Reviewer: Shi Zhengli (Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University)
“You can’t talk nonsense, and you can’t eat things indiscriminately”, we all know this truth, but there are frequent news incidents of food poisoning every year. I vomited and had diarrhea after drinking a cup of soy milk, and was admitted to the ICU after eating a fungus…
According to the analysis data of the epidemiological characteristics of food poisoning incidents nationwide in the third quarter of 2018, 23 provinces across the country reported 119 incidents of food poisoning, 3488 cases of poisoning, and 27 deaths.
What’s more surprising is that households are the main location for food poisoning, accounting for 92.59% of all deaths[1].
Last September, a 40-year-old woman in Shenzhen underwent a liver transplant after eating black fungus that had been soaked for 3 days, resulting in food poisoning and multiple organ failure.
(Source: Screenshot of Shenzhen News Network Weibo)
A casual search on the Internet shows that there are quite a few similar news, such as fungus poisoning, green bean poisoning, soy milk poisoning… Why do these household foods become “poisons”? The real danger may not be in what you eat, but in how you handle it.
Image source: Tencent Medical Dictionary
Today, I’d like to talk to you about common food poisonings that we need to be vigilant about in our daily lives.
First, the fungus that has been soaked for too long
Dried fungus itself is innocent, but if it is soaked for too long, it is easy to be “locked” by microorganisms as a culture medium, relying on the fungus to multiply wildly and produce toxins. Especially in the high temperature season, microorganisms live in the optimal temperature conditions for growth and toxin production, and the risk of poisoning is relatively higher.
The reason for the poisoning of the lady in Shenzhen may be that the edible foam fungus was infected with a bacteria called “Pseudomonas cocoa”. Produces a very heat-resistant and highly toxic toxin – “rice yeast acid”, even if you wash and wash the fungus, and scald it with boiling water , still can not completely remove this toxin.
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
Once you are infected with “rice yeast acid” poison, abdominal pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting are still trivial matters. Excessive intake can lead to multiple organ failure in the human body! And there is currently no specific antidote, so the fatality rate is as high as 50% or more.
But we don’t have to tremble and demonize the fungus, we must know that the cause of the poisoning is improper human manipulation. Fungus is rich in dietary fiber, potassium, iron, etc. It is good as an ingredient when eaten correctly.
Generally speaking, the fungus will “gain” its lethality when it is soaked at room temperature for a long time. Therefore, we can ensure food safety by doing the following:
Be sure to wash the surface of the fungus before soaking, then store it in a clean and non-polluting container, and soak it with clean water;
The foaming process is carried out in the refrigerator, and the bacteria are not easy to survive and proliferate under low temperature conditions, and the virulence is naturally weak;
Generally, it can be eaten after soaking in cold water for 3~4 hours. If it is soaked in hot water, the time is even shorter;
After the fungus is soaked, it is found that the surface is sticky and smells stinky, so throw it away quickly, because this shows that the fungus has been occupied by microorganisms on a large scale, and the microorganisms say “you dare to eat, I will Dare to do things”;
It’s best to soak as much as you want, don’t try to save too much trouble at one time;
If you accidentally soak too much, you can put it in a fresh-keeping bag and store it in the refrigerator, but be careful not to store it for more than 24 hours;
The stock taken out of the refrigerator needs to be re-cooked and sterilized.
If you want to soak the fungus more quickly, you can add an appropriate amount of sugar (to help the fungus absorb water faster) and flour (to remove impurities in the fungus), put it in an airtight box with warm water Shaking vigorously in the middle, the fungus quickly soaked.
In addition, I would also like to remind everyone that fungi (white fungus, shiitake mushrooms, mushrooms, etc.), fermented cereal products (wet rice noodles, glutinous rice cakes, vinegar jelly, etc.), potato products (potato vermicelli, sweet potato noodles,Potato starch, etc.) is also easily contaminated by Pseudomonas cocoa. Improper storage or too long time may become the culture medium of bacteria, producing rice yeast acid toxins, resulting in food poisoning.
2. Undercooked lentils, green beans and cowpeas
Lentils, green beans and cowpeas are common vegetables on our table. For those who can’t cook, these beans may be the most difficult thing in the world to cook. eh, emmmm? ? ? I’m not familiar with it…
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
This is because beans contain a lot of toxic substances such as phytohemagglutinins, glycoside toxins, protease inhibitors, etc. It doesn’t matter if you can’t remember these complicated names, but you need to know that , their power is not small:
Accidentally eating undercooked beans can cause strong gastrointestinal irritation, possibly causing abdominal distension, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms;
Some cowpeas also contain hemolytic toxins, which can also cause neurological symptoms such as dizziness, headache, cold sweat, and numbness in the limbs.
Although these beans contain toxins, they all have a weakness – heat intolerance: heating above 100°C causes them to lose their original Raw green and beany smell, the toxins are broken down and eventually completely destroyed.
Therefore, in order to avoid poisoning, it is best to fully heat it with boiling water and cook it thoroughly;
Three, undercooked soy milk
Raw beans contain toxic substances such as saponins, phytohemagglutinins, and trypsin inhibitors, which can cause dizziness, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting if consumed undercooked such as food poisoning.
So, the soy milk must be cooked to completely eliminate these toxic substances.
(Source: soogif)
So, how does soy milk count as fully heated?
If you are cooking your own soy milk, it is best to heat it until the foam of the soy milk dissipates before drinking it. It should be noted that raw soybean milk will have a “false boiling” phenomenon: when heated to 80 ℃ ~ 90 ℃, there will be a lot of white foam.
Many people think that the soy milk has been cooked at this time, but the heating temperature at this time is not enough to decompose the toxic substances of the soy milk. It should continue to heat for 3~5 minutes until the foam disappears completely. Eat again.
At the same time, I would like to remind everyone that if you smell the soy milk with a more obvious beany smell, it means that it is not cooked and it is best not to drink it.
Four, fresh day lily
Fresh daylily contains “colchicine”, which is originally a non-toxic “silly white sweet”. Once absorbed and metabolized by the gastrointestinal tract, it will produce a highly toxic “Er Qiu” Narcissine “has a strong stimulating effect on the human gastrointestinal tract and urinary system, causing nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms.
(Fresh and Dried Daylily)
The toxicity report of colchicine indicated that the fatality rate was very high when the intake exceeded 0.5mg/kg; In humans, only 7 to 26 mg of ingestion may lead to death [2]. It has been reported in foreign literature that ingestion of 0.4 mg/kg caused death [3].
Because colchicine is water-soluble, the way to detoxify fresh daylily is simple: Soak and blanch.
Dried daylily has been processed and is non-toxic, so you can eat it with confidence. If it is fresh day lily, it is best to soak it in water for more than 2 hours, or scald it with boiling water and cook it thoroughly. Generally, it can be eaten with confidence.
Five, sprouted potatoes
I believe everyone is familiar with this. I have been taught since childhood that sprouted potatoes are poisonous.
This is because sprouted potatoes will produce a toxic alkaloid, solanine, and as potatoes continue to sprout, the amount of solanine in potatoes will continue to increase.
Solanine is an anti-insect and antibacterial substance for potatoes, but it is a very toxic toxin for the human body.
Never sprouted to sprouted, the content of solanine per 100g of potatoes has increased from less than 20mg to 25~50mg, and sometimes even 500mg. ifIf a person eats 50g of potatoes that have sprouted and turned green at one time, the intake of solanine is about 200mg, which may cause poisoning [4].
Solanine has a strong stimulating effect on the gastrointestinal mucosa, mild nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, severe vomiting, diarrhea, electrolyte imbalance, blood pressure drop, It can also cause heart failure, respiratory paralysis and death.
Therefore, the key to avoiding poisoning is not to eat green, sprouted and rotten potatoes; and potatoes need to be cooked at high temperature before they can be eaten (because high temperature can destroy solanine) ; If you eat potatoes and feel bitter and numb, you should stop eating them immediately, and actively adopt emetic methods to spit out the potatoes that have been eaten to avoid excessive absorption of solanine.
Although the food is not to be missed, it is important to pay attention to health and hygiene.
After all, at the dinner table, an undercooked crab might stick out its tongs to stop you.
Image source: Tencent Medical Dictionary
But if it’s the uncooked food above, it’ll make trouble after you eat it: Sorry, we’re really unfamiliar.
References:
[1] Ren Jinghuan, Wang Xiaoye, Wu XiaoF, Wang Rui, Epidemiological analysis of national food poisoning incidents in the third quarter of 2018 [J], Disease Surveillance, 2018, 33(6 ), 14-18.
[2] Finkelstein Y, Aks SE, Hutson JR, Juurlink DN, Nguyen P, Dubnov-Raz G, Pollak U, Koren G, Bentur Y (June2010). Colchicine poisoning: the dark side of an ancient drug. Clinical Toxicology. 48 (5): 407C14.
[3] Mullins ME1, Carrico EA, Horowitz BZ. Fatal cardiovascular collapse following acute colchicine ingestion[J]. ClinToxicol (Phila). 2010 Jun;48(5):407-14.
[4] https:https://www.cfsa.net.cn/Article/News.aspx?id=77F6BDE1D283244F01F17B231791215DEC0F7DD491D8BEC1
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