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Urushiol
I know that @ggenereux2014 has written that this is a poison and that cashews should be avoided. However, here is our recent experience:
We have eaten quite a lot of cashew nuts during our lives.
Three days ago we had about 7 cashew nuts each. Followed by bloating, typical vA detox and feeling seriously poisoned. I think this is due to the cashews and not something else we may have eaten, because for the last three days, we feel a vague bitter taste in whatever we eat (slowly disappearing). Urushiol as found in the cashews leaves a strong bitter taste. So I suspect the cashes are the culprit.
Apart from the fact these cashews may have been improperly prepared, maybe the reaction could be due to elevated vA in the blood, because we are detoxing? Is this possible, and if so, what is the relationship between retinoids and urushiol? I did not find anything precise in Grant's books, maybe I missed it. If he did not write about this he seems to have pointed the finger towards urushiol, but why exactly?
I do notice that there is more carotenoids in cashews compared to other nuts. Also mangoes do have them in abundance together with urushiol in the skin. Poison and counter-poison together? Also it seems a treatment for poison ivy rashes is renitoic acid.
If there isa link, could it mean that less vA could lead to more urushiol reactions?
And that urushiol presence would stop vA leaving the body?
The mind boggles. Maybe someone more educated could put it at rest?
A small amount of aflatoxin can really hurt your liver. I'm not sure how often aflatoxins are a problem in cashews but it is an issue for nuts in general.
Ourania, I have had poison ivy many times--my yard is filled with it.
I believe I have gotten more allergic to poison ivy as I have become more VA toxic.
To me, (expert on poison ivy haha) the toxin in poison ivy seems like VA-on-steroids. It definitely gives you that "scratch that itches" effect. When covered with it, you need to distract yourself or make scratching impossible (like put on thick gloves and bandages) because more scratching just leads to more itching. And like VA, it can take a very long time to detoxify.
One time half my body was covered in poison ivy, and I was feeling lots of those inner shudders that you've described.
I think I remember Grant saying something in his books? about the urishiol molecule being similar to a carotene? Poison ivy turns VERY red in the autumn here. (when all the carotenes are displayed because all the clorophyls have left town).
Carotenes in general are part of a plant's immune system, I've read.
@ourania, the herbalist Buhner writes about poison ivy as the very first thing that responds to a scar in the landscape. It is like the landscape's own "immune system". It tries to keep the interlopers away so that secondary plants can grow. It is full of crusty horribleness, on purpose. So I can see how "carotenes-on-steroids" could be it's super power-- as nature's body guard.
I consider my allergy to poison ivy pretty severe, so I don't eat cashews or mangoes, but I don't go out of my way to ask if they are in my take-out Indian food. And so far, so good.
What you've noticed is so interesting, and I wonder if it could be something that is happening to the VA toxic... and they're not realizing it is about urishiol.
Quotes by Grant from his blog post on eczema:
"I view this as somewhat similar to a poison ivy rash. With poison ivy the toxin is delivered on the surface of the skin by rubbing against the plant. With eczema, the toxin is now being delivered internally via food. In both cases your body mounts an immune response to the toxins."
"Once again, I think about the similarities between eczema and a poison ivy rash. I think in both cases the immune system is working just fine, and is doing its proper job in responding to a toxin. However, unlike poison ivy, the blisters with eczema are really deep under the skin. For the longest time I did not even realize that the nodules ( lumpy skin ) were actually deep, deep blisters. My guess is that the body is not able to store the vitamin A in the liver, and the immune system is doing the best it can by forming these deep little blister pockets under the skin to store it."