Which foods should not be eaten fresh?

Many people have this experience: when buying food, they generally choose the freshest. It is widely believed that fresh food retains more nutrients and is better for the body. But in fact, it's not good to eat all foods at their freshest. The following introduces several foods that can be poisonous if eaten too fresh.

Jellyfish

Fresh jellyfish contains a lot of water, has a thicker body, and also contains toxins. Only after being salted and alum-pickled three times (commonly known as "three-alum") to dehydrate it three times can the toxins be completely removed with the water. After the three-alum process, the jellyfish is light red or light yellow, evenly thick and has a chewy texture, and no water can be squeezed out even with force. This is the jellyfish that is safe to eat. When traveling to jellyfish-producing areas, you may encounter vendors selling jellyfish that has not been treated or has only been salted once or twice. You must absolutely not taste or buy it.

Fresh Daylilies

Also known as golden needles, unprocessed fresh daylilies contain colchicine. Colchicine itself is non-toxic, but after being eaten, it is oxidized in the body into a highly toxic substance called di-colchicine. According to experimental calculations, just 3 milligrams of colchicine is enough to cause nausea, vomiting, headache, and abdominal pain. A larger amount can lead to hematuria or hematochezia, and 20 milligrams can be fatal. Dried daylilies are steamed and processed, during which the colchicine is leached out, making them non-toxic.

Fresh vegetables all contain a certain amount of non-toxic nitrates. During the pickling process, these are reduced into toxic nitrites. Generally, nitrites begin to increase significantly 4 hours after pickling, peak between 14 and 20 days, and then gradually decrease. Therefore, you should either eat pickled vegetables within 4 hours, or wait until they have been pickled for more than 30 days. Nitrites can cause symptoms of hypoxia such as cyanosis, and can also combine with secondary amines in food to form carcinogenic nitrosamines.

Bottled Water

The bottled water sold on the market, whether it's distilled water, reverse osmosis water, mineral water, or other purified water, mostly requires ozone as a final disinfection treatment before being bottled. Therefore, newly filled bottled water will contain a relatively high concentration of ozone. For humans, ozone is a toxin. If you drink it while it's "fresh," you will undoubtedly ingest this toxin along with the water. If you let the bottled water sit for another 1 to 2 days, the ozone will naturally dissipate, and then you can drink it without worrying about consuming poison. According to regulations, bottled water must pass inspection before it can leave the factory, and this process takes 48 hours. Therefore, drinking bottled water that has been inspected and left the factory according to regulations is the safest option.

They contain a photosensitive substance called porphyrin. After consumption, exposure to sunlight can cause skin itching and edema. In severe cases, it can lead to skin necrosis. If edema occurs in the pharyngeal mucosa, it can cause difficulty in breathing. Dried wood ear mushrooms are a product that has been sun-dried. During this sun-drying process, most of the porphyrin is broken down. Furthermore, before consumption, dried wood ear mushrooms are soaked in water, and any remaining toxins will dissolve into the water, making the rehydrated dried wood ear mushrooms non-toxic.

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