The holiday season is here. What better way to celebrate than with food? New York Times gives a word to the wise: “Measure your nutmeg carefully. Very carefully.” Nutmeg is known as one of the more “interesting” spices in the kitchen by most toxicologists. This season, teenagers wound up in poison control centers. The effects of nutmeg are not anything like food poisoning. They are considered “exotic.” Years ago, nutmeg apparently mad a man spit at strangers while walking on the street. We have seen these side effects for a while now. Nutmeg was used to end unwanted pregnancies in the Middle Ages. More recently, prisoners use it as a drug substitute. At one point it was thought to fight the Black Plague. It is said to be “stimulating enough to bring on menstruation, poisonous enough to induce an abortion.” Last, let’s not forget about the high-like state that may include hallucinations. Malcolm X once said, “A penny matchbox full of nutmeg had the kick of three or four reefers.”
More common symptoms include intense nausea, dizziness, cottonmouth, and much slower brain function. People even forget what happened while they are in this state. It is compared to a two-day hangover. Nutmeg contains myristicin and safrole. Myristicin has psychoactive potential, while safrole is sometimes used in Ecstasy. Teenagers like the ones mentioned have been getting themselves into their own chemistry lab of trouble, thinking that the results from nutmeg while be like synthetic drugs. In a ten-year period, 17 cases found were accidental whereas 15 were deliberate. In a larger study done, 72.3% of the poison cases were from intentional use.
This article was very interesting to me because I had never heard of anything beyond spray paint that people tried to get high from in their homes. I suppose the idea of real food doing that by accident is also a bit frightening when you least expect it. I did not know the history of nutmeg and found it’s toxic history interesting. Personally, I found this scientific article to be legit. Not only does is have patients that were willing to admit their experiments with nutmeg, but there were even reports throughout history that people used it to become under the influence. I had no idea a spice could do that to your body, especially one we use this time of year! Enjoy the holiday spice in moderation.
source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/a-warning-on-nutmeg/?ref=science
I found this blog post really interesting because nutmeg is a common household ingredient in my house, especially right now because of the holiday season. I was just wondering if you found any studies or statistics that showed how much nutmeg you needed to ingest to get the symptom?. It’s evident from cooking that a tablespoon in a dessert has no real effect. I found an article that addresses seven common foods that can get you high and nutmeg was on the list. However, it appears that the side effects have more consequences than benefits. http://www.cracked.com/article_16178_7-common-foods-that-can-actually-get-you-high.html
Wow this is pretty cool I have never heard of this before! I love baking, especially around the holidays and there aren’t many holiday recipes without nutmeg! It’s pretty crazy to think that a baking spice could be harmful. I looked a little bit further into this to see if any recipe websites warned you about the dangers of using this spice. If you take a look at this website: allrecipes.com/howto/nutmeg/ . You can see that there is no warning or even mention about the dangers of it. There is a real difference between prisoners abusing this as a drug substitute and the common baker using a tablespoon in their pumpkin pie. I would be interested to see exactly how much you have to take in order to get these odd side effects. Quantity is something that really matters in this case study. Overall, really cool topic and great job analyzing!