There aren’t many things people won’t do nowadays for a good complexion, especially since we’re constantly bombarded with images of celebrities and influencers with seemingly perfect skin on the internet.
We know this from the bizarre trends we’ve seen in the past on the wildly entertaining app, TikTok.
@seananthonyv/TikTok
But you know the age-old saying, “Don’t drink poison just because you’re thirsty?” Well, the same thing applies to skincare.
A new worrying trend has surfaced on TikTok, and it rose to prominence when a user @gracattackk posted a video of herself hypothesising the reason behind the crystal clear skin she currently has.
Currently an NYC resident, Grace explains that she had spent a part of her childhood living in China, where she recalls that her grandfather had often purchased sheets of apricots.
Recalling her liking for the fruit, she said. “I loved them as a kid, I would eat so many at a time”
Her grandfather had also shared with her another trick. If you cracked open an apricot pit, you’ll get to an almond-like kernel, which Grace would consume a lot of as she thought they tasted “very good”.
Credit: @gracattackk/TikTok
“I was eating a minimum five [seeds] a day for the entire time that I lived there,” she says.
Unknown to her at the time, numerous medical studies have documented the hazardous effects of consuming apricot kernels.
While she now recommends users not to try it out, she attributes her current complexion to this habit she had growing up.
A GP advises against this
Since the video surfaced, it has garnered over 470,000 views and 85,000 likes. Others have also shared about their own experiences with the odd beauty “hack”—eating apricot kernels daily to clear up their skin.
A GP from Lloyd’s Pharmacy Online Doctor, Dr. Neel Patel has come forward to warn users against the purported acne treatment.
“Apricot stones contain a compound called amygdalin, which converts to cyanide once eaten. Cyanide is a toxic compound contained in the seeds, stones and pips of fruits like apples, apricots, and red cherries.”
Credit: Unsplash
He then goes on to explain the physical side effects that one could get from frequent consumption of the seeds.
“Cyanide is a rapidly acting, potentially deadly poison that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen. Long-term symptoms of cyanide poisoning include coma, high or low blood pressure, loss of consciousness, lung injury, seizures, and even death,” he explains.
Apart from this, one may suffer from painful effects like chest pain and tightness, difficulty breathing, dizziness, confusion, changes in heart rate, and more.
Credit: Wikipedia Commons
While foods with cyanide tend to contain it in very low doses that shouldn’t induce worry, such as apple seeds, which can pass through the body without issue, Dr. Patel says that you have to be extra careful when it comes to Apricot kernels.
“The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) cites apricot kernels as a cyanide poisoning risk. Eating more than three of these kernels in one sitting is not recommended as it can exceed the recommended safe level. The woman in this video says she ate at least five of these a day – almost double this.”
He recommends that people should not try to increase their consumption of cyanide in order to improve their skin condition, but instead turn to medically-verified remedies.
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Featured image credit: @gracattackk and adriannetheseedqueen/ TikTok and Unsplash
