Nutrition misinformation - That pesky psoralen.

The following foods contain psoralen.

Not to mention carrots, anise and anise seeds, caraway, dill, cumin, grapefruit, figs and fennel.

You might ask, what is psoralen? Good question!

Psoralen (a furocoumarin) is a naturally occurring toxin found in the above foods (and others) that can make the skin more sensitive to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. In other words, psoralen is carcinogenic. Merely handling foods rich in psoralen can make your skin more sun sensitive. My sister loves parsnips. She eats them every single week. Unfortunately she’s also been treated for multiple precancerous lesions on her face, extensive treatment which involves painting her face with nasty stuff, exposure to a special light and then wearing a hat with a face scarf for a week.

On the other hand, psoralen is used to treat skin diseases such as eczema, vitiligo and psoriasis. Interesting, huh?

I recently read an article recommending that pregnant women- vegetarians- regularly include parsnips in their diet. The article mentioned all the good things about parsnips, and there are many good things, but it neglected to mention anything about psoralen and the sun sensitive effect. It’s also important to note that toxins like psoralen, in the furocoumarin family, can also interfere with the metabolism of certain medications, otherwise known as the grapefruit juice effect. Furocoumarins affect the metabolism of some 85 medications, including cholesterol lowering medications, pain medications and antibiotics.

I’m a firm believer in limiting my intake of psoralen containing foods to once a week at most. By that I mean foods containing relatively high levels of psoralen like celery root, (which I do love), and parsnips. I enjoy a good crisp crunchy celery stick. I’m a sucker for crunch. But keep in mind celery contains psoralen so I’d caution against an all-celery diet.