After the Start of Winter, many people will slowly wrap themselves up warmly to get through the harsh winter. Moreover, many people choose to eat some hot things to increase their body heat, such as hot pot. But are all the foods in hot pot suitable to eat? Can the foods commonly eaten during the Start of Winter be eaten together? What should not be eaten for health preservation during the Start of Winter?
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Spinach + Pickled Cabbage
Interpretation: Eating spinach that is about to rot can lead to nitrite poisoning.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Carrot + Alcohol
Interpretation: Consuming carotene and alcohol together can easily cause liver disease.
Expert Opinion: The practice of "carrots with alcohol" is not healthy for you. Carrots are rich in carotene. When consumed with alcohol, it enters the human body and produces toxins in the liver, leading to liver disease. Therefore, carrots are not suitable as a side dish for alcohol. When drinking, you should also avoid taking carotene nutritional supplements. Especially, do not drink alcohol immediately after drinking carrot juice to avoid harming your health.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Beef + Chestnuts
Interpretation: Eating beef and chestnuts together can easily cause indigestion and vomiting.
Expert Opinion: According to "Essentials of Diet," "Beef should not be eaten with chestnuts." Chestnuts are rich in vitamin C, with 40mg per 100g. Beef contains various trace elements. The vitamin C in chestnuts is prone to react with the trace elements in beef, weakening the nutritional value of chestnuts. These two foods are not easy to digest when eaten together. Therefore, beef should not be eaten with chestnuts. It is best to eat them separately with an interval of time.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Radish + Wood Ear Mushroom
Interpretation: Eating radish and wood ear mushrooms together can easily cause allergic dermatitis.
Expert Opinion: Radish is slightly cold in nature and has effects such as clearing heat and detoxifying, strengthening the stomach and aiding digestion, resolving phlegm and stopping cough, regulating qi and promoting bowel movements, promoting fluid production to quench thirst, and tonifying the middle and benefiting the stomach. However, it should be noted that for people with certain special sensitive constitutions, eating radish and wood ear mushrooms together can easily cause allergic dermatitis. For the sake of health, it is best not to mix these two foods.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Tofu + Scallion
Interpretation: Eating tofu and scallion together can easily cause the loss of calcium in the human body.
Expert Opinion: Tofu is rich in calcium, while scallions contain a large amount of oxalic acid. When tofu and scallions are combined, the calcium in tofu binds with the oxalic acid in scallions to form calcium oxalate, which is difficult for the human body to absorb. If you eat dishes like small scallions mixed with tofu or stir-fried tofu with large scallions for a long time, it will lead to a lack of calcium in the body, causing symptoms like leg cramps, chondromalacia, and easy fractures. When cooking together, you can first blanch vegetables containing oxalic acid, such as scallions and spinach, in boiling water to remove most of the oxalic acid before mixing them with soy products.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Sea Shrimp + Persimmon
Interpretation: Eating seafood with fruit can easily cause poisoning symptoms such as diarrhea and chest tightness.
Expert: Seafood like fish, shrimp, and algae are rich in protein and calcium and other nutrients. If eaten together with fruits containing tannic acid, such as persimmons, grapes, pomegranates, hawthorn, and green olives, the calcium in the seafood can easily bind with the tannic acid to form a new substance that is not easy to digest, irritating the stomach and causing discomfort, with symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting, and nausea. Therefore, fruits should not be eaten with seafood dishes at the same time; an interval of 2 hours is appropriate.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Radish + Fruit
Interpretation: Eating radish and fruit together can induce or lead to goiter.
Expert Opinion: After eating radish, the body produces a substance that inhibits the thyroid gland—thiocyanate. If large amounts of fruits containing plant pigments, such as oranges, pears, apples, and grapes, are consumed at this time, the flavonoids in these fruits are decomposed by bacteria in the intestine into hydroxybenzoic acid and ferulic acid. These can enhance the effect of thiocyanate in inhibiting the thyroid gland, thereby inducing or leading to goiter.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Carrot + White Radish
Interpretation: Carrots can destroy the vitamin C in white radishes.
Expert Opinion: The vitamin C content in white radishes is extremely high, but carrots contain an enzyme called ascorbic acid decomposing enzyme. Once red and white radishes are combined, the vitamin C in the white radish will be completely lost. Not only that, when cooked with vegetables containing vitamin C, the red carrot plays the role of a destroyer.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Beef and Potato Stew
Interpretation: Cooking potatoes and beef together, if eaten for a long time, can easily lead to gastrointestinal dysfunction.
Expert Opinion: Beef and potato stew is a dish that many people like and are familiar with. In terms of taste, it is a very delicious dish, but from a health perspective, it should not be recommended for long-term consumption. Because potatoes and beef require different concentrations of gastric acid for digestion, this will prolong the time food stays in the stomach, thereby extending the time for gastrointestinal digestion and absorption. Over time, it will inevitably lead to gastrointestinal dysfunction.
What Not to Eat for Health Preservation during the Start of Winter: Vitamin C + Shrimp
Interpretation: The arsenic in shrimp reacts with vitamin C to produce arsenic trioxide (arsenic) in the stomach, leading to death.
Expert Opinion: Soft-shelled foods like shrimp contain high concentrations of pentavalent arsenic compounds. When they react with "vitamin C," they are converted to toxic trivalent arsenic, which is what people commonly call arsenic! Arsenic can paralyze capillaries, inhibit the activity of sulfhydryl enzymes, and cause congestion of the heart, liver, kidneys, and intestines, necrosis of epithelial cells, and dilation of capillaries. To be on the safe side, you should avoid eating shrimp while taking "vitamin C."