# Why does celery make your tongue numb?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 21, 2001, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362 "2001-02-21T17:48:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362/21 "2012-12-09T02:15:12Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> This seems as good a time as any to mention [lactucarium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactucarium), also known as [lettuce opium](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2578/is-iceberg-lettuce-a-drug).
Bad time to mention these.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362/22 "2012-12-09T02:27:15Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> Bad time to mention these.
What? Why?
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### Author:  [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362/23 "2012-12-09T02:52:44Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> Bad time to mention these.
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> What? Why?
Probably would have been a better time back in 2001, when the thread last lived.
-D/a
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362/24 "2012-12-10T16:48:18Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#):
>
> Great link **Dijon**. That was a lot of fun!
I’m incredibly impressed that an obscure image link is still active after _almost 12 years_. In internet terms, that’s like digging up a perfectly preserved velociraptor.
Edit: by the way, on topic, I have noticed in recent years several ingredients labels on food have warnings that it “contains celery”, along the lines of nut warnings. That leads me to assume that a not insignificant number of people have sensitivity to celery.
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### Author:  [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362/25 "2012-12-10T17:30:57Z")
I am surprised I didn’t notice and post to this thread back in 2001. Raw celery makes my mouth go numb. Happened to my sister as well. Doesn’t seem to happen with cooked celery, but there’s usually not a lot of celery in an given cooked dish.
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### Author:  [@Glorpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glorpy)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362/26 "2013-01-04T07:40:28Z")
It’s the chemicals, man. The government puts them in the celery to control you and stop you from saying things. ::panics and runs away::
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### Author:  [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-celery-make-your-tongue-numb/55362/27 "2013-01-04T10:00:23Z")
> [@iksova](#):
>
> Has anyone else experienced the phenomena of tongue numbness after eating celery? Why does this happen? Why Why Why? I have a meeting in 5 minutes and I’m talking like I just licked a a metal pole in winter…
My husband says he does not experience this.
I don’t eat the stuff.
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