Mint makes me nauseous. Mint smells, mint tastes, even mint chip ice cream (to the dismay of my husband) gives me an awful pukey feeling. My disdain for all things mint has one of those childhood trauma stories that apparently are pretty common.
When I was about 5, our family went out for a buffet meal at the Pukalani Country Club on Maui. We Locks took particular pride in doing buffet meals right. My Dad was known for scolding us for taking too much rice. “Why waste your valuable stomach space on rice when you can eat prime rib instead?” was his buffet motto. So load up my plate I did. I ate as much as I possibly could. The end of the meal was capped off by Andes mints, those little candies of creme de menthe sandwiched between thin layers of chocolate. I gobbled mine up. Minutes later, the entirety of my meal decided it could no longer be housed in my stomach. Up in came, in a humongous vomit.
There it is; my explanation for why a simple whiff of mouthwash or candy canes will cause my stomach to churn. Whenever I tell this story, there is always someone else with a similar childhood experience. One friend of mine, at age 6, ate a breakfast of waffles and then crashed her bicycle. She was seriously injured, and now she can’t stand waffles and syrup. Someone else had a nearly identical incident with bananas.
I'd venture to guess that had I not vomited after eating the mint, I would enjoy mint chip ice cream like a normal person. In any case, if you offer me an Andes Mint, I’ll politely decline.
When I was about 5, our family went out for a buffet meal at the Pukalani Country Club on Maui. We Locks took particular pride in doing buffet meals right. My Dad was known for scolding us for taking too much rice. “Why waste your valuable stomach space on rice when you can eat prime rib instead?” was his buffet motto. So load up my plate I did. I ate as much as I possibly could. The end of the meal was capped off by Andes mints, those little candies of creme de menthe sandwiched between thin layers of chocolate. I gobbled mine up. Minutes later, the entirety of my meal decided it could no longer be housed in my stomach. Up in came, in a humongous vomit.
There it is; my explanation for why a simple whiff of mouthwash or candy canes will cause my stomach to churn. Whenever I tell this story, there is always someone else with a similar childhood experience. One friend of mine, at age 6, ate a breakfast of waffles and then crashed her bicycle. She was seriously injured, and now she can’t stand waffles and syrup. Someone else had a nearly identical incident with bananas.
I'd venture to guess that had I not vomited after eating the mint, I would enjoy mint chip ice cream like a normal person. In any case, if you offer me an Andes Mint, I’ll politely decline.
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