Elderly Diet: Elderly People Should Not Eat Raw Eggplant
Everyone knows that sprouted potatoes should not be eaten, because potatoes produce solanine when they sprout. But you may not know that eggplants also contain this substance, which is called solanine. Solanine has effects such as strengthening the heart, lowering blood pressure, inhibiting cancer cells, and inhibiting microorganisms, and it is one of the sources of eggplant's health benefits; however, high human intake can also lead to poisoning.
Scientific research has found that the solanine content in unripe eggplants is higher than in ripe eggplants. Eggplants harvested during the peak season have a high solanine content, while those harvested near the end of the growing season have a low solanine content. Measurements have also found that the depth of the eggplant's skin color is closely related to its solanine content: purple eggplants have a high content, while green eggplants have a low content. In other words, the darker the color of the eggplant, the higher its solanine content.
However, solanine is not present in the eggplant skin but mainly in the flesh. Therefore, trying to avoid the toxin by peeling the eggplant is ineffective. At the same time, solanine is basically insoluble in water, so methods like blanching or boiling cannot remove it. The only way is to control the intake. Fortunately, the solanine content in eggplants is low; the highest varieties do not exceed 0.8 milligrams per gram of dry weight. Converted to fresh eggplant, you would need to eat about 450 grams of this high-solanine eggplant to reach an intake of 25 milligrams, which could cause discomfort such as nausea and vomiting. It takes 400 milligrams of solanine to be potentially fatal to an adult. Therefore, under normal circumstances, eating half a jin (250g) of eggplant in a meal will not cause any problems.
The reason people hear that raw tomatoes are toxic is also because of solanine. Eating one 80-100 gram pure green tomato can reach a solanine level that makes a person feel nauseous and unwell. However, green tomatoes are not as scary as imagined; as long as you stop eating, the symptoms will gradually subside. There is a life-threatening risk only if you eat more than 1.15 kilograms.