Why have I had a funny taste in my mouth ALL DAY?!

[lowrib]

I've had a string bitter taste in my mouth all day. It's driving me nuts!

And no, I'm not pregnant! At least I very much doubt it, and anyway I had that metallic taste when I was pregnant, and this is nothing like that.

I first noticed it when I ate breakfast, but I didn't realise it was me at first, I thought the pastry I bought had something wrong with it. But then I got a strong taste with everything I ate, and now I can taste it all the time. It's really annoying!

What could be causing it? I was with my parents tonight and mum suggested it could be because I ate asparagus yesterday (it does make your pee smell) but it's never happened to me before. My dad suggested I suck a lemon. Big mistake! it made the taste stronger!

Perhaps I'm going down with something.

Has anyone else had this or heard of it?

TIA

Doh! A strong bitter taste, not a string taste!!

Have you eaten any pine nuts recently?

if you aren't pg do you have the beginnings of a gum infection or tooth abcess?

Thank you both for your replies

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave I had pine nuts yesterday! What could they do?

Pluto I don't think it's actually in my mouth. The taste seems to be coming from the back of my throat / somewhere inside of me!

See threads here, here and here (and I think there have been others) -- it seems to be a not uncommon reaction to pine nuts.

Noooooooo!!! It can't last for days, this is horrible!

Sorry, I meant thanks very much, that's spot on, the description is just like what I've got. Mumsnet has the answer again
And thank goodness it's nothing nasty.

But - a week or even more?!

I love food! This can't go on for a week!

Is there anything you can do to make it go away quicker?!

Some people online suggest activated charcoal (apparently you can get it from health food shops or pharmacies). But no one seems to have a reliable fix.

So what was it?

It was Pine Mouth. It is truly horrible! I can taste most foods again now, thank goodness, but the taste is still lingering in the background, and anything bitter brings it back. Urghh!

I found Gavisgon helped.

The second day (the day after I last posted) was the worst. I hardly ate anything all day, the taste was so horrendous.

Having spent some time looking it up, it seems no one really know what causes it. There have been two studies but no answer. FWIW the theory which makes the most sense to me is this:

Pine nuts come from lots of different trees. Some are edible, some aren't. Pine Mouth comes about because cheaper nuts are being used to meet demand / make money (especially in China) including a type which has this funny effect. They shouldn't really be selling them as food at all, but as the effect only occurs only in some people, they can get away with selling them.

In short, I blame capitalism

I knew that they have a tendency to taste bitter when they are less then fresh, but had no idea that they could cause this...sounds pretty horrible.

Hi LakaDAIDYcal, it's pretty bad!

I'm so glad I found out what it was quickly - thanks ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave I'm very grateful, I owe you one!

If you didn't know what it was you could be really scared you had something very serious indeed. From what I've read on the internet it seems that a lot of GPs haven't heard of it (it's a fairly recent phenomenon here) and so people end up getting unnecessary checks on their liver / fillings etc, worrying that they have diabetes, or are dying.

Thank goodness for mumsnet!

Glad it's mostly gone now, and you have an excuse to live on ice cream for the next few days to avoid the "anything bitter" issue...