It's the season for feasting on lobster, snails, shellfish, and sashimi. At night, spicy crayfish and other seafood dishes become the signature attractions for restaurants and late-night food stalls. As you enjoy your meal, hidden parasites in the food may have already entered your body.
1. Be cautious of parasites in these delicacies
1. Paragonimiasis from crayfish
Crayfish are commonly found in southern rivers and lakes, and are also prevalent in paddy fields, streams, and even dirty water. Due to their strong reproductive capacity, they are easy to catch. In recent years, spicy crayfish have become popular across the country, and some places have even opened restaurants specializing in crayfish. However, because crayfish live in poor-quality water, their bodies are often parasitized by lung flukes.
If people eat crayfish raw or undercooked, they are highly likely to be infected by this parasite, leading to paragonimiasis. The lung fluke mainly parasitizes the human lungs. In mild cases, it can manifest as coughing, chest pain, and hemoptysis. Severe cases can cause massive pulmonary hemorrhage, organ obstruction, and even death. Three people in Beijing once suffered from "acute rhabdomyolysis" due to crayfish poisoning, which nearly endangered their lives.
Expert advice: Remove the back vein of the crayfish before cooking, ensure it is cooked thoroughly, and avoid eating the head when consuming.
2. Clonorchiasis from raw fish slices
Fillet the fish, slice it thinly, and eat it raw with wasabi for a delicious taste. Alternatively, coat it with flour and deep-fry it for a crispy and tender texture. While enjoying such delicacies, a potential problem may be planted in your stomach. This is because freshwater fish are often parasitized by liver flukes, such as topmouth culter and flathead mullet.
In areas like Guangdong and Guangxi, the average infection rate of parasites in freshwater fish is as high as 60%. The liver fluke mainly parasitizes the human liver and bile ducts, damaging the liver. Patients often feel pain in the liver, abdominal bloating, and discomfort, and liver function tests may show abnormalities.
3. Angiostrongyliasis from Guangdong snails
The larvae of the rat lungworm develop in certain terrestrial or aquatic snails for a long time. Some people, seeking a tender bite, only briefly blanch them in boiling water before eating. If people eat snails raw or undercooked, they can become infected with the rat lungworm.
Once infected, the parasite travels through the body and invades the brain. The lesions are concentrated in brain tissue, including not only the cerebrum and meninges, but also the cerebellum, brainstem, and spinal cord. Mild clinical symptoms include headache, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Severe cases can lead to shock, agitation, and even death. Patients develop eosinophilic meningoencephalitis or meningitis, characterized by a significant increase in eosinophils in the cerebrospinal fluid.
4. Fasciolopsiasis from water chestnuts
Autumn is the season for harvesting water chestnuts and water caltrops. Freshly picked, they are delicious and tempting to eat raw. This is when you are highly likely to become infected with the fasciolopsis buski parasite, which is found on these plants. The fasciolopsis buski parasite lives in the human small intestine and can cause digestive and systemic symptoms, such as abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea. In severe cases, it can lead to anemia, edema, and developmental delays.
Expert advice: Try to avoid eating water chestnuts, water caltrops, and lotus roots raw. Do not bite the skin with your teeth. If you do eat them raw, wash and scrub them thoroughly, soak them in boiling water for a few minutes, or sun-dry them for a day before consumption. Practice good hygiene: do not drink unboiled water, and wash your hands thoroughly after coming into contact with aquatic plants or sewage to prevent contamination with cysts.
2. Which insects are harmless to humans when eaten?
So, which foods with insects can still be eaten?
1. Can you eat oranges that have worms?
It can be scary to eat an orange with worms, but the entire orange isn't infested. Just remove the affected wedges, and the rest is fine to eat.
2. Can you eat bayberries that have worms?
Bayberries are high in nutrients and lack a protective peel, making them a common host for insect larvae. The small white worms that come out of bayberries are fly larvae. Since the larvae are mostly composed of protein, they do not affect the human body. Therefore, after buying fresh bayberries, you should soak them in a high-concentration saltwater solution for half an hour before eating.
3. Can you eat fermented bean curd with worms?
The worms in fermented bean curd are not maggots, because they grow in vegetarian, salty foods. As long as these things are not produced in a dirty or unsanitary environment, they are not harmful to the body. So, it's safe to eat.
4. Can you eat mung beans that have worms?
Yes, you can eat them. First, expose them to the sun; the live worms will crawl out. Some worms hiding inside the beans can only be killed by boiling, which is also harmless! You can eat them with confidence!