When having a family gathering or friends over for a meal, drinking is almost inevitable, and drinking calls for appetizers. How can you ensure everyone enjoys the food without harming their health? The key is to remember which dishes are suitable for drinking and which are not.
The guidelines for making good appetizers are:
1. Use some sugar in your dishes. The main component of alcohol is ethanol, which is broken down and metabolized by the liver before it can be expelled from the body, thus increasing the burden on the liver. Therefore, when making appetizers, you should appropriately include some liver-protective foods. Sugar has a protective effect on the liver, so it's best to have one or two sweet dishes among your appetizers, such as sweet and sour fish, candied lotus root, or sweet-fried peanuts.
2. Prepare some dishes rich in protein. When alcohol enters the intestines, it affects the body's metabolism and can easily lead to a protein deficiency. Therefore, your appetizers should include protein-rich foods, such as century eggs, home-style tofu, steamed chicken, or braised pork ribs.
3. Include some alkaline foods. Chicken, duck, fish, and meat are mostly acidic foods. To maintain the body's acid-base balance, your appetizers should include alkaline foods, such as stir-fried bean sprouts, spinach, and fruits and vegetables like apples and oranges.
Here are some common dishes that are not suitable to eat with alcohol:
1. Carrots. Because the carotene in carrots, under the action of liver enzymes with alcohol, can produce toxic substances that are harmful to health.
2. Jelly noodles. Because their processing requires adding a small amount of alum, which slows down intestinal peristalsis. Eating jelly noodles with alcohol will prolong the time alcohol stays in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby increasing the body's absorption of alcohol and also increasing the stimulation of alcohol on the gastrointestinal tract. It slows down blood flow, prolongs the time alcohol stays in the blood, and promotes drunkenness, which is harmful to health.
3. Smoked and cured foods. Because they contain more nitrosamines and pigments, which react with alcohol, not only harming the liver, but also damaging the oral, esophageal, and gastrointestinal mucosa, and can also induce cancer.
4. Barbecued food. In the summer, many people love to gather with friends and family at street stalls, drinking beer and eating grilled skewers, which is a joyful time. However, eating barbecued food as an appetizer while drinking is not good for your health.
During the barbecuing process, not only is the utilization rate of protein in the food reduced, but carcinogenic substances like benzopyrene are also produced. Moreover, nucleic acids in meat, after being heated and decomposed, can produce substances that cause genetic mutations, which may also lead to cancer. When excessive drinking increases the lead content in the blood, the substances in barbecued food can combine with it, easily inducing digestive tract tumors. In addition, in the summer, the larger amount of alcohol consumed often increases the likelihood of such diseases.
First, alcohol is an organic solvent that can dilate blood vessels in the digestive tract and dissolve the mucoprotein on the surface of the digestive tract mucosa, making it very easy for carcinogens to be absorbed by the body. Second, alcohol can reduce the liver's detoxification function, promoting the effects of carcinogens. Furthermore, alcohol can suppress the body's immune function and enhance the activation of carcinogens. Therefore, it is best to drink in moderation. The carcinogenicity of barbecued food is related to the amount consumed. It is recommended to have it no more than twice a week, and no more than 100 grams each time.