Family gatherings or meals with friends at home inevitably involve drinking, and drinking calls for appetizers. How can everyone enjoy the food without harming their health? This requires knowing which dishes are suitable as appetizers and which are not.
The ways to prepare appetizers are:
1. It's advisable to add some sugar when cooking. The main component of alcohol is ethanol, which is broken down and transformed in the liver before it can be expelled from the body, thus increasing the burden on the liver. Therefore, when preparing appetizers, you should appropriately select some liver-protective foods. Sugar has a protective effect on the liver, so it's best to include one or two sweet dishes among the appetizers, such as sweet and sour fish, candied lotus root, or sweet-fried peanuts.
2. Prepare several dishes rich in protein. When alcohol enters the intestines, it affects the body's metabolism and can easily lead to protein deficiency. Therefore, the appetizers should include foods rich in protein, such as century eggs, home-style tofu, stewed chicken, or braised pork ribs.
3. Prepare some alkaline foods. Poultry, meat, and fish are mostly acidic foods. To maintain the body's acid-base balance, the appetizers 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 as appetizers:
1. Carrots. Because the carotene they contain, under the action of liver enzymes with alcohol, can produce toxic substances that are harmful to health.
2. Liangfen (cold jelly). Because in its processing process, a certain amount of alum is added, and alum has the effect of slowing down gastrointestinal motility. Using liangfen as an appetizer will prolong the alcohol's stay in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby increasing the body's absorption of alcohol and also increasing the stimulation of alcohol on the gastrointestinal tract. It slows down blood flow, prolongs the alcohol's stay 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 damaging the liver but also harming the oral cavity, esophagus, and gastrointestinal mucosa, and can also induce cancer.
4. Barbecued food. In winter, many people like to gather with friends and family at roadside stalls, drinking and eating grilled skewers, which is a joyful time. However, using barbecued food as an appetizer while drinking is not good for your health.
During the barbecuing process, not only is the utilization rate of protein in the food reduced, but carcinogenic substances such as benzopyrene are also produced. Moreover, nucleic acids in meat, after being 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 barbecued food can combine with it, easily inducing digestive tract tumors. In addition, in summer, due to the larger amount of alcohol consumed, the probability of inducing such diseases is often higher.