Introduction: In our daily diet, we often focus on taste while neglecting nutritional balance and the safety of the food itself. Some common foods, if consumed incorrectly, are equivalent to poisoning oneself.
1. Raw Soy Milk
Fatal Toxin: Saponin
Fatal Mechanism: Raw soybeans also contain toxic components. Therefore, consuming soy milk that has not been fully cooked can cause food poisoning. Especially when heating soy milk to around 80°C, saponin expands due to heat, causing foam to rise and creating a "false boil" phenomenon. In reality, the harmful components like saponin in the soy milk are not completely destroyed at this point. Drinking this soy milk will cause poisoning, with symptoms typically appearing within 0.5 to 1 hour, mainly manifesting as gastroenteritis.
Detoxification Method: To prevent poisoning from raw soy milk, after the "false boil" occurs during cooking, continue heating to 100°C. Cooked soy milk has no foam.
2. Fresh Wood Ear Mushrooms
Fatal Toxin: Porphyria-like photosensitive substances
Fatal Mechanism: Fresh wood ear mushrooms contain a porphyria-like photosensitive substance that is sensitive to light. After consumption and exposure to sunlight, it can cause solar dermatitis. In severe cases, it can lead to difficulty in breathing due to edema of the throat.
Detoxification Method: Not edible.
3. Sprouted Potatoes
Fatal Toxin: Solanine
Fatal Mechanism: The potato is a common vegetable on household tables, but it contains a toxic component called solanine (potato toxin, solanine). The entire potato plant contains this toxin, but the concentration varies. Mature potatoes contain less and generally do not cause poisoning. However, the sprouts, flowers, leaves, and the outer skin of the tuber contain higher levels of solanine, with the toxin in the sprout being tens to hundreds of times higher than in the flesh. Immature green potatoes or tubers with black spots due to improper storage contain extremely high levels of toxic substances.
Detoxification Method: To prevent potato poisoning, store potatoes in a dry, cool place to prevent sprouting. When eating, if sprouts or black-green skin and flesh are found, it is best not to consume them.
4. Green Vegetables (e.g., Cabbage)
Fatal Toxin: Nitrite
Fatal Mechanism: Wild vegetables like shepherd's purse and goosefoot found in green vegetables contain large amounts of nitrite. If excessive nitrite is ingested, it can oxidize the body's normal hemoglobin into methemoglobin. Additionally, nitrite can prevent oxyhemoglobin from releasing oxygen, leading to tissue hypoxia and poisoning in humans.
Detoxification Method: How can nitrite poisoning be prevented? It's simple: ensure family members eat fresh vegetables. Cooked vegetables should not be kept warm for too long. Pickled vegetables should be washed and consumed only after being pickled for at least one month.
5. Green Beans
Fatal Toxin: Saponin
Fatal Mechanism: If green beans are not cooked thoroughly, the saponin in them can strongly irritate the digestive tract. Furthermore, beans contain a coagulant with a clotting effect. Green beans also contain nitrites and trypsin, which can irritate the human stomach and intestines, causing food poisoning with gastroenteritis-like symptoms.
Detoxification Method: To prevent green bean poisoning, they must be cooked thoroughly.
6. Broad Beans
Fatal Toxin: Vicine and Convicine (collectively known as vicine-convicine glycosides)
Fatal Mechanism: Broad bean seeds contain vicine and convicine. After consumption, this substance can cause acute hemolytic anemia (favism). Improper cooking of fresh broad beans in spring and summer often leads to poisoning. Symptoms usually appear 4 to 24 hours after eating raw broad beans.
Detoxification Method: To prevent broad bean poisoning, it is best not to eat fresh, tender broad beans, and they must be cooked thoroughly before consumption.
7. Daylilies (Fresh)
Fatal Toxin: Colchicine
Fatal Mechanism: Daylilies, also known as golden needles, are a popular dish. However, they contain colchicine. After ingestion, colchicine is oxidized in the body to form colchicine-2, which is a highly toxic substance that can harm the gastrointestinal and urinary systems, posing a serious threat to health. An adult can be poisoned by consuming 50-100 grams of fresh daylilies at one time.
Detoxification Method: To prevent poisoning from fresh daylilies, they can be briefly boiled in boiling water, then soaked in clean water to remove most of the water-soluble colchicine. Alternatively, they can be cooked thoroughly before being prepared for eating.
8. Blue-purple Seaweed
Fatal Toxin: Cyclic peptides
Fatal Mechanism: If seaweed turns blue-purple after soaking, it indicates that it was contaminated by toxic cyclic peptides while growing in the sea.
Detoxification Method: These toxins cannot be neutralized by steaming or boiling and are inedible.
9. Cruciferous Vegetables
Fatal Toxin: Glucosinolates (which can break down into toxic compounds like isothiocyanates)
Fatal Mechanism: Cruciferous vegetables include rapeseed, mustard, and radish. Most of these vegetables contain glucosinolates, which are toxins that can inhibit human growth and development and cause goiter. The content of glucosinolates varies greatly among different vegetables or different parts of the same vegetable. Improper preparation can lead to goiter, metabolic disorders, poisoning symptoms, and even death.
Detoxification Method: How should these vegetables be prepared? When cooking, blanch them in boiling water first before consumption.
10. Cassava
Fatal Toxin: Linamarin
Fatal Mechanism: Although cassava tubers are rich in starch, all parts of the plant, including roots, stems, and leaves, contain toxic substances, with fresh tubers being particularly toxic. Therefore, caution is necessary when consuming cassava tubers. The toxic substance in cassava is linamarin. Ingesting raw or undercooked cassava or its broth can cause poisoning. The reason is that linamarin or linamarase is hydrolyzed by stomach acid to produce free hydrogen cyanide, leading to poisoning. A person can be poisoned or even die by consuming 150-300 grams of raw cassava.
Detoxification Method: To prevent cassava poisoning, peel the cassava and soak the flesh in water to dissolve the cyanogenic glycosides. Soaking for about 6 days can remove about 70% of the cyanogenic glycosides. After soaking, cook it thoroughly before consumption.