What makes squash bitter

Hey Cindy—thanks for some really fascinating links. The de-bittering of our foods is an interesting story. As is the genetics of taste—cilantro is a good example of this. Well, now this explains a problem I had with pickling cucumbers a couple years ago.

I was really bummed, too, because I do like pickles and had planned to make quarts and quarts of gherkins. This is such a relief to read. Earlier this year I had a smoothie with an entire cucumber in it, and I felt like knives were twisting in my stomach. I had been planning to make refrigerator pickles but the day got away from me, and the next day I ate one in a salad. Or, rather, picked it out of my salad after having a bite.

Cross-pollination with wild plants as well as some type of stress during growth, such as lack of adequate water or poor fertilization , are some of the factors believed to cause increased cucurbitacin in squash and other produce.

Getty Images John Moore. If you bite into squash and experience a nasty flavor, spit it out and stop eating. Eating even a few pieces can cause you to become violently ill and endure terrible side effects. Since cross-pollination is a contributing factor to large concentrations of cucurbitacin, do not eat squash that you are unfamiliar with, either.

Flickr mrsdewinter. If you have eaten even just a few bites of exceedingly bitter squash, pumpkin, cucumber or another member of the cucurbit family, watch for these symptoms:. Assouly wrote that he suspects that toxic compounds in the plant have a similar effect on hair follicles as do some chemotherapy drugs , which can lead to temporary hair loss. But because hair loss is a completely new observation that is potentially associated with exposure to cucurbitacins, it's not clear why it occurred in these cases, said Dr.

Zane Horowitz, a toxicologist and medical director of the Oregon Poison Center in Portland, who was not involved in the case. Cucurbit poisoning is a very rare syndrome, and the toxin involved has not been well-studied, Horowitz noted. The physicians then reviewed the records from the Oregon and Washington state poison centers and identified about 17 other cases of cucurbit poisoning that had occurred over a year period. In a more recent review , published in January in the Journal of Clinical Toxicology, a French poison center reported more than cases of food poisoning linked with bitter-tasting squash that took place between and About 56 percent of those cases involved squash purchased at a store, and in 26 percent of the cases, the vegetable came from a home garden, according to the findings.

Squash lovers need to be aware that if they eat one of these popular vegetables and it tastes bitter, they should stop eating it immediately, Horowitz told Live Science. What's clear in all these case reports is that high levels of the toxin make vegetables taste bitter, and those high levels of toxin can put a person at highest risk for symptoms, he said.