Betel Nuts

Has anybody ever tried chewing betel nuts? Although Bloody Mary chews them in 'South Pacific', they don't quite seem to have the following that Mai Tais do. :)

Interestingly, there is a cottage industry in Taiwan, centered around young, attractive, scantily clad women who shuck and sell betel nuts to passing motorists. Despite their wardrobe, these Betel Nut Girls apparently sell only betel nuts. Hmmmmmm.

Hmmm..

After looking at those pictures I suddenly have a craving for..

..young trampy asian girls.

Ahu

there's a certain popular movie out now where some characters have their mouths and teeth stained black. this is one of the side effects of betel nut chewing. so think first about your tooth blackness before chewin' :D

On 2006-07-14 17:41, tikipedia wrote:
Has anybody ever tried chewing betel nuts? Although Bloody Mary chews them in 'South Pacific', they don't quite seem to have the following that Mai Tais do.
I can't see why not! everyone else in "South Pacific" enjoy maitais equally as well as betel nut. And it's origin is so similar to maitai, since that fateful day a Micronesian couple was offered some in Victor Bergeron's back yard and they said "hatari loa hai karate" which means; "it ain't bad but it ain't out of this world"....
So, yea. i can't understand the imbalance either.

Betel chewing has been claimed to produce a sense of well-being, euphoria, heightened alertness, sweating, salivation, a hot sensation in the body and increased capacity to work. Betel chewing also leads to habituation, addiction and withdrawal. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain poorly understood. Arecoline, the major alkaloid of Areca nut, has been extensively studied, and several effects of betel chewing are thought to be related to the actions of this parasympathomimetic constituent. However, betel chewing may produce complex reactions and interactions. In the presence of lime, arecoline and guvacoline in Areca nut are hydrolyzed into arecaidine and guvacine, respectively, which are strong inhibitors of GABA uptake. Piper betle flower or leaf contains aromatic phenolic compounds which have been found to stimulate the release of catecholamines in vitro. Thus, betel chewing may affect parasympathetic, GABAnergic and sympathetic functions. Betel chewing produces an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, sweating and body temperature. In addition, EEG shows widespread cortical desynchronization indicating a state of arousal. In autonomic function tests, both the sympathetic skin response and RR interval variation are affected. Betel chewing also increases plasma concentrations of norepinephrine and epinephrine. These results suggest that betel chewing mainly affects the central and autonomic nervous systems. Future studies should investigate both the acute and chronic effects of betel chewing. Such studies may further elucidate the psychoactive mechanisms responsible for the undiminished popularity of betel chewing since antiquity.

I am not surprised they are dressed this way since betel nut is addictive. They are pushers. Twice the selling power.

so .....NOW I know what to vend at the Hula Hop.....if ONLY I can find some size 13D , white ,men's Go-Go boots.......

My friend Dominique, who has heavily researched native customs of PNG & other islands, would stronlgy advise against constant consumption of betel nut. Sure, you'll get your chemical high of sorts, but it will eventually rot the gums and cause the user's teeth to fall out. A hefty price to pay.

Chew if you must, but with caution.

I was somewhat addicted to betel chewing for a few months a few years ago.. was introduced to it by Asian work colleagues. It is readily available from local Asian shops in Bury Park, the asian quarter of Luton. It is available in several different brands, some of which (eg 'Pan Parag' are betel-and-flavourings only, others contain tobacco as well (and are the more addictive). All are very cheap to buy.. it is a much cheaper habit than smoking, but does you no good in the long run. I'm sure I chipped one or two teeth slightly as a result of chewing. One of my Tamil work colleagues was very heavily addicted to 'Manikchand',a leading tobacco-laced brand, and ended up consuming wholesale-sized boxes of it. He eventually developed a pre-cancerous condition of the mouth and stopped: he seems to have done this just in time, for he has now recovered. As with any drug, my advice is, by all means try it, but proceed with caution, remember there's more to life, and make sure YOU stay on top of IT, and not the other way round.

CHRIS

All I can say we have a free market economy in this country, why don't the pushers of addictive drugs here dress like their trashy asian counterparts.

I would not dread driving in some parts of the city if crack dealers dressed like those girls. Anyway an added benifit would be you could sure tell if they had concealed weapons on them.

[ Edited by: captnkirk 2006-07-20 04:11 ]

I used to work for Rusty Surfboards back in the day doind a little bit of all categories and went to Hong Kong and Taipei,Taiwan for and went on a week long jag on betel nuts-It was kinda like chawin' tobaccy 'cause you had to occasionally spit this brown saliva into a cup as you walked around.This was back around '95.Anyways,the guy I went with was a local who had all the connections and grew up with a lot of the printers and manufacturing. I was there to do screen checks-talk concepts over with the factory owners (which is the best job to have because you get to the shop around 7 after a little breakfast and work til about 7-then you go out to dinner with the factory owner(this one guy was called Junior-that's all I remember) and he's buying dinner and drinks-then it was off to Karaoke-where all the factory guys would meet up with their mistresses and sing and drink more-and then we would go to a "Host" bar where you have a private room and pretty girls keep you company and dance and smile and drink with you ( In the hopes you will purchase them for a night) until you go to the hotel (via scary taxi around 4:30-5 in the morning)
and repeat....Anyways, "Robert" hooked me up with the betel nut kick and that stuff really works! I could never have kept up with these crazy people! Their drinking and partying was.....Herculean! Anyways, that's my betel-nut tale......
Man! They didn't have those booths back in 95!All the goods we got were from "Robert" or Junior(who was about 400 lbs) like they kept their employees well-stocked or something! Would have loved to have bought some from one of those sexy ladies!!!!

visit http://www.kenruzic.com and you will ,hopefully, be inspired.

[ Edited by: little lost tiki 2006-07-20 10:13 ]

I've tried 'em. They give an interesting sensation where your mouth and neck feel warm, sort of a flush. They kind of speed you up just a bit, no more than coffee, though the effect is definitely different. I found that if I used it a bunch, it made me sort of irritable, maybe a little too logical and spock-minded.
You can find them in most Indian food markets, though they aren't marked with that name. I've actually seen them sold as "breath fresheners", sold in small bags. You can also find them in Arab markets in a small blue can with the name "pan parag" see:
http://www.panparag.com/home.php . for drug info, see: http://www.erowid.org/plants/betel/betel.shtml I'm glad I tried them, though I don't have any desire to make a habit of them. My favorite legal drug (that isn't alcohol) is Kava Kava, fresh from Hawaii! I often use Kona Kava: http://www.konakavafarm.com/ :)