It’s eating you back…?
Pineapples are pretty great.
They’re sweet, exotic and versatile, lending themselves to cocktails, a simple snack, or on the side of a delicious joint of gammon making it a strong shout for the MVP of the fruits.
However, have you ever gone through the rigmarole of unsheathing, prepping and cutting a pineapple only to go and eat it and be overcame by an insatiable tingling sensation.
You wouldn’t be alone in this plight with the fruit going viral on social media with scores of people complaining about the prickling pain.
Well the reason behind this is quite alarming really, and concerns chemical compounds, tiny spikes and the pineapple trying to eat you back…?
Yes, that is right this sensation comes down to a certain enzyme – if you can remember those from biology lessons in school – which breaks down protein into amino acids.
This particular enzyme is a type of protease called Bromelain and is found naturally in pineapples.
Seeing as the entire human body is made up of proteins, when the pineapple is eaten the bromelain begins to react with the tongue and the inside of the mouth effectively breaking down your cells.
This also strips the protective layer in the mouth allowing the acidity in the fruit to irritate the mouth further.
In this sense, when you eat a pineapple, the pineapple is eating you right back.
To compound this fruit as a real mental force of nature even further, the flesh of the fruit is also covered in miniscule spikes called raphides that cause tiny cuts on the inside of the mouth.
This just adds to the sore feeling and explains why often only a certain amount of the spikey fruit can be consumed before a break is needed.
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People have just been getting used to this idea and have taken to social media to express their surprise and horror.
One person said: “Hmmm so all this time I’ve thought I was allergic to pineapple…. I wasn’t??
Another person wrote: “Mind blown, I love pineapple.”
Meanwhile, on one subreddit thread people were discussing how much pineapple juice would be needed to dissolve a person, because those are the normal kind of conversations that go on on reddit.
One person asked: “How many pineapples would it take to eat me right back?”
And as always there was a well versed expert to give an answer: “Well enzymes are biological catalysts, they aren’t consumed in the chemical reactions they catalyse.
“That would technically mean that any amount of the enzyme could cause severe damage given enough time, as long as the pH and temperature remain in a certain range and assuming it isn’t inhibited or degraded by anything it encounters in the process of digesting you.
“It would just take a very very long time.”
So there you have it, pineapples really do have a comprehensive defence mechanism to stop people from chowing down on it, sadly though for the fruit, it’s just too tasty to stop!
