I’ve been bothered by some kind of irritation in my mouth for the past month or so and was beginning to get quite concerned about it because I really don’t want to have to go looking for a dentist or a doctor while I’m here. I tried rinsing twice a day with a mouthwash which seemed to help a bit at first but it definitely didn’t get rid of the problem.  I finally started to wonder if it was caused by something I’ve been eating.  Yesterday, the light bulb finally went on!  We’ve been eating pineapple for breakfast almost every day. Could that be the culprit?  Considering the fact that my daughter is allergic to pineapple, I’m surprised I didn’t think of it sooner.  Last night I did a Google search on mouth sores & pineapple.  The results were quite amazing. Article after article mentioned the relationship between acidic fruits and mouth sores and pineapple was almost always first on the list!

This is definitely an unfortunate development because not only do I really like pineapple but it’s also one of the cheapest fruits available to us here.  In fact, we’ve recently been able to buy a whole pineapple for approximately the same price as a single apple.  I’m quite delighted to buy a pineapple for 198 yen (less than $2) but I’m definitely not willing to pay that much for an apple!   Fortunately, both oranges and kiwis have come down in price recently.  I’ll have to be careful about the number of oranges I consume, however, as they’re also very acidic.

Apparently it’s possible to neutralize the acid in pineapple by soaking it in water with a very small amount of vinegar but I’m not that desperate and the pineapples that we’ve been buying recently haven’t been nearly as sweet as the ones that were available when we first arrived.   Those would have been much harder to give up.

Of course, it’s too soon to know for sure that pineapple is, in fact, the cause of my mouth sores but since mouths tend to heal quickly, I’m hoping to have a definitive answer within a few days.   In the meantime, no more pineapple!