This is the time of year when home bakers get busy and make cookies and pies and cakes of all description. Nutmeg, ground and sprinkled on hot chocolate and added to apple pies, is one of the flavors of the holiday season. But, as is often the case, you can have too much of a good thing.
High doses of nutmeg can cause hallucinations, severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, a rapid heartbeat, delirium, and bizarre behavior, according to Leon Gussow, MD, writing in Emergency Medicine News. Some people who overdosed on nutmeg reported experiencing a feeling of impending doom or dread.
A dose of ground nutmeg large enough to cause problems would be several tablespoons. By comparison, the amount of ground nutmeg that gives a nice flavor to an apple pie is one-quarter to one-half teaspoon. (A teaspoon is one-third of a tablespoon.)
Most cases of nutmeg intoxication occur in teenagers who are trying to get high or in toddlers whose parents accidentally left an open jar of ground nutmeg within reach. The experience is usually not a happy one. "Many individuals who take nutmeg once as an available, inexpensive high vow never to do it again" Dr. Gussow said. "The experience is almost universally described as unpleasant, and requires ingestion of a large unpalatable dose."
The chemical in nutmeg that has the hallucinatory effect is called myristicin, although other chemicals may play a role.
Nutmeg has a long and interesting history as one of the prized spices for which explorers went searching. It was thought to cure infections and cause abortions, but its main value was as a food preservative and flavoring. At one time, nutmeg was more valuable than anything except gold and silver.
Nutmeg is the seed of an evergreen tree, Myristica fragrans. Another spice, mace, comes from a thin protective layer that encloses the nutmeg seed.
