Warning to those who enjoy citrus:

A few days ago I developed a small sore on my tongue. I ignored it assuming it would heal itself in time, but it’s only gotten worse since then, and is now impairing my ability to eat or even speak comfortably.

I told my boyfriend about this, who said the same thing happened to him in high school. He waited until there were red/white sores covering all of his tongue, then went to a doctor who prescribed penicillin, which did nothing. When the sores got worse, he went to a second doctor who said that this all began because he was eating too much citrus. The citrus foods killed the natural bacteria that live on the tongue, and in order to grow them back you have to consume dairy products to encourage the bacteria growth.

Now, since tangerine season began a few weeks ago, I’ve been eating on average 4-6 of them a day as snacks, so I assume that’s where my tongue sore came from. Today I’m devoting most of my energy to drinking milk and eating yogurt, and hopefully I’ll have a happy family of bacteria living on my tongue soon.

I just hope there isn’t a similar condition that results from consuming too much dairy. I’ll let you know if there is.