These foods can be as poisonous as poison if eaten incorrectly.
Lychee is a treasure among fruits, beautiful in color, delicious in taste, and rich in nutrients.
Lychee: Lychee is a treasure among fruits, beautiful in color, delicious in taste, and rich in nutrients. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that lychee possesses the quintessence of the five elements, and can benefit the spirit, improve intelligence, and strengthen the body. However, lychee contains a substance that can lower blood sugar. The more you eat, the lower your blood sugar will be. If not treated in time, it can lead to death.
Wrong: Eating 300 lychees a day.
Right:
1. Lychees cannot be eaten as a meal. Do not eat more than half a catty a day, and eat them half an hour after a meal.
2. If you soak the lychees with their skin in light salt water, then chill them in the refrigerator before eating, you can not only avoid getting "heatiness" but also enjoy a better texture.
3. There is a folk remedy: Drinking water infused with lychee shells can neutralize the toxicity of lychees.
Soy Milk: Soy milk is a recognized health food. In this DIY era, we choose to grind our own soy milk for hygiene. It should be noted that raw soy milk contains saponin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Soy milk is also a "poison" good at disguise. Before its true toxicity is eliminated by boiling, it will experience a "false boil". That is, when soy milk is heated to 80°C, foam will appear, and as the temperature increases, the foam will become more and more, resembling a boil, but it is not really boiled, and the toxins still exist.
Wrong: Adding raw soy milk during the boiling process.
Right: When boiling soy milk, first use high heat. When foam begins to overflow, switch to low heat and continue until the foam gradually disappears. It is also best to re-boil soy milk bought from outside.
Ginkgo: This very Zen-like fruit is not only tender and fresh but also has beauty and medicinal value. However, the kernel contains ginkgolic acid and ginkgol, which are irritating to the skin and gastrointestinal mucosa. After poisoning, the initial symptoms are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and loss of appetite, followed by restlessness, fear, and strange cries. Gradually, limbs become weak, and in severe cases, difficulty breathing, pulmonary edema, and coma can occur. Contact with the kernel and the fleshy outer skin can also cause dermatitis.
Wrong: Ginkgo cannot be eaten raw. A maximum of 4-5 cooked kernels per day is allowed, and eating 10-50 can be dangerous.
Right:
1. When eating, remove the green germ from the kernel. Avoid contact with the nut.
2. Once poisoning symptoms appear, drinking a decoction of 30g of ginkgo shells can be a cure.
Mulberry:历代本草 (Materia Medica of past dynasties) have held mulberry in extremely high regard, believing it has the effects of nourishing yin, benefiting the kidneys, nourishing blood, and promoting fluid production. However, the volatile oil in mulberries is irritating to the digestive tract, can inhibit various digestive enzymes in the intestines, cause cell poisoning and death, and even lead to hemorrhagic enteritis and nosebleeds. Some people are also allergic to mulberries, experiencing diarrhea, redness of the face, and swelling and itching in the ears, nasal passages, upper eyelids, and throat.
Wrong: Being greedy.
Right: Mulberry is cold in nature, so do not eat too much. Those with a weak spleen and stomach or loose stools should be especially careful to eat in moderation.
Nuts: Nuts are a major category of snacks, but many are toxic before being processed. Nuts that are easy to cause poisoning include bitter apricot kernels, loquat kernels, flax seeds, bayberry kernels, plum kernels, cherry kernels, and apple kernels, all of which contain hydrocyanic acid that can kill cells. Even sweet almonds can cause poisoning if eaten in large quantities at once.
Wrong: Eating them raw.
Right:
1. Do not eat unprocessed nuts. Since there are so many ready-to-eat sweet and salty nuts in the supermarket, it's better to support them and not DIY your own.
2. If you really want to experience the process, you must peel the nuts and remove the tips, soak them in hot water for a day, and cook them without a lid to allow the toxic hydrocyanic acid to fully evaporate.
Fresh Daylilies: Daylilies, also known as Hemerocallis, sound beautiful, but they contain colchicine toxin. Colchicine itself is non-toxic, but after entering the human body, it is oxidized into a highly toxic substance that strongly irritates the gastrointestinal and respiratory systems. Symptoms are usually a sore throat, nausea, diarrhea, and even bloody stools.
Wrong: Directly stir-frying.
Right:
1. Following the old tradition, dried and rehydrated daylilies are absolutely safe.
2. If you must eat them fresh, be patient. Colchicine is water-soluble. Blanching them in boiling water before eating, then soaking them in cold water for more than two hours, will prevent poisoning.
Spinach: Nutritious and the favorite of Popeye. But spinach contains a large amount of potassium oxalate, which can form insoluble calcium oxalate when it meets calcium. Potassium oxalate can enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body looking for calcium to bind with, precipitating wherever it goes: precipitating in the brain damages the brain, in the heart damages the heart, in the kidneys damages the kidneys, and in the digestive tract it hinders the body's absorption of calcium. When blood calcium is low, bone calcium will be automatically released to meet it, and the calcium we painstakingly supplement is thus used to form this bond.
Wrong:
1. Potassium oxalate is water-soluble, so drinking spinach soup is dangerous.
2. Stir-frying spinach is also not advisable. The oil coating makes it difficult for potassium oxalate to dissolve in the broth, so it is eaten along with the spinach, creating a greater chance of chronic oxalate poisoning.
Right: The safest and most nutritious way to eat it is to boil the spinach, discard the water, and then eat it cold. Drinking more water after eating spinach can also reduce the chance of calcium oxalate binding.
Green Beans: Green beans are a vegetable available all year round. They contain two toxins themselves: hemagglutinin and saponin. They are irritating to the gastrointestinal tract. After poisoning, one will vomit and have diarrhea, and it can even cause the body's red blood cells to agglutinate and undergo hemolysis. Some people treat them like snap peas: blanching them briefly in boiling water and then stir-frying them over high heat. While this makes them look good and taste crisp, it is very easy to cause poisoning.
Wrong: Stir-frying over high heat.
Right:
1. Green beans are an unforgiving vegetable and must be cooked thoroughly. Even after stir-frying, you need to add an appropriate amount of water and simmer over low heat for more than 10 minutes until they look soft and unattractive and have no "beany" taste.
2. When buying beans, be sure to pick young ones. Old green beans are more toxic. If you're impatient, don't eat Northeastern oil beans, as it is very difficult to cook these "large green beans" thoroughly to remove the toxins.
3. Before cooking, remove the two ends and the string of the green beans, as this is where the toxicity is highest. It is best to soak them in water for 15 minutes first.
Ricefield Eel: Ricefield eel has always been considered a great tonic. The Ming Dynasty pharmacologist Li Shizhen believed that eel is especially suitable for women's tonification, as it can replenish qi and restore deficiency. Histidine in the eel's body is the main component of its umami flavor, but after death, histidine rapidly decomposes into toxic histamine. Histamine poisoning can cause rashes, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, and in severe cases, death from poisoning.
Wrong: Using dead eels in cooking.
Right: Ricefield eels must be bought alive. Because 24 hours after death, the histamine content in 100g of dead eel can reach 200mg, turning it from a great tonic into a great poison.
Fresh Jellyfish: Old vinegar jellyfish head is not only delicious but also very nutritious. However, jellyfish contains a large number of pathogenic bacteria—Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which can easily cause acute gastroenteritis with symptoms similar to dysentery. In addition, symptoms such as fever, dehydration, acidosis, shock, and confusion can also occur.
Wrong: Tossing it like a regular salad.
Right: Vibrio parahaemolyticus is most sensitive to acid and generally dies after being soaked in vinegar for 5 minutes and has difficulty surviving in fresh water. Therefore, first soak the jellyfish in fresh water for two days, then rinse it repeatedly. After cutting, soak it in vinegar for more than 5 minutes, add some minced garlic, and this will be enough to kill all the bacteria.
American Ginseng: American ginseng has always been regarded as a top-grade tonic because it does not cause "heatiness" and has certain anti-fatigue, anti-hypoxia, and refreshing effects. Some people carry lozenges with them to get through our dog-like work lives. Although American ginseng is non-toxic, it is cooling in nature. Taking too much can cause aversion to cold, decreased body temperature, loss of appetite, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Some people may also experience dysmenorrhea and prolonged menstrual periods.
Wrong: Self-prescribing supplements.
Right: It is best to follow a doctor's advice when taking ginseng, and take it in small, frequent doses, with 2-8 grams per dose being appropriate. It is especially not advisable to take it when you have a cold, cough, or acute infection.