Beware of your garnishes

By BBC Doctor Colin Thomas

I had the pleasure of staying at a small bed and breakfast establishment recently.

Normally I'm not one for a full English breakfast, but as temptation reared its ugly head I was coaxed into a plate of bacon, scrambled eggs, and the rest of the shooting match.

The problem was I wasn't sure if it was decorative or edible

All was going according to plan until I was faced with a dilemma. On top of my scrambled egg was a small sprig of something.

The problem was I wasn't sure if it was decorative or edible, but I was for some reason strangely attracted to it.

Having eaten the green foliage I still wasn't quite sure, and my mouth was left with a slightly burning sensation.

The wrong sort

It reminded me of a number of patients who had fallen foul by eating the wrong sorts of food - and then wishing they hadn't.

Many years ago I was consulted by a very worried gentleman who had been drug tested at work due to the critical safety nature of his job.

There was no way that he was a junkie, and yet his random blood and urine test showed that he had been taking in opiates.

On that evidence his future job security looked very shaky.

I think the company he worked for couldn't accept it either, and instead of sacking him they felt compelled to investigate further.

He saw an expert in drug testing who, as part of the investigation went into a very detailed history of his dietary habits.

They discovered that he was very partial to crusty rolls which were decorated with poppy seeds - which contain opium.

Don't be hasty

Before you go rushing off to the local bakers to suck the seeds off a bloomer, there isn't enough opiate to get you high, but enough to swing the test result.

So he didn't lose his job - but he did change his diet.

And early one Sunday morning as a casualty officer I saw a young male patient who had become suddenly confused after breakfast.

It turned out that he had been picking mushrooms in the local wood and it seemed most likely (but never proved) that he must have accidentally picked a 'magic' type along with the normal ones.

The countryside of course can hold a number of surprises.

Last summer we were walking past a cultivated field of odd looking plants with finger shaped leaves that we had never seen before.

My mother-in-law who was with us, and who had been a regular viewer of EastEnders, was able to identify the plant as none other than cannabis, which we later discovered was a variety being grown for its hemp rather than drug properties.

Come to think of it , now I remember what that garnish on my scrambled eggs might have looked like.