Eating These Fruits in Winter Can Be Poisonous (Photo Gallery)
In winter, people can eat summer fruits like watermelons and strawberries, but they are quite expensive. However, nutritionists suggest that it's best to eat the cheapest seasonal fruits in winter. This is because off-season fruits not only have low nutritional value but are also expensive, making them unsuitable for frequent consumption.
Eating These Fruits in Winter Can Be Poisoning
"The value of off-season fruits compared to seasonal ones lies in the novelty of eating them fresh, not in their nutrition." Those colorful, bright, and tempting off-season fruits are often grown in greenhouses, lacking the proper sunlight, wind, and soil conditions of seasonal fruits. Therefore, the most nutritious fruits are the cheapest ones, and the cheapest fruits are often the seasonal ones.
Fruits should be bought in the quantities you plan to eat, as each fruit has its ideal storage temperature and shelf life. The longer they are stored, the more their nutrients and flavor deteriorate. Most fruits should be stored in the refrigerator without washing first, as washing can easily cause them to rot. They should ideally be consumed within a week. However, fruits like bananas, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, and lemons should be stored in a cool, dark corner indoors and are not suitable for long-term refrigeration.
Grapes
Additionally, some unscrupulous vendors use chemical agents to ripen off-season fruits to sell their products, which can harm human health. Here are several dangerous off-season fruits to be aware of.
1. Grapes
Some unscrupulous vendors and farmers use the ripening agent ethephon. Users dilute ethephon with water, soak immature green grapes in the solution, and within a day or two, the green grapes turn purple. Although this chemical has low toxicity, long-term consumption is harmful to human health.
2. Bananas
To make banana peels look tender and yellow, some unscrupulous vendors use sulfur dioxide to ripen them, but the flesh remains hard and not sweet at all. Sulfur dioxide and its derivatives not only harm the human respiratory system but can also cause brain, liver, spleen, and kidney damage, and even affect the reproductive system.
Strawberries
3. Watermelons
The excessive use of ripening agents, expanders, and highly toxic pesticides can make watermelons poisonous. Such watermelons have uneven stripes on their rind, and when cut open, the flesh is exceptionally bright red, but the seeds are white, leaving an odd taste in the mouth after eating.
4. Strawberries
Strawberries that are hollow, irregularly shaped, and oversized are usually caused by excessive hormones. When ripening agents or other hormonal drugs are used, the strawberries' growth period is shortened, their color becomes fresh, but their flavor becomes dull. Such strawberries should be consumed with caution, as eating too many can affect normal human development, such as causing premature development in children.
Vegetable Purchase Recommendations for Winter:
1. Some vegetables that have been artificially ripened may still show signs of immaturity on their skins or in other parts, so be careful when buying. You can remove residual toxins by exposing them to light, peeling them, blanching them in water, or stir-frying them.
2. If you can't resist the temptation of various off-season vegetables in winter, it's best to choose options like onions, carrots, and eggplants, which have less pesticide residue. Try to avoid buying vegetables with strange shapes or colors.
3. Try to buy fresh ingredients from the market and cook them yourself, rather than buying pre-made products. Pre-made foods often undergo repeated processing, which can easily destroy their nutritional value, and it's difficult to ensure they are fresh. They may even contain harmful additives.
Recommendations for What Vegetables to Eat in Winter
As green leafy vegetables are relatively scarce in winter, what vegetables should you eat? Winter is suitable for eating root vegetables like sweet potatoes and potatoes. They are rich in vitamin C and vitamin B, and red sweet potatoes also contain more carotene.
Among the common vegetables available in winter, in addition to Chinese cabbage, you should also choose cabbage, radishes (like the "Xinlimei" variety), white radishes, carrots, soybean sprouts, mung bean sprouts, and rape. These vegetables are rich in vitamins. By frequently varying the types and combining them reasonably, you can meet the body's vitamin needs.
Different types of vegetables contain different nutrients. It is recommended to eat vegetables every day, and preferably several different types each week. To answer what vegetables to eat in winter, choose from five categories: dark green, orange, beans, starchy vegetables, and other vegetables. Frequently changing the types to ensure variety allows you to fully absorb different nutrients from different foods.
You should consume about 500 grams of vegetables daily to provide a substantial amount of vitamin C, carotene, and considerable amounts of minerals like calcium and iron. Among these, colored vegetables and leafy vegetables should account for about 50%. What vegetables are good to eat in winter? Eat more dark green vegetables like broccoli, kale, and other dark leafy greens. Orange-red vegetables include carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. For example, in a 2000-calorie diet (about 1000 calories for a 1-year-old child), the dietary guidelines recommend the following vegetable intake: 3 cups of dark green vegetables per week (1 cup is about 240 grams), 2 cups of orange vegetables per week, 3 cups of beans (dry beans) per week, 3 cups of starchy vegetables per week, and 6.5 cups of other vegetables per week.
Vegetable Recommendations for Flu Season
Colorful vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, and spinach are rich in antioxidants that protect the body's immune cells from environmental damage and enhance the ability of white blood cells to kill foreign microorganisms. At the same time, because these foods also contain large amounts of vitamin C, they help resist the flu and enable patients to recover quickly. Colorful fruits like cape gooseberries and kumquats have the same effect.
Vegetables Rich in Vitamin E. Research has confirmed that sufficient vitamin E in a child's body can significantly enhance the ability of T cells to fight infections. Therefore, foods rich in vitamin E, such as various dark green vegetables, almonds, and malt, are also essential during flu season.
In Western folk medicine, drinking onion juice to treat coughs is popular. Onions can enhance the immune activity of T cells, thereby boosting the overall immune response. Foods containing immune-active substances similar to those in garlic and onions can act as cleansing and disinfecting agents in the human body, killing and eliminating toxins and bacteria. (Editor: Peng Juan)