E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
It’s a food lover’s nightmare: One minute you’re enjoying a delicious bit of pine nut pesto and the next, everything you taste is nauseatingly bitter.
That’s what happened to Christian Niles, a 29-year-old software engineer from San Francisco.
“I made a cream sauce with about a cup of pureed pine nuts and about an hour after the meal, I had a cookie with blueberries in it and the blueberries were really bitter,” says Niles. “Then everything just turned bitter.”
A bitter-metallic taste that hangs around for a week or so after eating the seeds is the hallmark of “pine mouth syndrome,” a curious condition that a recent paper in the Journal of Medical Toxicology calls “an emerging problem.”
First documented in 2001, the phenom remains unexplained and seems to involve raw, cooked or processed pine nuts of various species. While there’s been speculation the condition is associated with pine nuts imported from China, Niles says the batch that caused his taste distortion came from Italy.
It’s a fairly rare syndrome, but because pine nuts are becoming increasingly popular in dishes such as pesto and gourmet salads, reports of more cases are popping up.
The condition is mostly unexplained, but it could be nerve cells in the mouth misfiring, says Dr. Alan Hirsch, founder and neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. “At this moment, we think it’s the sweet taste receptors that aren’t firing off. In response to the lack of the taste of sweet, bitter come out more.”
He compares it to the “artichoke effect.”
“When you eat artichokes and then you drink red wine, the red wine tastes bitter,” he says. “The same thing happens if you brush your teeth and drink orange juice. Hirsch says he’s not only seen cases of “pine mouth,” he’s also had people come to him with “pineapple tongue” and “tomato tongue.” In all three cases, a bitter taste persists after people eat these particular foods.
Taste distortions can also be caused by certain medications, he says.
If you think you’ve got the strange condition, you don’t have to wait until the bitter end. A little sugar or artificial sweetener in food (or on the tongue) can help, as well as rinsing your mouth with watered-down milk of magnesia or chewing (non-mint-flavored) gum, says Hirsch.
Have you ever had a weird reaction to pine nuts or any other food? Share your comments!
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
Ugh - I got this and it lasted over a week! Nobody would believe me that this even exists! I never want to experience that again and I've started picking out pine nuts from food.
I Started getting this awful bitter metalic taste in my mouth all of a sudden i thought i had a brain tumour i went to the doctor and basically decided without looking i had thrush and prescribed me with some tablets to suck to get rid (i knew it wasnt thrush ) but thought ok will give them a go, nope didnt work. then after a couple of weeks it disappeared, then not long after it came back, wine taste disgusting (end of the world) everything i ate taste awful so i decided to google my symptons and it came up with Pine mouth, and yes i have decided to start eating healthy more salads, seeds, nuts. Pine nuts origin China......looking back i have used them in my baking, stuffing, salads and snacks....cant believe it but i am so glad i found out what it is thought i would have to give up wine LOL...just need something to get rid of the taste now :(
My brother and I both ate pine nuts and both are in the third day of this awful experience. I will never eat them again. Each day it gets a bit better but this is just horribly annoying!
I never realized that my "pineapple tongue" happened to other people. I love pineapple but I can only eat a little at a time. The feeling only lasts a day, but is quite annoying.
ive had pineapple tongue to but only with freshly cut pineapple. if i let it sit in the fridge for a day, my tastebuds arent affected
I unfortunately had a different form of pineapple tongue. I love fresh pineapple and would eat it as often as I could when they were on sale at the stores. I had to stop because all of a sudden my tongue started to bleed profusely. It frightened me so much I haven't had any fresh pineapple since. Bummer.
'Pine mouth syndrome' leaves a bitter taste
Some beers and margaritas make the back of my jaws hurt- Needles is what I have always heard them called. It is pretty painful. It doesn't last too long, but I avoid drinks like that.
If the back of your jaws hurt after eating or drinking, it could be a food allergy.
my wife and i both got this..lasted almost two weeks.... seems strange as i have eaten pine nuts in many foods forever... but only now are they affecting me... PS...walnuts are amazing in pesto! much prefer to the pine nut.
I experienced this a few months ago, when eating pine nuts in the past never bothered me. I made a pesto dish and within a day, everything started tasting spoiled or bitter. I made a batch of fresh salsa for my hubby and brother-in-law and it tasted spoiled to me, they said it was great. That was my first clue...I started researching on the internet and came across "pine-mouth" and it perfectly decribed what I was going through. It took about 10 days for it to completely go away and I haven't had pine nuts since. I hope that I can have pine nuts again without getting pine-mouth!
For me, it's always tomato mouth. Doesn't last long, but it's nasty while it's there.
Restaurants find this syndrome occasionally interfering with wine sales. It came up the first time in my experience about 25 years ago, when both pesto and artichoke hearts were first popular. A few times waiters brought me bottles of wine to test when the customers claimed the wine was too bitter. They seemed normal- it was always something predictably ordinary. I remember a Bolla Valpolicello, for instance. We always had to honor the customers' opinions, but the kitchen staff shrugged and passed the wine around later as a clean-up hour treat.
I get this with eggplant. I love eggplant though but sometimes it makes my tongue feel like i've licked a cactus. thankfully it doesn't usually last long. I also get this with pineapple at times. And when I was on a certain medication (topical no less) I would experience something even weirder after drinking some wine. My face would feel as though it was on fire. It was burning hot to the touch and bright red.
When I was pregnant with my first son, I loved fresh pineapple. I could gorge on it. Several years later (due to hormonal changes, aging or something) I started noticing that fresh pineapple would leave a strange taste in my mouth and made all food eaten afterward have a repulsive metallic-like taste for an hour or so. No physical feeling in the mouth really, just the off tastes. Now I pretty much avoid eating it fresh. Too bad. I once ate potato chips after pineapple despite the taste, and have now, by association, ruined that brand of chips for me. It always makes me recall that one particular taste experience.
My weird-taste experience is kiwi. If I eat fresh kiwi, it does strange things to my whole mouth; and, I promise, I peel it so it's not the skin, just the flesh itself. Maybe it's because I like to bite open the seeds? I don't know. And, an excessive amount of fresh pineapple can do weird things too, but I always blame that on the acidity of the stuff; it's worth eating fresh too.
Imported from china. That's enough for me to stop eating them. It's probably heavy metals from the obscene amount of pollution over there.
I had this and it lasted about 10 days. It was awful!! It was the most horrible metallic bitter taste you can imagine. I thought I was really sick when I ran across an article on the web and realized I had pine nuts a few days before. Horrible! Never had it before eating pine nuts. They are thinking it might be certain kinds that are being imported.
I have never had this problem and I love Pine Nuts, we get them fresh from New Mexico. Some one mentioned a metallic taste, I have a problem with Nickel Silver and Silver Plate silverware. I can't stand to eat with it, everything tastes like what tarnished metal smells like. Some how when I count coins or hold them in my hand for a time, I get the same reaction.
like don't eat soft egg yolks with aluminum or silver spoons.
I have eaten pine nuts on various occasions but it was only my most recent consumption that caused this problem. I love them, but now don't eat them for fear of this - it lasted a week in which i didn't want to eat much. might be good for dieters...
I found a good web sight to buy all American organic grown pine nuts don’t have to buy from china no more the there web sight is:
www.wholesalepinenuts.com there pine nuts are superb. Mike
I found a good web sight to buy all American organic grown pine nuts don’t have to buy from china no more there web sight is:
www.wholesalepinenuts.com there pine nuts are superb. Mike
I have never had this but it sounds like a great diet plan for obesity. Eat some pineapple and everything tastes like hell for two weeks. lol
I have had a serious metallic taste that has lasted for weeks. I don't like pine nuts or tomatoes, and very seldomly eat pineapples. I have a family history of diabetes, and this bitter taste has happend to me on numerous occasions. I even went and had a deep cleaning performed on my teeth and gums, very painful by the way, and it didn't help. I haven't had it in a while but I am very careful about what I eat to see what may trigger it.
I have much more normal taste than I used to. I had altered tastes, with some aspects missing entirely, like stawberries, and other flavors too intense and bitter. The cause turned out to be methylb12 (methylcobalamin) deficiency. Cyanocoblalmin was completely unable to change it and may have made it worse. It took me several months of methylb12 to regain normal taste for all foods after years of altered tastes.
I had this from pine nuts two years ago and it lasted for two weeks. I now Ozick pine nuts out of everything when they come incuded. Even water tasted like crap, coffee fume bread fruit tea nothing tasted normal. Damn Chinese pine nuts....
This is the worst experience ever. Had a few pignoli (pine) nuts after making pignoli cookies this weekend, and now 2 days later I can't eat anything. Totally disgusting taste from everything. Bread items are the worst. Tried rinsing with baking soda & water.., tried the omega 3 fatty oils (both of which were suggested on other sites as possible rememdies), but nothing works.
I got it! As many people did, I went to my MD and he didn't know what it was. I am an avid pesto lover. I even grow my own basil! Since I had not heard of pine mouth syndrome, I continued to eat my wonderful pesto sauce I had made. It's not a fun thing; I lost a little weight because eating was a discouraging thing. I confirmed that the pine nuts I used, which I bought from Whole Foods Market were from China. My remaining questions are 1. Whether it is the Chinese pine nuts that are the culprit, and whether other pine nuts from other countries are better. 2. Other causes of metallogeusia are ACE inhibitors, which I take for high blood pressure and 3. Glucosamine and condroitin which I take as a suplement for joint and low back issues. All of these are mentioned in many sources as a cause of metalogeusia, so I am wondering whether there is a cumulative effect. For now pine nuts are off my diet. I can live without pine nuts, but the blood pressure medicine and joint compound I think I should continue. Sunflower seeds, walnuts and even pecans work fine in pesto sauce! Any thoughts on the cumulative effects of the other possible culprets? Thank you, Keith sales@mrtool.net
A WBMD SITE: http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/03/4452626-pine-mouth-syndrome-leaves-a-bitter-taste#comments
I also take alcium channel blockers and Glucosamine and chondroitin for years. I have also eaten pine nuts for years and put them in salads,cookies cakes. It happened to me only after the recalls of pine nuts from Costco and TraderJoes. One day I was in Trader Joes and they had restocked with nuts from Korea,Thailand or Laos. I bought them since they weren't Chinese origin. Well I got "pine mouth' lasting over 2 1 /2 weeks this summer. Have not had a pine nut since ,but just ordered some very expensive ones from a US grower! Now after reading your blog I'm wondering if you are on to something with the combinations and build up of a substance.
Have you eaten any more???
I am now experiencing this horrible allergy. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought the bitter, metallic taste in my mouth was from pine nuts. I've been eating them for years! But once I inquired and started reading about this, it sounds like that is the problem. I checked the pine nuts I ate and they are from China - never again I guess. I do have some from New Mexico, bought directly from the farmer. I may try those sometime, but not for awhile. The taste is making everything I eat taste nasty. Arghhhhhhhh..........
Gross! Just got "pine mouth" yesterday! Thank goodness I googled it. My husband and I thought we were going crazy! It really is nasty.... anyone have any other suggestions to get rid of it???