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| A Lovely Summer Evening |
One thing the Internet has changed is that it is more likely when you find the answer to one question, you will stumble on the anwer to other questions that you didn't even ask.
A few weeks ago, my granddaughter, Keely, developed a salty taste in mouth. No matter what she ate, it tasted salty. After a few days, I decided to research it to see if I could find out the reason for this. Good old Google gave me the answer. It turns out there are a myriad of reasons this can happen. The wide range of reasons include diseases, dental problems, dehydration, being vegetarian and using eyedrops.
Fortunately, in Keely's case, it was a pretty safe bet eye drop use was the culprit. She had something in her eye, but refused to let anyone try to get it out. My daughter got her some eye drops in the hopes that it could be washed out. It took a few days, but it worked. After that, she had no need for the eye drops. And, as my search predicted, after a few days, the salty taste disappeared.
Since I have been vegetarian for two years moving over on to vegan at the beginning of this month, the vegan reason that popped up in my "salty taste" search caught my eye. Upon reading further, I discovered that vegans are at risk of developing the salty taste due to a B12 and/or zinc deficiency. As I went down the list of foods that provide B12 and zinc, I was relieved to see that walnuts are among the foods that provide zinc. I love walnuts as well as other nuts and seeds.
The B12 did not look promising at all. The best sources were oysters, fish and other foods that I don't eat. The article recommended B12 fortified foods. I started reading the labels in search of B12. Nothing was very promising until I checked the coconut milk. One glass provides 50% of a person's B12 daily requirement!
So here I come full circle. If Keely had not developed a salty taste in her mouth, I would not have turned to the Internet to find the reason and subsequently discovered I need to be careful about my B12 and zinc intake!
By the way, in case you are wondering, the photo has nothing to do with this story. I took it while enjoying a pretty summer evening and thought I would share it. :-)
5 comments:
Very interesting post, Tina. I find that true as well, on my searches, finding other interesting things I wasn't even looking for.
I'm not a vegetarian, although most of my diet is vegetarian. I do eat small amounts of meat. I have been looking at cocnut milk as an alternative to cows milk, but find it too high in sugar. But I like the taste of it.
Beautiful picture!
Have a great weekend.
Thank you, Renie. Sometimes, I find myself getting a little carried away following links, though. LOL
Have you tried the unsweetened coconut milk? I use So Delicious coconut milks. The unsweetened has no sugar.
I hope you have a great week! :-)
Tina,
I sometimes get carried away following links too - but I do learn a lot also.
I now wonder if my son Joshua ever has a salty taste in his mouth? He wears contacts most of the time, and uses a lot of eye drops.
As far as meat goes - I don't eat too much of it anymore - I don't digest it well. Love fish though. Over a period of time, it seems that I have developed a protein deficiency, so now I have to either include red meat, peanut butter, beans, or just buy a can of protein powder and drink a shake everyday until I correct the problem...I opted for the shake...Put it in the blender, throw in about 5 fresh strawberries, a banana, and a little Kiwi, and I'm set...:)
B12 - I also got low on that a few years back - now I use supplements -> B-Complex.
I don't understand how I got low on the protein [just found this out] - it's not that I don't eat healthy - I eat lots of p'nut butter fish, and beans - guess it just wasn't enough after I stopped eating so much red meat.
Thanks for posting this - now if Joshua is having a salty taste, I can guess what it is.
Thank you, Deborah. I hope your son doesn't get the salty taste, but glad you will have an idea if he does. :-)
Tina, Just happened by and seen that you had posted way back in August. Somehow I missed this one.
I do follow links as well and learn much this way. I learned something new here and thank you for the post. It never hurts to learn all you can and I often do that by reading what other people have learned.
Wish we were in touch more. Miss chatting with you.
Blessings,
Mary
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