1. Pineapple
Question: Some people experience allergic reactions after eating pineapple, such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, numbness of the lips, and itchy skin.
Reason: This is because pineapple contains bromelain and glycosides. To prevent allergic reactions, pineapple should be soaked in light saltwater for over ten minutes after being cut to destroy the bromelain before consumption.
Nutritionist: Pineapple is a tropical fruit rich in dietary fiber and bromelain, which is very beneficial for preventing constipation and indigestion, making it an excellent choice for summer fruits. As the weather warms up, we will see more vendors selling pineapple. Many vendors use fiberglass containers filled with saltwater to soak the pineapple, with a chopstick inserted in each piece. This is a reminder to everyone: consider how long the saltwater in the fiberglass container hasn't been changed? Are the chopsticks new? This is not only a hygiene issue but can also cause secondary pollution.
2. Banana
Question: To make the banana peel tender and yellow, some unscrupulous vendors use excessive sulfur dioxide to ripen them, but the flesh remains hard and not sweet at all. Sulfur dioxide is harmful to the human body.
Solution: The correct method should be to ripen them by heating.
Nutritionist: Banana is a nutrient-rich tropical fruit, sweet in taste and cool in nature, with the effects of moistening the intestines and clearing heat. Its ripening season is actually in the summer.
3. Grape
Question: Some unscrupulous vendors and growers dilute a ripening agent, ethylene, with water, and soak unripe green grapes in the solution. After a day or two, the green grapes turn purple.
Nutritionist: August and September are the ripening season for grapes. Grapes are sweet and slightly sour, and neutral in nature. They are believed to nourish qi and blood, strengthen muscles and bones, and promote urination. They have a high sugar content, so diabetics should be careful to only have a small amount.
4. Strawberry
Benefits: Traditional Chinese medicine believes that strawberries can reduce internal heat, relieve summer heat, and clear heat. In spring, people's liver fire is often more vigorous, and eating strawberries can help suppress it. Additionally, it's best to eat strawberries after a meal because they contain a lot of pectin and fiber, which can promote gastrointestinal motility, aid digestion, improve constipation, and prevent hemorrhoids and colon cancer.
Question: Strawberries that are hollow in the middle, misshapen, and overly large are, with very few exceptions, new high-yield varieties. Most are caused by excessive hormones. After using ripening agents or other hormonal drugs, the strawberry's growth cycle is shortened, the color becomes brighter, but its natural aroma is diluted, and it lacks freshness in taste.
Nutritionist: Strawberry is a very attractive fruit with a high vitamin C content, so eating fresh strawberries is a good choice. The natural ripening season for strawberries is late May each year.
5. Sugarcane
Question: Spring sugarcane is mostly from the autumn harvest. After being stored for a whole winter, it is highly prone to spoilage, with a cottony or fluffy white substance appearing at the end of the sugarcane. After cutting, there will be red thread-like substances on the cross-section.
Harm: Some people do not carefully select sugarcane when buying. When they see the red thread-like substance after cutting, they think it's normal, but consumption leads to sugarcane poisoning.
Nutritionist: Sugarcane is a great "fire-extinguishing" food. It is sweet in taste and cool in nature, with the effects of clearing heat and promoting fluid production, moistening dryness by directing qi downward, harmonizing the stomach, and reducing adverse flow of qi. Sugarcane's ripening season is in November. Besides spoilage due to improper storage, unripe sugarcane can also become moldy after being cut.
The ripening seasons for these five fruits are not in spring. If we eat them now, they are either long-term stored or unripe. After eating them, we cannot get sufficient nutrition or taste the best fruit. Additionally, eating these cool-natured fruits in the early spring can be a stimulus to our spleen and stomach. Therefore, it is not recommended to eat them in excess. Although technology is advanced now and we can taste out-of-season fruits with new technologies, it is still advisable to only have a small amount. It is better to eat seasonal fruits.