Help, just eaten a bitter almond

[badalmond]

Hello

I realise that I'm probably over reacting, but I was munching on some almonds and ate a really bitter one. I had swallowed most of it because I'm a greedy guzzler, but I washed my mouth out with water. Fifteen minutes later I can still taste it in my mouth.

I'm sixteen weeks pregnant and really worried about the baby. I know that bitter almonds are unsafe, but do you think one would be enough to do damage?

Hi , I wish I had advice but I never even heard of a bitter almond being dangerous. I just googled and see why. I’m sure it’s fine but why don’t you call your midwife and ask ?

I'm not in the UK, so there's no on call midwife I can contact outside of working hours. I'm going to pick up a prescription tomorrow so could ask her then, but by that point it will either be fine or it won't. I'm hoping that one almond is a small enough dose that it won't be a problem.

A small enough dose of what? Cyanide? If just one bitter almond contained enough cyanide (or any other toxin) to harm a foetus, there would be warnings everywhere against eating them. It also looks like there is very little research on them out there. Try to relax. Avoid almonds from now on if just one bad one has got you this worried.

I always thought that “bitter almonds” were different to the almonds bought in shops …
You might have just eaten one that tasted a bit funny, like when you get a funny grape in a bunch 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yep, you're right. I'm being an idiot. It's just a bad tasting sweet almond.

In my defence, it's been a long fucking day.

At least you can put your mind at ease now!

Bitter almonds are a completely different variety and you certainly can't buy them in Holland and Barrett! Glad your mind is at rest now.

@badalmond try not to worry. Bitter almonds come from a completely different tree than eating almonds. We have around 100 trees and 3 of them are bitter so we don't pick them, although DH does forget which trees they are every year and has to taste some of the almonds to remind himself (he's not died yet 😂).

Where commercial almonds are picked here (Spain) the bitter almond trees are removed as they're useless and take up valuable space. So no chance of any bitter almonds ending up with the eating ones.

Hey how did it go for you? I accidentally had a bitter almond and now I'm worried

@Cleopatra007 the OP didn't eat a bitter almond, she ate a normal sweet almond that had gone a bit funny.

Hi OP, I did exactly the same as what you did. I know it has been years now, but would be keen to learn how you got on. I did exactly the same and currently 20 weeks pregnant.