Something rather bad happened to me recently that I wanted to share. I've been having green smoothies daily, most recently in a vita-prep3 3hp blender. I was rather impressed by the smoothness of the blends this machine made. However, it had been my habit to often have local tropical fruits in my smoothies, such as mangoes, or most importantly, fruits of the Annona family (cherimoya, atemoya, sugar apple, soursop...) These fruits have many seeds, sometimes not very easy to find and pick out. I didn't know that the seeds were filled with a poisonous powder that contains 6-9 toxic alkaloids, and which is used as an insecticide. I missed one or more of the atemoya seeds before loading everything into the vitaprep. I didn't stop eating when it tasted kind of odd, when there seemed to be some tannins, as green smoothies can vary in how they taste, and the atemoya has had a strange texture in the past.

I was up all night with terrible chest pains, shivering uncontrollably, my mind swirling and unsettled, dizzy and sick; it took two days to recover. The vitaprep did not work in my favor on that occasion, and actually the blender jar itself was left with a stain from the toxic powder, and I'm not sure just how to completely remove the residues so I don't poison myself again. I strongly suggest that people do not try to make smoothies with the fruits of this family inside high-speed blenders; normally, the seeds are very hard on the outside and can be easily located/avoided when just mono-eating. The skin is also toxic, and can cause temporary paralysis if eaten. Those of us who are raw long term can become very pure and sensitive, and we can't handle drugs easily, let alone from unexpected sources in our foods.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2008 10:56PM by wild-aloe.

Dear God! Please be careful in the future and thanks for the warning!