Just ate a really gross almond!!! Anyone else have this??

kschwab0203
kschwab0203 Posts: 610 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Ok, so in my effort to eat healthy, I had yogurt and a handful of raw almonds for breakfast. Well, one of them tasted so terrible that I could hardly get it down. It was a bitter chemical taste! Now, I'm freaked out that I'm going to get sick from this. Has this happened to anyone else?

Replies

  • butterbuns123
    butterbuns123 Posts: 150 Member
    You will probably be fine. However for future reference, Maybe don't swallow somthing that is as revolting as described.
  • 2run2ski
    2run2ski Posts: 133 Member
    Sometimes nuts go bad --- I don't think you'll get sick. What a bummer, though! Just the other day I had a yucky peanut! Except for the foul taste, all was well. Sometimes you can look at the nuts and the gross ones are a slightly different texture or color...
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    It was probably just old and nearly rotten. This happens to me quite a bit with sunflower seeds and it takes forever to get the taste out of my mouth.

    I think you'll be fine. They're just icky.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
    Hercule Poirot a couple of times identified the poison cyanide by the smell of bitter almonds. I have no idea what a bitter almond would smell like but if it was one of them can you describe the smell for future reference?

    On the plus side, you aren't dead, and my understanding is that cyanide is pretty quick.

    don't do it again.
  • MistressPi
    MistressPi Posts: 514 Member
    The fats in nuts will go rancid in time. Sometimes you'll even find a few in a product you've just bought. If you find more than a few, or if you find your nuts don't taste bad, but they don't really taste good anymore, either, they are likely old and you should dump them and buy fresh product. I don't know this for a fact, but it seems to me that the higher fat nuts (macadamias, walnuts) seem to go rancid faster than others.
  • upoffthemat
    upoffthemat Posts: 679 Member
    Normally they will be black and even shriveled if you look at them. I tend to find them occasionally, but it isn't super common
  • jeshutt
    jeshutt Posts: 19 Member
    Sweet almonds - the type sold as 'almonds' - are (as you might guess) sweet, although individual trees may produce more bitter tasting nuts. Bitter almond - the ones with cyanide - are a different type. You'd know if you had cyanide poisoning - vomiting, shortness of breath, confusion.
  • kschwab0203
    kschwab0203 Posts: 610 Member
    Well, I can tell you that this almond did not smell or look any different than the others. It just had a really bad chemical taste to it. Really bad. There was someone in my office when I had just popped it in my mouth and I forced it down. Next time, which hopefully there isn't one, I think I'll just take the risk of looking silly and spit it out.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited October 2016
    They can go bad without it being visually apparent. I've had walnuts go bad -- like others said, a bummer. I'm sure you'll be fine, though.
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    edited October 2016
    kschwab0203 wrote: »
    Well, I can tell you that this almond did not smell or look any different than the others. It just had a really bad chemical taste to it. Really bad. There was someone in my office when I had just popped it in my mouth and I forced it down. Next time, which hopefully there isn't one, I think I'll just take the risk of looking silly and spit it out.

    An old/rotten almond probably wouldn't look different than a good almond, at least on the outside. It's hard to tell with peanuts and sunflower seeds, also.

    Swallowing the odd one here and there is probably not going to hurt you. I don't hear about many people getting sick or ending up in the hospital due to eating a rancid nut.

    I would spit it out though because it's just gross.
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    butterbuns123 wrote: »
    You will probably be fine. However for future reference, Maybe don't swallow somthing that is as revolting as described.

    Giggity.
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    Chef_Barbell wrote: »
    butterbuns123 wrote: »
    You will probably be fine. However for future reference, Maybe don't swallow somthing that is as revolting as described.

    Giggity.

    The first draft of my post above said "due to swallowing a rancid nut."

    I saw what I had done and decided that maybe I should edit the wording just a bit...
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    kschwab0203 wrote: »
    There was someone in my office when I had just popped it in my mouth and I forced it down. Next time, which hopefully there isn't one, I think I'll just take the risk of looking silly and spit it out.

    for gosh sakes . . .anyone old enough to be in your office unsupervised is probably old enough to deal with the idea of an icky almond. say excuse-me-a-moment, get rid of it and then you can spend the rest of the day thinking about something else.

    also, i thought it was arsenic that smelled like almonds. but i don't have a lot of experience poisoning people, so maybe i'm wrong.

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