PNS

Do you know what that is? Yeah, I didn't either until last week. It stands for Pine Nut Syndrome. For the past 9 days, I've been experiencing it. Basically, they don't really know too much about it, except that some people, some of the time, get it, from some batches of pine nuts. I've eaten plenty of pine nuts before and had no problem. And Ian ate the same pine nuts as me on the fateful night that began the problem, and he's fine. The main symptom (at least in my case) is a bitter taste in the middle of my mouth when I eat or drink. That's exactly what I typed into Google when I first started noticing my issue, which was last Monday.

Google is amazing, isn't it? How long would I have wondered what the issue was, furiously scrubbing the middle of my mouth with my toothbrush (which, as I know now, only continues to aggravate the problem) if it weren't for Google? So here's what happened. On Monday morning, as I sipped my coffee, I kept getting a really bitter taste in my mouth. At first I thought it was drainage from my allergy nasal spray, so I kept sipping coffee. But each sip of coffee brought on a fresh wave. Then I noticed as I ate my eggs that while I could clearly taste the flavor of the eggs, there was also a persistent bitter flavor in the middle of my mouth. After breakfast, it faded completely, so I thought it was a fluke thing. Then it happened again with my lunch, which lead to the furious tongue scrubbing mentioned above. Finally, with the same thing happening at dinner, I sat down at my desk, to seek wisdom from the amazing Google. And sure enough, as soon as I typed "bitter taste in the middle of my mouth when I eat or drink" a dozen articles popped up on PNS. The first question - had I eaten pine nuts in the past 1-3 days? Yep. On the Saturday before, I had made homemade pesto with a batch of pine nuts I've been keeping in my fridge. And you know what? This was my second batch with these same pine nuts and I didn't experience this the first time. And Ian's been scott free both times. Crazy!

The article said that they don't really know why some people get it and some don't; and there is no guarantee I would even experience it next time I eat pine nuts, though I can promise you it's going to be a while (or maybe forever) until I try them again. They've analyzed the nuts that cause it side by side with nuts that don't and they can't see any discernible difference. Pretty much, it's a pine nut mystery.

With each day passing, the sensation has lessened slightly, so that today, I had almost no bitterness at all. Just a bit with my coffee (I only re-introduced coffee two days ago). I think tomorrow it might be totally better. One of the articles I read said that people's symptoms last between 1-4 weeks, so I'm glad I'm closer to the 1 end than the 4. And some people experience other symptoms as well, which I won't subject you to here. But be warned - PNS is out there, waiting to strike, and you could be next! If you're a geek like me and find things like this interesting, you can read one of the articles that was helpful for me: http://pinenutsyndrome.wordpress.com/pinenutsyndrome/

So, who wants the big bag of pine nuts I have in my freezer? =)