Health Update: Perils of eating poppy seed cake

Anyone who enjoys eating poppy seed cake should be aware of a possibly embarrassing consequence. Three doctors in Switzerland who had enjoyed such a cake as a dessert at a gourmet restaurant tested their urine afterwards and found it positive for morphine. They report in the Lancet that poppy seeds are consumed more frequently than generally thought - in pastries, cakes, bagels, buns, rice, curry sauce and many other foods. They say that such a finding could be relevant to professionals - such as pilots, train drivers, athletes and military personnel - whose urine is routinely checked for drug abuse.