Many people enjoy gathering with friends and family at street food stalls, drinking alcohol and eating grilled skewers, creating a joyful and harmonious atmosphere. However, eating barbecue food as a side dish with alcohol is unhealthy for you.
Family gatherings or having friends over for a meal almost always involve drinking, and drinking requires side dishes. How can everyone enjoy the food without harming their health? This requires remembering which dishes are suitable to eat with alcohol and which are not.
The recommended ways to prepare side dishes for drinking are:
1. It is advisable to add some sugar to the dishes. The main component of alcohol is ethanol, which must be decomposed and transformed by the liver before it can be expelled from the body, thus increasing the burden on the liver. Therefore, when preparing side dishes for drinking, you should appropriately choose some liver-protective foods. Sugar has a protective effect on the liver, so it's best to have one or two sweet dishes among the side dishes, such as sweet and sour fish, candied lotus root, or sweet-fried peanuts.
2. Prepare several dishes rich in protein. Alcohol entering the intestines can affect the body's metabolism, leading to a deficiency of protein. Therefore, side dishes for drinking should contain protein-rich foods, such as century eggs, home-style tofu, stewed chicken, or braised pork ribs.
3. Prepare some alkaline foods. Most poultry, meat, and fish are acidic foods. To maintain the body's acid-base balance, side dishes for drinking should include alkaline foods, such as stir-fried bean sprouts, spinach, and fruits and vegetables like apples and oranges.
The following are common dishes that are not suitable to eat with alcohol:
1. Carrots. Because the carotene they contain, under the action of liver enzymes with alcohol, can produce toxic substances that harm health.
2. Liangfen (a jelly-like food). Because in the processing of liangfen, a small amount of alum is added. Alum has the effect of slowing down gastrointestinal motility. Eating liangfen with alcohol will prolong the time alcohol stays in the gastrointestinal tract, thus increasing the body's absorption of alcohol. It also increases the stimulation of alcohol on the gastrointestinal tract, slows down blood flow, prolongs the time alcohol stays in the blood, and promotes intoxication, which is harmful to health...
3. Smoked and cured foods. Because they contain more nitrosamines and pigments, which react with alcohol, not only harming the liver, but also damaging the oral cavity, esophagus, and gastrointestinal mucosa, and can also induce cancer.
4. Barbecue. In the summer, many people enjoy gathering with friends and family at street food stalls, drinking alcohol and eating grilled skewers, creating a joyful and harmonious atmosphere. However, eating barbecue food as a side dish with alcohol is unhealthy for you.
During the barbecue process, not only is the utilization rate of protein in the food reduced, but it also produces carcinogenic substances like benzopyrene. Moreover, nucleic acids in meat, when heated and decomposed, can produce substances that cause genetic mutations, which may also lead to cancer. When excessive drinking increases the lead content in the blood, the substances in the barbecue food can combine with it, easily inducing tumors of the digestive tract. In addition, because alcohol consumption is higher in the summer, the chance of inducing such diseases is often greater.
First, alcohol is an organic solvent that can dilate blood vessels in the digestive tract and dissolve the mucus proteins on the surface of the digestive tract mucosa, making it very easy for carcinogens to be absorbed by the body.
Second, alcohol can reduce the liver's detoxification function, promoting the effect of carcinogens.
In addition, alcohol can also suppress the body's immune function and enhance the activation of carcinogens. Therefore, it is best to drink alcohol in moderation.
The carcinogenicity of barbecue food is related to the amount consumed. It is recommended to consume it no more than twice a week, and no more than 100 grams each time.