Introduction: When cooking food, it is generally paired with some meat or vegetables to make the nutrition richer and the taste more delicious. Especially when cooking pork, it's almost inevitable to add some vegetables or other foods. However, not all foods can be paired with pork. Some foods, when eaten with pork, might damage your health.
Soybeans
It is not uncommon to cook pork with soybeans, such as pork and soybean stewed tofu, braised pig's trotters with soybeans, or soybean and peanut stewed pig skin. Some of these dishes are not only famous but were even considered nutritious and healthy delicacies. However, from the perspective of modern nutrition, beans are not suitable to be paired with pork. This is because soybeans contain a high amount of phytic acid, with 60%-80% of phosphorus existing in the form of phytic acid. It often forms complexes with proteins and mineral elements, affecting their availability and reducing their utilization efficiency.
In addition, minerals in beans, such as calcium, iron, and zinc, can bind with those in lean meats and other non-vegetarian foods, interfering with and reducing the human body's absorption of these elements.
Beef
Although the saying that pork and beef should not be eaten together has a long history, "Yin Zheng Yao" points out: "Pork should not be eaten with beef." However, recipes that cook pork and beef together are also common, such as Xiang Song Beef Patties, which use a mixture of beef and pork fillings.
From the perspective of Chinese medicinal food properties, pork is sour, cold, and slightly cool, with a greasy and yin-natured character, while beef has a sweet and warm aroma, tonifying the spleen and stomach, strengthening the waist and legs, and has the effect of stabilizing the middle and replenishing qi. The two are one warm and one cold; one tonifies the middle and stomach, while the other is greasy and weakens a person. Their medicinal properties conflict, so they are not suitable to be eaten together.
Cilantro
Adding cilantro to stir-fried pork makes it fragrant; sometimes it's even used directly to stir-fry or stew pork. There are also plenty of cilantro and pork dumplings or meatballs on the market. However, housewives who still use cilantro with pork in their daily cooking should take note: even if this combination was once praised by family and friends, you must mercilessly give it up because it is harmful to your health.
Cilantro, also known as coriander, is pungent and warm, and it is said to consume qi and harm the spirit. Pork is greasy and promotes damp-heat and phlegm production. Ancient books record: "All meats have a tonic effect, except for pork." One consumes qi, while the other has no tonic effect; therefore, pairing the two is detrimental to the body.
Lamb Liver
Pork and lamb liver are often paired, especially in stir-fries or hot pot. However, Chinese medicine believes: "Eating pork and lamb liver together can cause a feeling of chest oppression."
Because lamb liver has a bitter and cold nature, it nourishes the liver, improves vision, and treats liver wind and deficiency heat. Pork is greasy and turns into damp-heat in the stomach. In terms of food medicinal properties, the combination is not suitable. Lamb liver has a gamey smell; when stir-fried with pork, it easily produces a strange flavor. From a culinary perspective, it is also not suitable.