Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Intestinal gas. Some sensitive people find cucumbers “gassy.” Pickling, marinating, and
heating, which inactivate enzymes in the cucumber, may reduce this gassiness for certain
people—although others find pickles even more upsetting than fresh cucumbers.
Food/Drug Interactions
False-positive test for occult blood in the stool. The active ingredient in the guaiac slide test for
hidden blood in feces is alphaguaiaconic acid, a chemical that turns blue in the presence of
blood. Alphaguaiaconic acid also turns blue in the presence of peroxidase, a chemical that
occurs naturally in cucumbers. Eating cucumbers in the 72 hours before taking the guaiac test
may produce a false-positive result in people who not actually have any blood in their stool.
Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors are drugs used to
treat depression. They inactivate naturally occurring enzymes in your body that metabolize
tyramine, a substance found in many fermented or aged foods. Tyramine constricts blood
vessels and increases blood pressure. If you eat a food, such as pickles, containing tyramine
while you are taking an MAO inhibitor, you cannot effectively eliminate the tyramine from
your body. The result may be a hypertensive crisis.
Cucumbers