Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously, but poison control is warning about another seemingly innocent spice with a dangerous dark side now too.

Last week, the nation’s poison centers issued a new warning to parents and teens. No new household product that kids found a way to get high off of; instead the culprit this time is cinnamon. The “cinnamon challenge” is a seemingly innocent dare that has grown in popularity with social media, in which one swallows a spoonful of ground or powdered cinnamon without drinking any water.

Poison centers see this to be a dangerous trend on the rise. In the past 3 months, poison centers across the US have received over 139 phone inquiries regarding the misuse of cinnamon—that’s 3 times as many phone calls as received in 2011. When consumed in this manner, cinnamon coats and dries the mouth and throat, causing gagging, vomiting, coughing, chocking and throat irritation. For those with respiratory problems, this is undoubtedly dangerous. Additionally, if cinnamon is breathed into the lungs, darers put themselves at risk for pneumonia.

Here at F-Factor, we can’t deny, we always like to spice it up—our metabolisms, that is! Studies show that adding a teaspoon of cinnamon to your food throughout the day (rather than all at once without water and choking it up) can increase your metabolism twentyfold. Sprinkle in coffee or your nonfat Greek yogurt in the AM and you’re good to go.

And if your still interested in the cinnamon challenge, play it safe and check out the press release here