[SkatrySkith]

Would you like to have black teeth?

[vodaPlaps]

I don't know....

[NofFoomiTot]

Betel nut. Let's get high and turn our teeth black.

[costamarianavia]

Peninsula Plaza long known lovingly as Little Burma in Singapore has many stores selling betel nuts wrapped in leaves. I have long since wanted to try but am not sure if it can done without tobacco.

Do you reckon I can just tell the storekeeper I want a betel leaf wrap w/o tobacco?

[Accecyncphory]

My mother-in-law and all the other old ladies in the village used to chew this drug.

David

[MarythePuppy6]

Ñyy, you dont have to have with tobacco. In Bhutan they sell the betel nut as refreshment packages.

[costamarianavia]

used to chew this drug.

Thanks David for raising this. I wasn't even remotely aware that it is a drug and has psycho-stimulating effects. After reading this, I read online that it has even been associated with cancer, especially oral cancer. I have completely lost interest in it now

[vodaPlaps]

doesn't it turn your teeth red....well maybe to start with...

[paulaglober]

When I first went to live in Bangkok I saw old ladies on the street with red teeth, lips, and sometimes a drizzle down the jaw. I thought it was lipstick gone wild until someone finally set me straight.

[Daleman1984]

This lady has teeth which are very reddened with the Betel nut chewing, this was taken in Burma in Rangoon. But when i was in Mandalay it seemed more like everyone there chewed it, the roads where virtualy reddish pink with the spittle of people, and also the pavements.

Billy.

[costamarianavia]

i'm curious why people are allowed to consume betel nuts everyday when it has a drug-like plus possibly cancer-inducing effect?

[MarythePuppy6]

same as tobacco effect I suppose. the pic is Bhutanese betel refreshment, I brought back but have not yet tried lol
image.jpg

[paulaglober]

According to drugs.com the effects are simalar to those of tobacco. They both bring with them risks of cancer as well. Like tobacco, betel nut relieves the positive symptoms of schizophrenia in men (women are not mentioned in this article) making way for the possibility of a future medication to help relieve symptoms of this brain disorder.

[Nemerov]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betel


http://importfood.com/mahk_thai_tradition.html


http://www.benjarong.net/index.php?m...11&language=en

[NofFoomiTot]

"...i'm curious why people are allowed to consume betel nuts..." Some people still value liberty. If an adult human being is not free to decide for him or herself what he/she will ingest into his/her own body, then how can anyone be considered "free." If I have to choose between freedom and safety, I will choose freedom every time.

[costamarianavia]

Then why are illicit drugs illicit then

N why bother with labelling and then banning harmful food additives? some of the banned food additives do not downright kill but are carcinogenic, like betel nuts. One can jolly well just put up a warning. Betel nuts don't even carry warnings like cigarettes do on their packaging.

Double-standard then, I call it, if one is to say this is all just about freedom of choice.

[paulaglober]

Proper labeling makes for informed choice.. The same goes for labels informing us if a food product is made of genetically modified/engineered products.

[costamarianavia]

I understand why labelling exists. What Im saying is that there appears to be a double standard for betel nuts as compared to all other things which are considered dangerous for health.

[Accecyncphory]

Betel nuts don't even carry warnings like cigarettes do on their packaging.

My experience of betel nuts, ËÁÒ¡, is that people grow their own. Would you nail the warning to the trees?

David

[costamarianavia]

It does make sense that those grown in rural areas by rural folks are not labelled. However, the ones I ever saw in my whole life are all sold in shops... Openly sold... Like in the more than 10 shops in Peninsula Plaza, an aircon mini shopping centre in downtown Singapore... n also on the streets of Bangkok...