Reaction to nettles in food?

[Nagual]

The other week I picked a load of nettles gave em a good wash, fried up some onions and boiled the lot with several taters for a good hour or so. Nettle n Tater soup. Blended it into a lovely thick thick soup.. tasted lovely. However about five mins later, I felt a little odd. I could feel my insides, not burning but slightly tingly. Uncomfortable, but not sore. It may have been my imagination, but my chest got tighter and pulse quickened - but again could be imagination. Whole body certainly didn't feel right, tight and.. really odd there is no other way to describe it. Lasted around 2 hours or so, maybe longer.

Anyone else ever experienced anything like this?

 

[alpha_centaur]

You didn't pick the nettles from near hunterston did you?

Seriously though you could have had a mild allergic reaction to them. I'd maybe just avoid nettles in future, your next reaction could be worse. Alternatively it could be your imagination as you said.

 

[Shewie]

That is a strange one Nag, they are packed with all sorts of stuff so like a_c says it could have been a reaction.
As you know already it's pretty hard to find a bad word abot eating nettles isn't it ?

 

[aarya]

Are you sure the potatoes were good? Potatoes can have a significant amount of glycoalkaloids in them, without having turned green.
Boiling should remove the active stuff off the nettles, but cooking will only partly destroy the toxics in bad taters.
Also, were the nettles young? Or had they fully matured?

From the wiki article on nettles:
"Cooking or drying completely neutralizes the toxic components found in this plant. Stinging Nettle should not be consumed after it enters its flowering and seed setting stages, as the leaves develop gritty particles called "cystoliths" which can irritate the urinary tract."

From the wiki article on potatoes:
"Exposure to light, physical damage, and age increase glycoalkaloid content within the tuber; the highest concentrations occur just underneath the skin. Cooking at high temperatures (over 170 °C or 340 °F) partly destroys these. The concentration of glycoalkaloid in wild potatoes suffices to produce toxic effects in humans. Glycoalkaloids may cause headaches, diarrhea, cramps and in severe cases coma and death; however, poisoning from potatoes occurs very rarely. Light exposure causes greening (chlorophyll synthesis), thus giving a visual clue as to areas of the tuber that may have become more toxic; however, this does not provide a definitive guide, as greening and glycoalkaloid accumulation can occur independently of each other."

Hope this helps.

 

[Improviser]

I was on a bushcraft short course up at blencathra center in the lakes on sunday run by the field studies council & one of the topics was nettle usage.
Apart from using the outer for cordage the guy spoke quite a bit about consuming and we all ate a top leaf folded over on itself-must admit quite refreshing!

However he did mention at certain times of year the bottom leaves can store small quantities of ARSENIC but he wasnt specific of what time of year and everyone was quite surprised by this to say the least, he advised its probably better not to bother with the lower leaves, no s**t sherlock!!

Obviously im only going of what i was told & ive not read this anywhere can anyone confirm this?

 

[John Fenna]

I have had a small reaction to, I was advised, the histamine content of some older nettles that I made into soup...it was a little like a mild "curry burn".
Could you be sensitive to histamines?

 

[xylaria]

Nettles contain a couple of compounds that effect the human body such seratonin and acetylcholine as well as histamine. Your reaction sounds simerlar to the one John Fenna reported. Nettle is used as ingreadant in travel sweets and some brands of wine gums so if you decide to avoid them in future read the labels on sweets. Anybody can allergic to anything, there is girl in birmingham that is allergic to water, I can eat nuts but not the skin on the nut. Some allergies just go away, some get worse.

 

[Nagual]

Are you sure the potatoes were good? Potatoes can have a significant amount of glycoalkaloids in them, without having turned green.
Boiling should remove the active stuff off the nettles, but cooking will only partly destroy the toxics in bad taters.
Also, were the nettles young? Or had they fully matured?

.

Thanks for your reply, aarya. The potatoes were fine. I'm fairly picky about veg, oddly more so that meats.. hmm. The nettles were young tops, they hadn't flowered yet.

I have had a small reaction to, I was advised, the histamine content of some older nettles that I made into soup...it was a little like a mild "curry burn".
Could you be sensitive to histamines?

Interesting, where was the burn John? In your mouth or guts n tummy?

Nettles contain a couple of compounds that effect the human body such seratonin and acetylcholine as well as histamine. Your reaction sounds simerlar to the one John Fenna reported. Nettle is used as ingreadant in travel sweets and some brands of wine gums so if you decide to avoid them in future read the labels on sweets. Anybody can allergic to anything, there is girl in birmingham that is allergic to water, I can eat nuts but not the skin on the nut. Some allergies just go away, some get worse.

It does sound a bit like Johns. The sensation I could describe as.. well when you eat chillies or something else like that you feel the 'heat' but also a tingly feeling too? it was like that, but without the heat. I just reread 'Wild Food' where Gordon Hillman had tried to make something out of nettle seeds. What he described seemed similar too. I wonder if the tightness of chest etc may have been more of a panic than anything else.

 

[John Fenna]

Tingles were in the mouth...no gut probs or anything else...

 

[locum76]

Nettles contain a couple of compounds that effect the human body such seratonin...

wow, I wonder how much you'd have to eat to get a euphoric effect?

 

[Toddy]

Being a member here for a few years has made me aware of the way in which I take things for granted.

I know my area, I know what I can eat and where to find it. The corollary is that I know where *not* to pick or gather.

We don't mention much here about the environment that plants grow in, but those very environments are crucially important.

When I casually mention, "Oh you can eat those." I do so in the certain knowledge that where I live, where I gather, I can do so, and safely.

Nowadays there's a lot of talk about plant synergy, grow sympathetic plants next to each other and they will both be healthier, less pest and disease prone.
Older guidances for collection used to mention things like. "under birch" "near streams" "from straw", They weren't saying only take from there, but that those were the best places to find and gather the best crop.

I'm sorry if my airy, "Oh nettles are edible, make great soup, etc., etc.," have made anyone try something that reacted badly for them,
I do eat them frequently, but I gather from either my garden (kind of shady with trees) or from other similarly shady areas. I have never had a problem.

I do wonder if the locale that a plant grows in can alter the chemicals contained within it so much, that when gathered from somewhere else, the constituents can actually be harmful in something I think of as innocuous as nettles

Glad everything settled Nagual, and sorry the soup didn't agree with you.

atb,
Toddy

 

[John Fenna]

The first soup I made was from nettles in my garden and quite well advanced...I got the burn - but still liked the soup!
The next few batches were from in my local wood, very young and tender - no burn!
I still love the soup!

 

[xylaria]

Are there subspecies or races of nettles?

Has anyone ever noticed some are meaner than others?, because the I find the more narrow and surrated the leaves the more stingy they are. If I pick nettles for food I pick the rounder type. I leave the meaner looking ones as the are likely to sting through clothes. Has anyone else made this observation?

If you see leaves of any "weed" plant with yellow discolouration it has proberly being treated with glyophosphate. Nettles and hogweed often survive treatment and spraying them just gives them more oppertunity as it kills off neighbouring plants.

 

[Nagual]

.... <snip>

I know my area, I know what I can eat and where to find it. The corollary is that I know where *not* to pick or gather.

We don't mention much here about the environment that plants grow in, but those very environments are crucially important.


Glad everything settled Nagual, and sorry the soup didn't agree with you.

atb,
Toddy

You know something.. I've been telling people this for ages too, and even posted something similar recently. However I didn't even think when I picked em. They aren't from the best spot I could think of noooo. maybe that did have something to do with it, maybe not. I will investigate further. Safely yes, but I will find out

 

[Satyr]

Keep some anti-histamines handy for the next time you try it. Your symptoms sound exactly like an allergic reation; tightness of the chest, increast heart rate, itchy or burning sensations.

 

[littlebiglane]

Unfortunately even the boiling then fermentation/brewing process does not neutralise the histamines. Picking nettles for making beer late in the season is asking for it, especially when it has seeded. Be careful if you are asthmatic. I gave my wife an attack by giving her some of that the late-harvest beer. Could have been nasty.

LBL

 

[Goatboy]

Hey Toddy,

I've noticed that nettles that grow in strong light and or very nutrient rich soil not only have a stronger taste but also a hugely more powerful sting. I suppose that not only is the plant able too but has too defend the lusher growth from being eaten. Theres a ruined house that had no plumbed sewage not far from here where I assume that the cottage garden was well "fertilized" over the years and the nettles there are really mean, they sting through fairly thick clothing and I had to bathe my mutt Snoop in the river after he chased a rabbit in there last year as when he came out he was writhing on the ground where he'd been stung all over through his normally impervious coat. The romans wouldn't have needed a hypocaust with those uber nettles about. I also noticed the same thing with the nettles in an area there we were testing ariel feeding of forestry trees with human sewage years back. ( Oh what fun we had walking through that plot )
Goatboy.

 

[Toddy]

True, true, if you're fieldwalking and you *know* that there's supposed to be an old farmhouse/ byre somewhere in 20 acres of scrub, find the nettles........they just love the nitrogen. Great indcators for the back of the byre and the cesspits. They used to thrive well in churchyards too.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[John Fenna]

My local patch is where a gardening /landscaping business used to dump grasscuttings etc in the woods.
Boy do those devils sting!