Has This Ever Happened To You?

I made several healthy vegan salads for a party the other night, one included pine nuts. Toasted pine nuts to be specific and this may also be germane to the issue, I don't know.

The next day, I ate a fried egg on toast for breakfast and thought the bread must be bad.

Few hours later I ate a couple of cherries and thought..... strange... cherries are tart and sweet but not these... and they look so good. What is up with that?

Then hours later I ate beans and rice and by this point I knew something was terribly wrong. My daughter looked it up on Google, (where would we be without a search engine?) and found that a metallic taste in one's mouth can be caused by several things.... but the only one on the list that referred to me was Pine Nuts.

Apparently some people experience this phenomenon and not all the time. It comes primarily from nuts processed in China and as I still had the package, I checked. Sure enough.

Now that was Sunday afternoon. The sensation grew worse as the hours passed and what is alarming is this can last up to 3 weeks! Nothing tastes good, including nothing in the mouth at all. Toothpaste? forget it. Wine is the WORST.

As it happens, I have been drinking aloe vera and juice for a few weeks to help alleviate what I think might be the onset of arthritis in two fingers (I think it is helping BTW) and John read on the net that aloe vera and activated charcoal are two things which might help this problem pass more quickly. We found one bottle of charcoal at the Walgreens where, interestingly enough, I also had purchased the aloe, and I am hoping I get some relief..... man alive, this is gross.

I thought, well at least since eating is unpleasant, I'll lose a few pounds. Then I read that not eating usually worsens the sensation. Great. I find myself in a Lose-Lose situation. So much for healthy living.

Such a shame too because that was a yummy salad.