Feeling a bitter taste in mouth

Thank god for these internet threads - I, too, thought I was losing my mind, and jumped to the worst conclusions until I found this.

I love pine nuts, particularly as they're used in pesto, and never had a problem before in my life. Recently, however, I've been eating a lot of them (raw) on salads. Two days ago, I was eating popcorn and noticed a foul taste in my mouth. I thought it was possibly the oil it was popped in, until I woke up the next morning and couldn't stand the taste of strawberries, bananas, coffee, or an english muffin. The taste is definitely best described as an aspirin at the back of the tongue, like others have said; for me, sugar intensifies it (and mint isn't helping at all).

I have no idea where the nuts came from, but read (albeit, on wikipedia) that there's no sure way to say it's any one country of origin that's causing the problem (scroll down to "Risk of eating pine nuts"): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut

I hope this goes away soon, because although people have much worse conditions to complain about, this does suck.

Add one or two more to the list! I had been experiencing an extreme bitter taste for three days now. At first I noticed it while eating homemade muffins. I assumed it was because of the craisins. But two days earlier my housemate had prepared fresh pesto with pine nuts and I had eaten a small handful. They were purchased at Trader Joe's here in Portland, Oregon USA. The package states the source as Russia or Korea and are roasted. My housemate claimed to have a metallic not bitter taste onn her tongue. Strawberries were almost impossible to tolerate or anything sweet. Mint tea unsweetened and peanut butter seem to be the few items that do not induce the horrendous bitter symptom. I do not have any other symptoms by the way. So the medical condition diagnostic websites did not seem to me to offer the correct assessment for what this is.

Class action suit anybody?

My mom and I are experiencing the same thing after eating pine nuts from BJ's Wholesale club in Woodbridge,VA that originated from China. We have been eating them here and there for about two days and have had a bitter taste ever since. Hopefully it goes away soo :-/

Me too, I have been having a bitter after taste after I eat almost anything. The first bite is ok, then it spreads over the back of my tongue and throat. It takes about 30 minutes for the taste to go away.

I have not eaten any pine nuts in years. i just bought some two weeks ago and have been adding them to my salads and spinach. I have not eaten any in several days, but the bitterness is still present. It was worse at church when I took communion with the little wafer, it was the worst taste ever, I thought they had gone bad. I too then looked on google and found this site.

I also experienced the Pine Nut Bitterness phenomenon. Also purchased at Trader Joe's in Portland, Oregon. I've eaten pine nuts for years and never had a problem 'til now. I'm forwarding a copy of this to TJs.

Another victim here. I had a apple turnover this morning and it tasted awful. In fact I even took it back to the shop to complain ;-)
So glad I found this thread. I had pine nuts on Saturday evening, and now I find I can look forward to this horrible taste for another few days.

Never had a problem and love pine nuts. But now bleaaaach, especially biscuits, chips etc.

I've also had a tingling sensation in my gums/lip area. so I'm thinking that must also be linked to this.

Me too, just googled "bitter taste in mouth" and am both amazed and relieved to find it is the fault of those pesky pine nuts I so enjoyed two days ago.

Woke up this morning fine, then my morning cup of tea tasted nasty. All day today I have been fine except when eating or drinking, when I have a very bitter taste at the very back of my tongue.

I have also had pine nuts many times before with no problems.

Mine were from ASDA in King's Hill, Kent, and were well within date (only bought them this week).

I suppose a by-product of this could be some pre-holiday weight loss...



I am also blood group O+, it would be very interesting to know if this has anything to do with it.

To echo many of you thank heavens for the Internet. This morning I had a customary glass of orange juice and immediately thought there was something wrong with it because of the strong bitter after-taste that lingered for about 30 minutes. I then had some porridge (same effect). I too immediately thought 'brain tumour'. Recently, however, I developed a liking for pine nuts (Sainsbury) and am liable to raid the cupboard for a handful which at the time have had no adverse effect. Last handful was 3 days ago. This morning, ugh!

What disappoints me is that nobody from the medical profession or FSA has commented, yet there seems to be dozens of us all experiencing the same symptoms.

Michael (Devon. England)

For all southern californian victims of the pine nut bitter taste syndrom, please call the FDA consumer complaint division at 949-608-3530 and be sure to include the steadyhealth.com link to further substantiate the widespread problem with the pine nuts.
Since this is a problem that we have experienced only within the past few years (no occurances personaly before 2007) there must be some connection to the harvesting, storing, transporting, etc that is causing these new cases to arise.

My wife made some pesto with Pine Nuts a few days ago. She and my daughter both ate a small handful of pine nuts, and both of them are now complaining of a lingering bitter taste in their mouths that hasn't gone away in the last few days.

I have eaten some of the pesto with nuts and my teenage son has eaten a gargantuan amount (go figure). Neither of us have eaten just the nuts and neither of us are having trouble with a bitter taste.

My wife and daughter are Type O+, and my son and I are both Type A+. We all live in coastal South Carolina.

Another bitter-tongued witness here.. I can't believe I found all of this information, I never would have believed it could have been pine nuts.

Here's the letter I just wrote to Whole Foods (where I bought mine):
Quote:

Dear Sir or Madam:

I purchased a package of Raw Pine Nuts in your [redacted] store about 2 weeks ago. I have only eaten Pine Nuts in restaurants as a part of salads or drinks in the past. I have been eating yours plain & raw over the past couple of weeks, by the handful.

In that time I have developed a terrible bitter taste at the back of my tongue which comes and goes. It came again tonight and I decided to make sure that something wasn't wrong with my digestive system -- I searched online for clues.

What I found were many people complaining about identical symptoms, and most of them have also had raw pine nuts within a few days prior to symptoms. Unfortunately it seems to take 1-3 days to develop the bitter taste, so it is difficult to correlate with eating pine nuts.

See these forums for examples:

http://forums.wrongdiagnosis.com/showthread.php?t=8562&page=3

https://www.steadyhealth.com/Sensation_of_bitter_taste_in_mouth_What_could_it_be_-t154822-0-asc-10.html

https://www.steadyhealth.com/Bitter_taste_in_mouth_while_eating-t85978-0-asc-90.html

Wikipedia also mentions the phenomenon, and offers some sources for additional information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut

http://journals.lww.com/euro-emergencymed/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2001&issue=03000&article=00036&type=fulltext

Several people mentioned that they had eaten pine nuts in the past, and that this was a new reaction. Many have suggested that the problem may be isolated to raw pine nuts from a specific region -- namely, China.

I picked up my package of Whole Foods pine nuts and noticed that they are from China. Frankly I am surprised that Whole Foods sells any raw produce from China. Having visited many factory towns in China, where even my hosts often refuse to eat certain local products, I question how "whole" these foods really are. I hope that you have at least inspected the farms and verified that those farms are definitely the end source of your product.

Is this a new source for Pine Nuts for your company? Have you received other complaints?

I admit that it is certainly possible that this is a result of a natural process rather than pollution or chemical presense. It may also be natural and specific to a particular region. However, I feel that it would be a great service to your loyal customers to do some investigating. Perhaps you may also want to warn future customers of the effects these pine nuts are having. I'm sure many people have gone to the doctor about this.

Your time and concern for the health and mental well-being of your customers is appreciated.

Best regards,

[redacted]

I am so glad I found this site detailing what was going on with the Pine nuts. Hadn't had any for years and than my daughter brought home a recipe that called for them and we purchased a large bag at Cost Co to make it with. The food was served at school for the Greek Club and haven't heard anything from the students there, but I ate them raw right out of the bag and here I am a couple days later with a metal rat decaying in my mouth.
I checked my bag and like everyone else it was from china. I am wondering if they coat the nuts with something to keep them fresh during transport and that chemical is what is causing the metallic taste in our mouths? The FDC should really look into it. Is that California number good in AZ?
thanks

I'm amazed that so many people have posted about this pine-nut commonality. My bitter-taste sensation started a few hours ago, triggered by some turkey deli meat. By reading this thread, I realized that I DID have an appetizer of grilled calamari with pine nuts exactly two days ago (in Massachusetts).

Similarly to some others here, I have also eaten pine nuts before, and don't recall getting this side effect. So, thinking about what has changed in my diet, I wonder if something in pine nuts interacts with antidepressant medication. The bitter taste occurred after I started taking Zoloft, among other medications.

Can anyone else comment on this?

Another victim of pinenuts from Israel. Bought a bag of pinenuts from Shufer Sal ( Super Sal ) ate small amount on friday and since today morning suffering from a bitter taste. It is actually hard to eat something - everything is so bitter. Worse case is with bread :-(
I don't think I gonna touch pinenuts anytime soon.

I'm experiencing this too, and wouldn't have made this connection, but got Trader Joe raw pine nuts for pesto a few days ago. Who should we call in OR to report this (besides TJs)? Anyone know?
PHOOEY! I love pesto!!