Disclaimer

I am not a doctor. I am providing information based on experiences that my mom has with natural remedies. The purpose of this blog is to help folks to educate themselves. Use this information with your own discernment.

21 October 2010

I Used to LOVE Joe's Nuts

Nuts, I love nuts.  I love Trader Joe's nuts and seeds, that is until I experienced what is known as a "taste disturbance."


A few days ago I was making a salad for lunch and decided to look through the cupboard for tasty morsels to toss in to my salad meal.  


Oooooooooooooooooooooooo!  I spied a bag of pine nuts, pine nuts that I bought from Trader Joe's, my favorite place to buy nuts because they are so reasonably priced.  


I went against my own rules when shopping and I didn't read the nut label, looking to see where the nuts are from; mistake.  If you are wondering, the nuts come from Russia or Korea.  I had heard that pine nuts from China are trouble because of how the seeds are harvested causing contamination. 


My salad was delicious until I tasted a "bad seed."  Immediately I had a metallic taste in my mouth, a taste that didn't go away.  No matter how much I brushed my teeth and tongue, the terrible taste was still in my mouth.  My dinner was horrible and my wine tasted bad; everything tasted bitter.


Like most people, I turned to the internet to Google my symptoms.  I typed in "metallic taste in mouth" and came up with results, a list that included pine nuts.  I didn't look at the pine nut result until after I read about the serious illnesses that have a symptom of a metallic taste; cancer and HIV were top of the list.  Not having any other symptoms of these serious illnesses, I read about pine nuts.


Eating a rancid pine nut can cause what is known as dysgeusia.  When one eats pine nuts the disturbance is also known as "pine mouth."  It's a weird sensation to lose ones ability to taste, especially when it's a sense that I use every day when I am preparing recipes.  My taste disturbance began like a shot and lasted for 3 days, just like the Wikipedia article had stated.  


What I have learned about pine nuts:
  1. Avoid buying pine nuts from China, Russia and Korea.  They could be using a different variety of pine to harvest pine seeds, a variety that causes taste disturbances.
  2. Spend the money and buy good quality pine nuts; Pine nuts from Italy are your best bet.
  3. Store pine nuts in the refrigerator or freezer to help hold off spoiling
I used to love Trader Joe's nuts.  I trusted this store chain and found myself blindly purchasing nuts and seeds without looking to see where the nuts and seeds originated.  I have learned my lesson.  Imagine if I gave my mom some of these rancid seeds?  I can't even imagine what would happen; I don't want to find out.

If you find that after you eat some pine nuts and you have a horrible metallic taste in your mouth, where everything that you eat and or drink tastes nasty, you are experiencing a taste disturbance.  

What I did to help ease the lousy taste in my mouth was I took 2 teaspoons of Braag's Apple Cider Vinegar before I ate lunch and dinner; it seemed to help neutralize the foul taste.  This morning I woke up and my taste buds are back to normal.  Coffee tastes good again.  

Today I will celebrate with food and skip the pine nuts.  

6 comments:

  1. do you have any idea how many dirty jokes i can come up with from that title alone?

    im not mature enough for this shit...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Slyde... yes, I do! Go for it... make us laugh. I sent you a lob ball. What about those nuts?

    ReplyDelete
  3. i told you that traders joes stuff was all from china.

    and leave my nuts outta this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes Joe... you were RIGHT! (How often do you hear that?)

    HA HA HA... I'll leave your nuts outta this!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks so much for the info about pine nuts. You are amazing lady....thanks for all the love and care you put into your blog. It has been so beneficial and informative for me. Thank you for being a loving and caring daughter.

    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you, Sandy. I am honored that you read my blog and took the time to write a note.

    I write about everything because if I don't share what I know it will get lost.

    .

    ReplyDelete