Tahira Kashyap Khurrana revealed that she was recently admitted in the ICU after she threw up post consuming her daily glass of green juice — a concoction of bottle gourd, gooseberries, and turmeric. Tahira was in the ICU for two days due to bottle gourd toxicity. She said that she had the juice despite its bitter taste and ended up with “17 bouts of vomit” and her blood pressure dropped to 40.

She shared a video on Instagram, where she said that she would have the juice daily, however that day, she felt the juice had a bitter taste but she drank it anyway. Tahira shared that the juice, which is otherwise healthy, can be lethal. “Doctor said it’s almost like having cyanide,” she said in the video, and wrote, “Pls read about BOTTLE GOURD TOXICITY! I might be sounding all sorted and cool in this video that I made from my set, but I was in deep sh#%!”

“Sharing deets as doctors also asked me to spread the awareness around too. I have picked my phone on all those who I know have the #greenjuice. Bottle gourd toxicity has dire consequences, and dire is an understatement... It’s lethal. In the name of health just don’t keep popping juices (sic),” she wrote.

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The fact that a vegetable as healthy as a bottle gourd can sometimes be poisonous is not known by many. Daljit Kaur, Chief Dietician, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi, shares, “Consumption of the vegetables belonging to the Cucurbits, also known as Cucurbitaceae, family, including bottle gourd and cucumber is not unsafe at all. However, if it’s bitter in taste, it could indicate that the same is poisonous and can result in nausea, vomiting, vomiting blood. Therefore, ensure you are buying good quality vegetables from hygienic places and be aware of the bitter taste.”