Toxic girl

[j4]

Health food is bad for you. All I've had today is a mug of sage tea (caffeine-free drink) and a load of pumpkin seeds (supposedly healthy snack), but something has managed to make me violently ill. I suspect the pumpkin seeds, because I felt okay (well, tired, but that's normal) until I'd had a few handfuls of them... after which I felt drowsy, headachey, and extremely nauseous, until actually being sick.

Is it possible for things to make you sick that quickly? If not then it must have been the steak at the Mill last night.

I am now at home, where I can lie down & feel grotty in peace. This does however have the welcome side-effect that I can listen to acronym on CUR1350 - hence the nicely appropriate subject line, because he's just dedicated the track of that name to me.

Comments

Aflatoxin

[anat0010.livejournal.com]

Pumpkin seeds ... health food shop ... sounds like a case of aflatoxin poisoning. Processes pumpkin seeds and especially peanuts are treated to remove mould which can grow on their surface, which produces the unpleasant aflatoxin. Organic untreated seeds can sometimes be contaminated. Symptoms include headache, nausea, sweats and abdominal pain. You only need a little bit too.
Nothing to worry about, it wont kill you, rest in bed, take frequent little sips of water and you'll be feeling fine tomorrow morning.

Yes it does say its carcinogenic on the web, but so is pub cigarette smoke and car fumes, and you dont worry about those.

Re: Aflatoxin

[j4.livejournal.com]

Yes it does say its carcinogenic on the web, but so is pub cigarette smoke and car fumes, and you dont worry about those.

Er, well, yes I do, actually. Not worrying in a kind of "oh my god this is going to kill me" way, but I don't like staying any longer than I have to in smoky pubs -- if I wanted to kill myself I could think of better ways to do it than slowly and painfully by means of side-effects from some other moron's pathetic addiction! -- and I try to avoid breathing in excessive car fumes (as far as one can do so when living in a city).

I don't, however, worry about recent assertions that orange juice and mushrooms are carcinogenic, and likewise I wouldn't worry overmuch about assertions that pumpkin seeds are carcinogenic, since you would probably have to consume your own weight in them before suffering any ill effects. Laboratory testing causes cancer in rats, etc.