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HOW old were you when you knew that when you eat a pineapple it ‘eats you back’? Because I was ‘today years old’.
Pineapple is a tropical fruit available in any grocery store and a staple in many homes around the world.
This delicious fruit adds sweetness to foods and famous cocktails like the piña colada.
It’s also essential in dessert recipes like cakes.
Preparing fresh pineapple is easy if you know how to cut it, and it's sure to make your favourite recipes a little brighter.
However, it turns out that eating it might not be all fun and games, as a viral TikTok has revealed that pineapples eat us while we eat them.
The news has come as so much of a shock that some former pineapple lovers have since vowed to never take another bite of the tropical fruit again.
An account that goes by the name of SF Microscopy that posts all things science took to the video-sharing app to give people an extremely up-close-and-personal look into the 'microcosmos' within a pineapple.
“One of my favourite fruits is pineapple, but every time I eat them, my mouth tingles. I read that the fruit contains raphides! Kiwis, grapes, taro, and yams also have large amounts of these crystals.
“These needles serve as a defensive function against insect herbivores to deter them from eating the plant’s fruits and protect the seeds.
“The needles work with other chemical substances, like bromelain in the pineapple, to amplify the effects,” they wrote in the caption.
In the clip, the expert picks apart tiny chunks of pineapple before analysing them under a microscope and the results are, quite frankly, disturbing.
The voice-over begins: "Why do our mouths tingle after eating pineapple?"
Taking no time for the big reveal, the microscope maestro went on to explain just why so many of us feel that tingly sensation whenever we bite into the flesh of the spiky-haired produce.
And the reason? Pineapple needles.
@sf_microscopy One of my favorite fruits is pineapple, but every time I eat them, my mouth tingles. I read that the fruit contains raphides! Kiwis, grapes, taro, and yams also have large amounts of these crystals. These needles serve as a defensive function against insect herbivors to deter them from eating the plant’s fruits and protect the seeds. The needles work with other chemcial substances, like bromelain in the pineapple, to amplify the effects. #microscope #microbiology #underthemicroscope #microscopy #microcosmos #nature #pineapple #crystals #fyp #fypage #fypシ ♬ Sunshine
People were quick to flood the comments with their thoughts and it would seem that not a lot of people knew this information.
One user wrote: “My daughter ate a whole pineapple when she was six and cried after – now she’s fifteen she still refuses to eat pineapples again.”
A second user commented: “It always feels so raw afterwards this makes so much sense.”
A third wrote: “Thank you... never knew tropical fruit had defence mechanisms... very interesting.”
According to research, pineapples contain a special and naturally rare mixture of enzymes called ‘bromelain' and these have the ability to break down proteins. Conveniently, your body contains all sorts of proteins which means, as you eat pineapples, it starts to break you down.
Factschology reveals that the acidity of the enzyme isn’t strong enough to break down your body in seconds. In fact, you have to eat a bunch of pineapple in order to start feeling pain in your mouth.
They revealed that luckily the skin in your mouth, including your tongue, heals pretty fast which you will be thankful for if you ever go on a pineapple binge. And once you swallow it, the acids in your stomach are strong enough to break down bromelain.
They also added that since bromelain is pretty good at breaking down proteins, it’s often used as a meat tenderizer. The bottles of meat tenderizers you buy in the supermarket most likely contain bromelain, but once you cook your meat, you won’t have to worry about the bromelain since its structure breaks down in the heat and it loses its ability.