fyi: pine nuts and persistent bitter aftertaste

[Hildegarda]

All day I had a bitter metallic aftertaste in my mouth, and all the food in the house tasted foul. Finally I got concerned and did a search on the internet. It has first turned up a couple of scary possibilities like liver inflammation. But more numerous mentions were of pine nuts. This put my mind at ease as I have just eaten pine nuts over the last couple of days, in home-made pesto and as a snack.

Turned out, this has been even described in medical literature, although the exact cause remains unknown:

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

European Journal of Emergency Medicine:
March 2001 - Volume 8 - Issue 1 - p 76
THE XXXVIII CONGRESS OF THE SOCIETY FOR CLINICAL TOXICOLOGY: Abstracts
Taste disturbances after pine nut ingestion
Taste disturbances after pine nut ingestion M. Mostin Poisons Centre, Brussels, Belgium Case report: A colleague anaesthesiologist experienced two episodes of taste disturbances after pine nut ingestion. At the first time, he just consumed a handful of pine nuts. Two days later, he developed an episode of taste disturbances (bitter, metallic taste). The disturbances lasted a few days. He made a link between pine nuts and the taste disturbances after the second episode when his wife and friends who shared with him a dish prepared with the same pine nuts complained of a persisting bitter taste sensation 2 days after the meal. Examination of the pine nuts revealed they were oxidized and not fit for consumption. No fungal contamination was found. No explanation was found for the taste disturbances. In the following months, six similar cases were reported to the Poisons Centre. The pine nuts involved in those cases were imported from China. The pine species remain unidentified. Analysis on pesticide residues and heavy metal did not reveal any contamination. One member of the medical team of the Poisons Centre tested on himself several brands of pine nuts and experienced two separate episodes of taste disturbances with the pine nuts imported from China. The phenomenon remained unexplained. A student in pharmacy undertook chromatographic examinations on two samples involved in the taste disturbances and compared them with pine nuts from other origins. This led to the isolation of constituants compatible with triglycerids, formed by 16-18°C unsaturated fatty acids. The role of those triglycerids in the taste disturbances remains hypothetic.

seems like it's best to buy pine nuts of european origin in specialty stores with high merchandise turnover, where produce and nuts are fresher.

thought I'd mention it here as a fyi,