When selecting green vegetables, you sometimes choose based solely on their appearance. However, there are many little tips for choosing vegetables that you may not be aware of. Let's take a look at them now.
In recent years, incidents of vegetable contamination due to pesticide residues, leading to acute poisoning after consumption, have occurred frequently. Therefore, eating vegetables also requires an environmental focus. As consumers, we should learn to avoid contamination to prevent illness from entering through the mouth.
Do not eat vegetables with abnormal shapes or colors
Vegetables with normal shapes and colors are generally conventionally cultivated and have not been treated with hormones or other chemicals, so they can be eaten with confidence. Abnormal vegetables may have been treated with hormones. For example, if chive leaves are particularly wide and thick, they may have been treated with hormones during cultivation. Chive leaves that have not been treated with hormones are narrower and have a richer aroma when eaten.
Also, pay attention to vegetables with unusual colors. For instance, if green soybeans are abnormally bright green, they may have been sprayed or soaked in methamidophos pesticide before harvesting and should not be purchased.
Do not eat "buggy" or "heavily sprayed" vegetables
Among the many vegetables, some are particularly favored by pests and can be called "buggy vegetables"; others are less liked by pests and can be called "less buggy vegetables." This is determined by the specific components and smells of the vegetables. Among the buggy vegetables, the "famous" ones include Chinese cabbage, napa cabbage, cabbage, and cauliflower. Less buggy vegetables include crown daisy, lettuce, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, chives, scallions, and cilantro.
Because buggy vegetables have many pests, they have to be frequently sprayed with pesticides for control, inevitably becoming heavily contaminated "heavily sprayed vegetables." You should try to choose less buggy vegetables as much as possible. However, during colder seasons, as pests hibernate for the winter, pesticide spraying stops, and it is fine to eat a small amount of buggy vegetables.
Do not eat vegetables with large amounts of fertilizer
Due to the large application of chemical fertilizers, especially excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizers (such as urea, ammonium sulfate, etc.), it can cause relatively serious nitrate contamination in vegetables. Nitrates themselves are not very toxic to humans, but after entering the gastrointestinal tract with vegetables, they are reduced into nitrites. Nitrites then combine with secondary amines in the gastrointestinal tract to form nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic.
After testing by authoritative departments on market vegetables, it was found that the nitrate accumulation varies among different vegetables, from strongest to weakest in the following order: root vegetables, tuber and bulb vegetables, leafy vegetables, cabbage family vegetables, allium vegetables, legumes, gourds, solanaceous fruits, and mushrooms. The difference in nitrate content can be as much as tens of times. The pattern is that the contamination level of the roots, stems, and leaves (i.e., the vegetative body) of vegetables is much higher than that of the flowers, fruits, and seeds (i.e., the reproductive body). This may be a protective reaction that exists universally in the biological world. This pattern is very useful. It can guide us to consume vegetables correctly, eating as much of gourds and fruits, and mushrooms as possible, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, green soybeans, and shiitake mushrooms.
If you really like to eat leafy vegetables, don't be too hard on yourself; just pay attention to supplementing with some vitamins. This is because vitamin C can block the formation of nitrosamines, which can reduce the potential danger of leafy vegetables.