Can you choke and die from trying to keep a tbs of cinnamon in your mouth?

You could probably choke from inhaling the cinnamon. I’m not so sure about dying. Why would you want to do this?

@chyna I don’t want to do it, but I’ve seen videos of people doing it. I know two people who have done it, and one said they were choking and almost died. But he exaggerates about everything so I was just wondering.

The potentially toxic ingredient in cinnamon is coumarin, which can negatively affect your liver but which shouldn’t make you choke. Any choking would be due to inhaling the powder, like @chyna said. Your friend is messing with you.

Is this a cinnamon specific issue? Or would any powdered spice do? (I honestly don’t understand, I’m not being facetious) For example, I know nutmeg in larger doses can be toxic, I wonder if that is a factor.

Edit to add: and now that I’ve seen Seelix’s response, it’s a bit cleared up.

Powdered cinnamon without sugar in small amounts has a nasty bitter taste; a tablespoon would make you puke.

Sounds like a fine time; have at it.

Who thinks of doing this? Too much time on their hands? Read a book, play poker, sheesh.

I saw a few people do this a school, they were obviously bored. All they really did was choke and spit up.

It’l be fine. Shovel that cinnamon in boy.

LOL I sometimes like to put ½ a tspn or less in my coffee when I’m making a fresh pot, I have noticed if you put more it won’t drain too well through the filter, it’s obvious it is a very fine powder so putting that in your mouth and accidentally inhaling at the same time would probably have the same feeling of inhaling large amounts of particles in the air, you cough a lot, and when something goes down the wrong pipe..well it feels like your choking. But unless you inhale enough to stop your airway, uh yeah you won’t die, but you’ll cough enough to feel breathless like your going to.