Comments on: Insidious Chinese pine nuts

By: Carmen

Carmen — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:10:13 +0000

I Ate Pine Nuts on New Years Eve and got this horrible taste in my mouth a day later. It is now 3 days since ingesting the nuts and my taste buds do not seem to be any better. I don’t normally use Pine Nuts. My product has no indication of where the pine nuts come from. At first I thought I had some sort of poisoning. I am going to discard the remaining an probably won’t cook with them again. Nothing tastes right and sweet food do seem to be the worst.

By: Tracey

Tracey — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:35:09 +0000

It’s me again. Day 5 was absolutely awful, the bitterness lasted ALL day and was so intense that I resorted to trying anything in my cupboard/fridge to reduce my symptoms. In the end I tried a fresh garlic and fresh ginger mix which I at first rubbed over my tongue, then swirled in my mouth to get the other parts of my tongue that I couldn’t reach. It definately took a large portion of my bitterness away. I repeated this again later in the day, which again gave me relief. The next day, (day 6) I noticed I could again enjoy the taste of food with just the occasional return of mild bitterness over the naext few days.

By: Tracey

Tracey — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:05:36 +0000

Unfortunately I ate a whole pack et of the culprit (pine nuts) over 2 days. I developed the awful bitter/soapy/mtallic taste 1 day later accompanied with stomach, bowel and slight nausea issues which lasted that morning. Now 4 days later I still have the taste issues. Eating milk products seems to be worse for me, with the bitter taste almost unbearable. I don’t understand because I have eaten pine nuts for years now but this is the first episode of pine nut syndrome. Go figure! Just grateful I googled it to find out what was causing my problem. I was convinced initially I had toxic poisoning or a brain tumour. Will repost when the symptom goes ( hopefully soon ) Not looking forward to Christmas dinner tomorrow

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:00:59 +0000

I had this same problem but it ended up being from canned air dusters that you use on computers instead of pine nuts. Check out the site here Bitter Taste In Mouth . But the next time I ate pine nuts I noticed that they also cause it a little.

By: Pat

Pat — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:09:52 +0000

Last Sunday (a week ago),I made a chicken dish garnished with pine nuts from Fred Meyer, an Oregon grocery chain. Two days later, on Tuesday morning, I sprayed my house to head off a flea infestation (we’ve had a an extremely wet spring, and my cats were scratching like crazy). That evening, I came home from work, put the cushions back on the sofa, washed my hands and grabbed some chips. They tasted really bitter. I thought omg, I’ve managed to ingest insecticide, even though I am maniacal about washing my hands. Had pain on my left side, headaches and this horrible bitterness in my mouth. Called Poison Control who told me that yes, this is one of the signs of pesticide poisoning. My doctor was clueless.I’m going into Day 5, and for the last few days, I’ve had a really sore throat, it’s bright red and there is what looks like a blister in the backof my throat. Anyone have a sore throat? I’m hoarse and it hurts.

By: Rikki

Rikki — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:56:50 +0000

Just wanted to post back to say that after reading everything I could find on this issue, I decided to try to find some substances that won’t cause the bad reaction. Since everyone was mentioning that sweets seem to amplify the bitter metallic taste, I thought it might be an acidic reaction in the mouth causing most of the problems. I know that sweetners such as xylitol are considered alkaline and antimicrobial, so I decided to sweeten with it instead of sugar. It works. I also decided to see if a saline sinus wash would help after eating, and it works much better than gargling because it gets the back of my throat where garling can’t reach. Also gargled with xylitol sweetened water and it helped, too. Eventually the taste creeps back, probably as acidity in my mouth increases. So I’m keeping a cup of xylitol sweetened (Lipton Goji Raspberry Green) tea close. I think it shouldn’t be too bad doing this for the next few days. At least I found a way to wash the taste out of my mouth and throat periodically. I hope this information helps others who encounter the China Pine-Nut Syndrome….

By: Rikki

Rikki — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:40:45 +0000

I grew up in New Mexico eating pinon (pine nuts) picked from the mountains near where I lived. I never had any problems. I moved to Virginia a few years ago, and haven’t had pine nuts since I got here — until five days ago. I would have never linked this terrible taste in the back of my mouth to them. Yesterday was the first day I tasted the horrible bitter metallic taste every time I ate or drank anything. The pine nuts I ate were purchased at Walmart on June 19, and were not expired. I will have to see if the package is still in the waste bin at my office to check where the nuts were imported from. Roughly 2 ounces ingested over a three day period as a ‘healthy’ snack alternative at the office on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday morning, everything tasted horrible. It is Saturday evening, the second day of this horrible taste. I guess I’ll just have to ride it out like everyone else. And like everyone else will avoid pine nuts imported from China/Asia. I will try to remember to post back when the bad taste is gone, or if I find anything that subdues the horrible taste….

By: Fran

Fran — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:34:31 +0000

Same story about eating raw pine nuts as many of you – luckily I Googled the first day of the foul taste so didn’t get too frightened. That was Wednesday; on Saturday I bought charcoal tablets; Sunday until now I lost almost two days with sickness, diarrhoea, unbearable joint pains and weakness. I hadn’t eaten much at all and certainly nothing that could account for this sudden worsening of symptoms, and the rest of the family remain ok. The nuts I bought came from Julian Graves in Taunton, Somerset, UK, and were baby pine nuts from China.

By: Tena

Tena — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:31:10 +0000

I bought 2 small jars of pine nuts about 5 days ago. Had never had them. They were really good so within 2 days both jars were gone . That was Thursday. almost immediately began the bitter taste, but since saturday ive been in the bed in the fetal position. Stomach feels like I took a few punches. I have taken everything in the medicine cabinet!! Am I poisened? I feel really dumb. would someone please tell me what I can do. This is day 4 and I still cant walk upright. My kids ate a few!!! First couple of days I just thought I had gas, but then When I first googled it, it came up with gastritus, so that is what Ive been thinking I have. Yesterday a saltine tasted so bad, I spit it out.any suggestions?

By: Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:41:54 +0000

My pine nuts were pignolas from ShopRite. I bought them recently and put them right into the freezer when I got home. Their expiration date is April 2012. I toasted them for 10 minutes before I used them in a recipe the other night. I had a bad case of acid reflux either that night or the next, my liver hurts, and I have that annoying metallic bitter taste. No one else who ate them was affected.