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.
You may also be related in a related blog post.
Add me to the list. Batch of Organic 365 from Whole Foods. Product of Good Ol’ China…batch lot code 10011.
By the way, i made pesto with toasted pine nuts and had no problems. Over the next couple of days, I ate raw pine nuts and sure enough, the hair spray flavor arrived today! I thought Starbucks was trying to poison me. The taste only arrives after I eat and then goes away after about 15-30 minutes. Thanks to this website, my wife doesn’t think I am crazy anymore!
@Cindy
Cindy,
I feel for you! It was awful. Mine lasted 12 days. I posted this info on Jan. 13th. If you want to go back to the comments click on the comment pages below to get back to Jan. 13th, 2010 or any previous comments:
January 13th, 2010 at 17:01 | #30 Reply | Quote Jane, and all the others – I wanted to give you an update. When you’re going through this it is awful!! It took 12 days for my bitter taste to go away.. I did not notice a bad smell from my urine but I am sure that is possible. I did get an awful headache and upset stomach almost every day. I did have some diarrhea but may have been caused by all the detoxing I was trying to do. It was not fun and I’m not sure I can eat pine nuts again. Angie, I live in Southerna California but it you read all the posts it’s happening all over the world. I reported to the FDA in Ca. but they did not make it a big deal and because it’s not happening to everyone they said they would not take it off the market!! If you have the pine nuts with the original package they want them. The guy at FDA scared me when he said it could last up to 6 months. I think the average is about 2 weeks.. My pine nuts were roasted so the theory that they are raw goes out the window. It’s happening with both raw and roasted.
Ok I know most of you want to know what helped to I will get to that:
I consulted with my health care practitioner and this is what she had me do – I don’t know if this was the cure or if it went away on it’s own:
1. Liquid Chlorophyll (twice a day)
2. I took Thorne Bio-Gest probiotics – 2 tablets on emty stomach in the morning, and one with every meal and then one before bed
3. I also took my Green drink – Green Vibrance – I just did this because I thought it would help to detox.
4. I did not do the Charcol like some people did but my health food person said that that would be good but can sometimes cause constipation.
5. I did drink Green Tea – but it’s was difficult because most tea’s tasted awful to me.
Ok things that I could not stomach:
1. Sugar
2. Bread
3. Fruit
4. Orange juice
(Well mostly everything made me sick.. as long as I was not eating I felt fine but we all have to eat.. so that’s not an option)
This helped me a lot after I ate someting:
1. Wrigley’s Extra Long lasting Flavor Spearmint Gum
2. Did ok with some protein (lunch meat not so good) regular chicken not too bad
Let me know if it helps any of you.
Well I hope this helps you all out there.. I feel for you because it’s awful when you’re going through it.
Please for all of you that are going through this and then it ends please update the blog so that others know what to do, what helps and when it ends.
All my best to you!
Wow–in reading all of these posts, it looks like this problem has maybe increased in the last few weeks?? I googled it today after eating a dish I made with pine nuts yesterday. Got them at Whole Foods Saturday in the bulk bin and am pretty sure they were from China. Would love to know if there is a pesticide issue or if it is truly just a ‘bad’ nut in the bunch. Yuck. I am not physically sick, but everything I eat tastes bad.
Hi there, THANK GOODNESS for your post. My brother and I have been wondering for a couple of days what was wrong with us – no matter how we tried we couldn’t get rid of the bile-taste. Now I know not to worry.
Thanks for all the postings, they were a source of relief for me. I was wondering what happened to my taster. Like most I had eaten pine nuts, mine came from Trader Joes, they were roasted, packaged in the U.S. but imported from either Russia or Korea. (Who knows where they were grown). Like other reports I seem to be the only one effected, my wife ate the same pine nuts without a reaction. Fortunately my symptoms do not seem as severe as others have reported. I just have a bitter, metallic like taste in the back of my mouth but I can still eat without problems.
I can’t believe I found this out about pine nuts! I am Lebanese and we eat pine nuts in so many of our recipes. I had a sandwhich with pesto a few days ago then ate a handful of pine nuts from my freezer last night. I had the crazy metallic taste in my mouth since I woke up today. I was freaking out until I found this website. I don’t think I’m going to eat pine nuts anymore no matter how much I love them. This is unpleasant and gross.