Are you overdosed on lettuce opium (Lactucarium)?
I think this topic will be very useful for many here to solve a problem they might not know they have or they don’t know what’s causing it. It took me lots of self observation and some google search to solve my problem. Only today I can confirm this experience. I hope you will appreciate that.
Mistakenly, I attributed some of the nasty effects that I experienced after becoming raw to candida. I almost quit raw food because of them. These bad experiences include posture hypotension (fainting when standing up) dizziness sedation, blurred vision, lack of digestive system movement, breathing inhibition, and dry mouth.
I heard Victoria Boutenko mentioning something about toxic opiate in lettuce and I knew that opium has this inhibitory effect so I searched about the toxicity of opium and it was exactly what I felt.
The responsible substance that is closely related to opium is lactucarium which is the white sap you usually observe at the base of lettuce leaves and hearts. Wild lettuce which is a very bitter and found in most home gardens is the highest in this substance. Some web sites even describe how to extract and smoke it to get high, as a substitute for opium. After experiencing this by only eating lettuce hearts I wonder why anyone would want to do that or try opium.
The lettuce that caused more problems for me, which I think now is due to a higher concentration of lactucarium, is organic romaine lettuce hearts produced by President Choice.
Here are my own recommendations to avoid this problem: don’t eat too much lettuce, avoid hearts and the base, and eat mature green leaves of lettuce.
I don’t have Victoria Boutenko’s book so it’s nice to hear from those who read the book. Does she has more to say about this?
Mistakenly, I attributed some of the nasty effects that I experienced after becoming raw to candida. I almost quit raw food because of them. These bad experiences include posture hypotension (fainting when standing up) dizziness sedation, blurred vision, lack of digestive system movement, breathing inhibition, and dry mouth.
I heard Victoria Boutenko mentioning something about toxic opiate in lettuce and I knew that opium has this inhibitory effect so I searched about the toxicity of opium and it was exactly what I felt.
The responsible substance that is closely related to opium is lactucarium which is the white sap you usually observe at the base of lettuce leaves and hearts. Wild lettuce which is a very bitter and found in most home gardens is the highest in this substance. Some web sites even describe how to extract and smoke it to get high, as a substitute for opium. After experiencing this by only eating lettuce hearts I wonder why anyone would want to do that or try opium.
The lettuce that caused more problems for me, which I think now is due to a higher concentration of lactucarium, is organic romaine lettuce hearts produced by President Choice.
Here are my own recommendations to avoid this problem: don’t eat too much lettuce, avoid hearts and the base, and eat mature green leaves of lettuce.
I don’t have Victoria Boutenko’s book so it’s nice to hear from those who read the book. Does she has more to say about this?
Tags: boutenko, lactucarium, lettuce, opiate, opium, romaine, toxic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kasey on -
hmm so that's why I had such a bad sleep last night. Had a green pepper/celery/sunflower sprout juice couple hours before bed. No it wasn't good lol. Fun to experiment though! I thought I was doing my body a favour by having something 'light'. And the nightmare I had... scariest dream I've ever had!@#$!@# I'm officially calling celery/green pepper/sunflower sprout juice "Nightmare Juice"
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Permalink Reply by Suzie- Smoothie on -
oh you do learn somethin new every day.
...OMG no wonder im feelin 112132423133$$£$£^$^%&%*&^**&*()()()__(*(&&^%$$£....ALLTHE TIME.......!!
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Permalink Reply by Chicory on -
the milky sap that produces the opiate like effect is strong enough to get a high only after the plant has gone to seed
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Permalink Reply by Hani on -
excellent point, a lettuce with a long stem indicates that it's about to flower. Maybe also other factors might make a head of lettuce more hostile to us, like bad growing conditions or being attacked by us.
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Permalink Reply by anothrgrnwrld on -
Too much of any good thing, is still too much....
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Permalink Reply by Brian on -
I have read Victoria's books, watched her DVD's and listened to her CD's - all of them. She does address this issue and says that it is important to rotate our greens. Every whole, raw food has a small amount of alkaloid in it. Each food type has a different alkaloid. In small doses these alkaloids actually have medicinal value. If we do not rotate our greens then the alkaloid specific to that food begins to accumulate and we eventually get a bad reaction. In the wild, rotating our food sources is nature's way of insuring that we do not kill any one plant by eating too much of it in one sitting. This is how most wild, non-carnivorous animals eat. Graze a little on one plant and then move on to another.
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Permalink Reply by EternalLaceLaceMaker on -
Good , post , Brian . I can understand it better now .
I simply do not rotate lettuce , as said below to Hani .
But it was hard to convince myself , that the stomach pains came from lettuce ... Fases of eating only leaves ... Maybe others . I will check . Empiric information from myself to myself .
Thank you for the info .
Best , Teresa from Berlin
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Permalink Reply by EternalLaceLaceMaker on
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Very interesting , Hani . I did not know ... A good recomendation to those who eat lettuce .
I do not , because , through my experience , I get awful stomach pains and nausea if I eat lettuce. Maybe it is because of that , once my inner body is extremelly fragile , sensible .
Good to know !
Best , Teresa from Berlin
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Permalink Reply by Dale Pinnock on -
Lettuce is such an amazing sedative if you get the right variety. I give patients with occasional insomnia a mix which contains wild lettuce Lactuca verosa. This varietycontains the highest level of opiates and can be like a tranq dart for most people.
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Permalink Reply by EternalLaceLaceMaker on
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Great , I will try it . Thank you !
One says Lettuce Tea is a natural Tranquilizer . But it did not functioned to me .
...
How can I eat it or drink it ? I mean here , Lactuca verosa .
Wait for answer !
Best , Teresa from Berlin
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Permalink Reply by Chicory on
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according to my jonathan lust "the herb book" love it!!! The milky substance is only produced after the lettuce has gone to seed.... and is harmless in common garden lettuce. It was frequently used as a calming substance, and for insomnia. It is used as an anodyne, antispasmodic, expectorant, and sedative. Prickly and wild lettuce is much stronger and should be used with caution.
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