in law came by for lunch today and after eating a cheese sandwich, she said the same thing….that she had a bitter aftertaste and yes everything taste Nasty…..YUCK! I was wondering if China is trying to poison us with Pine nuts? What good is the FDA if they cannot regulate imported food to be sure it’s safe for Human and Pet consumption? I am getting very upset by this!
Comment by Ali8 — December 16, 2008 @ 8:54 pm
WOW-These messages were a God send. I ate a handful of pines from Safeway for the first time in a long time. I now have bitter
taste in my mouth especually after coffee. Thanks for all the information. It all makes sense. Who needs a doctor
Comment by Max — December 31, 2008 @ 5:03 pm