Today's weirdness
Dec. 2nd, 2010 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twirlgrrlSo, yesterday on the way home from Blue's school I stopped at a little market and got a bunch of produce. They have a lot of cool stuff so I just kindof got one of everything that looked good. I got two different kinds of persimmons, one of each. Lonnie makes this certain salad with persimmon slices in it that I love, so I thought I'd try to figure out which kind of persimmon she uses. It's firm and delicately flavored, whereas the persimmons I remember from my youth were mushy and perfume-sweet; I hated those.
So today, I sliced the larger persimmon up and started eating it. It was firm, not soft, and it didn't taste like much of anything, very bland but just a touch of sweetness. But the weirdest thing happened as soon as I chewed up the first bite. My whole mouth got super DRY inside. Like, the persimmon coated my tongue, my cheeks, my gums with something that just evaporated all moisture right out of my mouth, and all the parts of my mouth started sticking together. It was a most unpleasant sensation. So, so, so odd. I went to the mirror a couple of times to verify that indeed, my mouth was totally dry, and there were little hairylike bits of dry persimmon pulp stuck to my tongue.
It was odd but it was also fascinating, and the persimmon didn't taste BAD. So I ended up eating an entire half of the persimmon. When I was nearly done, I started wondering if whatever made my mouth so dry and adherent could also do that to my intestinal tract, and if in fact that could end up being a very bad thing.
After a while I went to look it up. I found that this type of persimmon, the hachiya variety, when anything less than mushily ripe, exudes an astringent substance that can be harmful in large quantities. In fact, it is possible to get a bezoar from eating too much hachiya persimmon. A bezoar is a stone-like lump of matter that collects in the stomach, too hard to be dissolved or even biopsied, and can obstruct the GI tract. Bezoars often require open surgery to remove. In parts of the world where persimmons are prominent, persimmon bezoars are not uncommon.
So of course I got a little nervous about that half persimmon I ate. Sure, it's not LIKELY that I'd get a bezoar from just that. But it's not IMPOSSIBLE. And I did feel kinda bloated.
Then I stumbled across some articles about bezoar researchers in Japan. Do you know what they have been using in studies to try to dissolve these bezoars?
Coca-Cola.
And it's working.
I found an article, a case study of an 82-year-old man with a 7cm persimmon-based bezoar. Normally the doctors would place a nasogastric tube and pipe Coke directly into the stomach, but this guy apparently was not keen to be irrigated by NG tube, so they had him straight-up DRINK Coke before each meal. And in a couple of months, this stone in his belly went from 7cm to 4cm, and softened. Then they busted up the rest with lithotripsy.
I have long maintained that I love a good tall cup of Coke after eating movie theater popcorn covered in the molten sludge that passes for "butter," because it cuts the grease. But really, I had no idea.
So because I am still feeling slightly irrational about the half persimmon I ate, I have decided to drink a goodly amount of Coca-Cola over the next week or so.
Oh, and: The authors of that last article noted that they were able to write publicly about the 82-year-old because they had obtained written permission from his mother. :)
So today, I sliced the larger persimmon up and started eating it. It was firm, not soft, and it didn't taste like much of anything, very bland but just a touch of sweetness. But the weirdest thing happened as soon as I chewed up the first bite. My whole mouth got super DRY inside. Like, the persimmon coated my tongue, my cheeks, my gums with something that just evaporated all moisture right out of my mouth, and all the parts of my mouth started sticking together. It was a most unpleasant sensation. So, so, so odd. I went to the mirror a couple of times to verify that indeed, my mouth was totally dry, and there were little hairylike bits of dry persimmon pulp stuck to my tongue.
It was odd but it was also fascinating, and the persimmon didn't taste BAD. So I ended up eating an entire half of the persimmon. When I was nearly done, I started wondering if whatever made my mouth so dry and adherent could also do that to my intestinal tract, and if in fact that could end up being a very bad thing.
After a while I went to look it up. I found that this type of persimmon, the hachiya variety, when anything less than mushily ripe, exudes an astringent substance that can be harmful in large quantities. In fact, it is possible to get a bezoar from eating too much hachiya persimmon. A bezoar is a stone-like lump of matter that collects in the stomach, too hard to be dissolved or even biopsied, and can obstruct the GI tract. Bezoars often require open surgery to remove. In parts of the world where persimmons are prominent, persimmon bezoars are not uncommon.
So of course I got a little nervous about that half persimmon I ate. Sure, it's not LIKELY that I'd get a bezoar from just that. But it's not IMPOSSIBLE. And I did feel kinda bloated.
Then I stumbled across some articles about bezoar researchers in Japan. Do you know what they have been using in studies to try to dissolve these bezoars?
Coca-Cola.
And it's working.
I found an article, a case study of an 82-year-old man with a 7cm persimmon-based bezoar. Normally the doctors would place a nasogastric tube and pipe Coke directly into the stomach, but this guy apparently was not keen to be irrigated by NG tube, so they had him straight-up DRINK Coke before each meal. And in a couple of months, this stone in his belly went from 7cm to 4cm, and softened. Then they busted up the rest with lithotripsy.
I have long maintained that I love a good tall cup of Coke after eating movie theater popcorn covered in the molten sludge that passes for "butter," because it cuts the grease. But really, I had no idea.
So because I am still feeling slightly irrational about the half persimmon I ate, I have decided to drink a goodly amount of Coca-Cola over the next week or so.
Oh, and: The authors of that last article noted that they were able to write publicly about the 82-year-old because they had obtained written permission from his mother. :)
