December 19, 2022

"They’re unable to see properly, they’re confused, they’re having hallucinations. And we’re talking about scary hallucinations; it’s nothing that’s fun."

Said Darren Roberts, quoted in "How Can Tainted Spinach Cause Hallucinations? A food recall from Australia sheds light on an unusual aspect of brain chemistry" (NYT).

The belief is that there's some other plant in there with the spinach and that it's "'anticholinergic syndrome,' a type of poisoning mainly caused by plants in the Solanaceae family, which includes nightshade, jimson weed and mandrake root."

Anticholinergic plants and drugs inhibit the production of a brain chemical called acetylcholine, which is linked to memory, thinking and the visual system, according to Dominic ffytche, a professor of visual psychiatry at King’s College London....

Acetylcholine can also be lost naturally and is linked to Alzheimer’s.... Hallucinations caused by a suppression or loss of acetylcholine tend to be “formed,” Professor ffytche said, that is concrete and recognizable, usually taking the form of people, objects and landscapes.

This is distinct from “unformed” hallucinations, when people might see shapes, patterns and colors. Furthermore, hallucinations caused by a lack of acetylcholine are linked to the memory system, so they tend to involve people the sufferer knows or recognizes, he said. “It could be deceased relatives, or people that are vaguely familiar to them in some way.”...

 “When you lose an understanding that they are hallucinations, they tend to become distressing,” he added. “You become sucked into the story where something bad is going on and people are trying to hurt you or harm you in some way.”

Very disturbing! You assume the leaves in the bag are the leaves of the plant that is named on the label. Interesting to see the distinction between "formed" and "unformed" hallucinations. I'd known the difference, but not the words for it. Formed hallucinations with an inability to understand that they are hallucinations — quite a predicament.

Also interesting is that strange old phenomenon, British surnames that begin with "ff" — with no uppercase. Grammarphobia discussed this a few years ago. Excerpt:

We haven’t found any recent scholarship on “ff” surnames, but 19th-century paleographers (scholars of ancient handwriting) traced the usage to legal scribes in the Middle Ages. In “The Capital Letter F In Early Chirography,” a note in the April 1893 issue of the scholarly journal Notes and Queries, Sir Edward Maunde Thompson writes that “legal handwriting of the middle ages has no capital F.” Thompson, a paleographer as well as the chief librarian and first director of the British Museum, says, “A double f (ff) was used to represent the capital letter.”

A note in the January 1893 issue of Notes and Queries, by the philologist, paleographer, and Anglican canon Isaac Taylor, says the “ff” in Middle English legal writing of the 14th century evolved over two centuries from the Latin capital “F.” He writes that a vertical tick on the upper horizontal bar of the Latin “F” gradually lengthened in legal writing, making it appear that there was a double “f.” Taylor, author of The Alphabet: An Account of the Origin and Development of Letters (1883), says, “It is this elongated tick which has been mistaken for a second /f/. People who spell their names with /ff/ are merely using obsolete law hand.” ...

Much more at the link, but I'll just include this:

In the 1965 second edition of Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Sir Ernest Gowers notes that the “ff” in surnames evolved from a scribal symbol to a symbol of distinction. He cites Cranford, an 1853 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, in which Mr. ffoulkes is described as someone who “looked down upon capital letters and said they belonged to lately invented families.” It was feared that he would die a bachelor, Mrs. Gaskell writes, until he met a Mrs. ffaringdon and married her, “and it was all owing to her two little ffs.”

I think I've blogged this before. That sounds familiar! Ah, yes, here. Anyway, I'll persist:

We’ll end with a passage from “A Slice of Life,” a 1926 short story by P. G. Wodehouse:

“Sir Jasper Finch-Farrowmere?” said Wilfred.

“ffinch-ffarrowmere,” corrected the visitor, his sensitive ear detecting the capitals.

41 comments:

Lurker21 said...

Could explain a lot about Popeye the Sailor Man.

Wince said...

They’re unable to see properly, they’re confused, they’re having hallucinations.

I always liked how Popeye would mumble to himself under his breath, especially in the old B&W cartoons.

Now we know why?

Temujin said...

Wow. This entire post is...wow. Starts with hallucinogenic spinach and ends with a ffinch-ffarrowmere. Impressive. How does Meade keep up?

I'll be he eats a lot of spinach.

tim maguire said...

I find the phenomenon of hallucinations fascinating. The mechanics of how it presents itself to the sufferer--the images are fully formed and recognizable, only the logical coherence of what you are looking at is affected.

Enigma said...

Has @Althouse experienced a holiday case of nutmeg intoxication rather than spinach hallucinations:

https://www.healthline.com/health/high-on-nutmeg#myristicin

Some people consciously use nutmeg as a recreational drug once, only once.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

I thought double-f (not necessarily both lower case) was like double-l in my name. Welsh. Although I'm not in any way Welsh.

Meade said...

“I'll be he eats a lot of spinach.”

And you would be right, Temujin Khan! I eat it in quiche. Want my recipe? I call it “Real Man Quiche” because only real men eat spinach quiche.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

“…detected the capital letters.” Excellent. Thanks for the reward for reading all the way to the end of your post. Note that LSD was first discovered on grain that had been kept in an environment that was not dry enough to keep a tiny fungus from growing on the ergot.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

You can also use broccoli in that quiche and still get your daily dark greens. Broccoli bacon and cheese. Mmmm.

Bill R said...

So that explains 120 pound Popeye charging into Brutus so blithely.

Kylos said...

I'm not proud of this and shouldn't admit it, but my ears were once as sensitive as ffinch-ffarrowmere's. I was competing in a quiz tournament and knew the author of the questions had the bad habit of skipping a pluralizing apostrophe in his questions, so I protested the validity of the question on the premise that the question was grammatically meaningless without the apostrophe. I was mainly just joking but somehow the officials accepted my argument.

gilbar said...

Can Tainted Spinach Cause Hallucinations?

flaw? or Feature? Marketing! Call on line4.... STAT!

Old and slow said...

Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks It's a very interesting book

https://www.amazon.com/Hallucinations-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0307947432

gilbar said...

Some people consciously use nutmeg as a recreational drug once, only once.

Speaking, from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.. Do NOT try nutmeg... Not even Once...It's BAD!!!
and, What EVER you do... DO NOT TRY SNORTING nutmeg... DON'T!!! DON'T!!!!!!

traditionalguy said...

A word salad about salad ingredients giving eaters a hallucination trip. Bravo.

gilbar said...

Of the different substances that gilbar has ever snorted... nutmeg was THE MOST WORST
ground up Valium.. That's a different story

Rusty said...

Meade said...
“I'll be he eats a lot of spinach.”

"And you would be right, Temujin Khan! I eat it in quiche. Want my recipe? I call it “Real Man Quiche” because only real men eat spinach quiche."
I was a little confused at first and then realized you use spell check. "Real Man Kwish" Because real men don't know how to spell that other thing. Quitch? Is it? I know it's made with eggs.

Joe Smith said...

Wodehouse is the funniest writer in the history of the English language...

Michael K said...

Visual hallucinations are always due to toxic reactions, not necessarily something consumed. Alcoholic DTs are an example. Psychotics have only auditory hallucinations.

Gahrie said...

I thought the headline was referring to Progressives....

Ted said...

A lot of medications have mild anticholinergic properties, including older over-the-counter antihistamines. Taking them regularly has been implicated in an increased risk of age-related cognitive decline.

WK said...

One time after eating spinach I imagined I saw a hate symbol in my crossword puzzle.

Achilles said...

Uncooked spinach is loaded with Oxalates. Calcium Oxalate is the most common form of kidney stones.

Spinach fucks with a lot of things in your body. Humans do not have a GI tract that is meant to deal with spinach.

It does not want to be eaten and is not good for human consumption.

Achilles said...

Michael K said...
Visual hallucinations are always due to toxic reactions, not necessarily something consumed. Alcoholic DTs are an example. Psychotics have only auditory hallucinations.

Plants that attack the endothelial lining of the intestines allow things to get into the bloodstream that should not be there.

Lectins are particularly bad for this. Spinach isn't high in lectins but other things you eat with spinach in salads are.

If I had to guess someone ate spinach and nutmeg as Enigma posted above and someone tried to blame it on spinach. There are a lot of nuts that do not play well in Human GI's.

walter said...

"The inorganic nitrate in the leafy vegetable is the secret behind its strength giving property. Popeye's yen for a can of spinach before bulging his biceps has a genuine scientific basis, as researchers have found that the green leafy vegetable really boosts the muscle power."
Goes great with Olive Oyl.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Is this supposed to be an explanation for the behavior of Our Betters, noted just previously by our hostess?

I would find that to be a best case. Unfortunately, we know that greed and mendacity are the actual explanations.

Lincolntf said...

I agree, Joe Smith.

Dave Begley said...

We need more discussion about Popeye the Sailor Man.

Howard said...

Achilles is the Dr Kevorkian of diet and nutrition advise. He sails on the divine wind before going down the rabid whole.

n.n said...

A ganja weed. A little fentanyl. Some yam yam, sometimes.

phantommut said...

Tainted Spinach would be a great name for a college band.

Achilles said...

Howard said...
Achilles is the Dr Kevorkian of diet and nutrition advise. He sails on the divine wind before going down the rabid whole.


I know I am using big words but they are relatively easy to look up.

You are just relatively limited so I understand why you make such stupid comments.

Iman said...

Shoulda stuck with the Vegemite sandwich, mate…

boatbuilder said...

Fresh spinach drizzled with bacon grease and vinegar, salt and pepper, with the bacon crumbled on it, is wonderful, and damn the hallucinations.

boatbuilder said...

Canned spinach, on the other hand, is an absolute abomination.

Michael K said...


Blogger Howard said...

Achilles is the Dr Kevorkian of diet and nutrition advise. He sails on the divine wind before going down the rabid whole.


Howard speaks with authority from a position of ignorance. Not the first time.

Michael K said...


Blogger Ted said...

A lot of medications have mild anticholinergic properties, including older over-the-counter antihistamines. Taking them regularly has been implicated in an increased risk of age-related cognitive decline.


Long ago anti-cholinergics were commonly prescribed for GI problems. No more.

Howard said...

Whore me sis is a big world.

Inga said...

“Long ago anti-cholinergics were commonly prescribed for GI problems. No more.”

Ha, some doctor you are.

“The most common anticholinergics include hyoscyamine (Levsin®, NuLev®, Levbid®) and dicyclomine (Bentyl®). These can be taken daily or as needed. Each dose should be taken 30-60 minutes prior to a meal.”

https://aboutibs.org/treatment/medications-for-ibs/

Old and slow said...

Do you ever get tired of trying to be cute Howard? It ain't working.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Funny that Popeye should come up in this thread. I was trying to remember who "Luke Winkie" in a more recent thread reminded me of, and of course it was Mr. "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" Wimpy.