Don't wrap cabbage in newspaper
Wrapping cabbage in newspaper can contaminate it with ink, making people victims of ink pollution. The ink contamination comes from pigments. These pigments contain toxic heavy metal elements such as lead, chromium, cadmium, and mercury, as well as carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
Don't marinate cabbage for too long
Many people love pickled cabbage, but marinating it for too long can easily produce harmful substances. When cabbage is pickled for an extended period, nitrates in the cabbage can be reduced to nitrites. After nitrites are ingested into the human body, they can combine with hemoglobin to form methemoglobin, causing symptoms of hypoxia such as cyanosis. They also easily form nitrosamine carcinogens.
Stir-fry cabbage until dry
Don't eat rotten cabbage
Cabbage is most prone to rotting. After eating rotten cabbage, symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, rapid heartbeat, and cyanosis of the whole body may occur. In severe cases, convulsions, coma, and even life-threatening situations can arise. This is because when cabbage rots, bacteria cause the nitrates in the cabbage to turn into nitrites. Nitrites can oxidize ferrous hemoglobin in the blood into ferric hemoglobin, causing the blood to lose its oxygen-carrying capacity and leading to severe hypoxia in the body.
Don't eat the cabbage heart without washing it
Many people think that the heart of a cabbage, after peeling layer by layer, is very clean and doesn't need washing. In fact, it takes 2-3 months for a cabbage to grow and form its head. During this time, it requires multiple fertilizations and pest control treatments. Coupled with air pollution, bacteria have long taken root in the cabbage heart. Therefore, the cabbage heart cannot be eaten immediately after peeling; it must be soaked in salt water for more than 30 minutes and washed repeatedly before consumption.
Dry cabbage