Once upon a time, a person was walking through the orange street lights and came to the late-night cafeteria – “Yo~ Boss, here’s a plate of spicy crayfish!” Holding the red crayfish in both hands, Gently separate the shrimp head from the body, eat a mouthful of shrimp meat, suck a mouthful of shrimp yellow, and bite another shrimp…
The delicious crayfish warms the stomachs of the majority of foodies.
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
However, before I knew it, the foodies split into two factions… Some people say that the yellow stuff in the shrimp head is the soul of the crayfish! Is the essence! But some people scoffed at it.
Shrimp head pie: The yellow stuff in the prawn head tastes like crab yellow, and it is a waste of time if you don’t eat it!
Shrimp Body Pie: Shrimp Balls Are Justice! The shrimp head is full of dirty things, so don’t eat it~hum~
Who is right and wrong between the two factions?
Let’s have a preliminary understanding of crayfish as a delicacy in the world~
The crayfish we eat actually has an official name: Procambarus clarkia, crayfish is native to the southeastern United States, so it is It’s called American crayfish. The native habitat is near the Gulf of Mexico, especially in the mouth of the Mississippi River, so it is also called Louisiana crayfish. It is the most edible freshwater lobster species, and its annual output accounts for 70-80% of the entire freshwater lobster output.
Don’t look at its small size, it is a species with fast reproduction, fierce temperament, and super environmental adaptability! Today, crayfish has been promoted and cultivated in more than a dozen provinces and cities such as Hubei and Anhui.
(Farmers catch crayfish in the breeding base｜People’s Network Jiangxi Channel)
Crayfish are small, but they have all the internal organs. The body of the shrimp you eat is actually just its tail. And its brain, heart, gonads, digestive glands, stomach and antennae glands and other miscellaneous organs are concentrated in the head. As for the shrimp yellow worshipped by “Shrimp Head Pie”, it is actually the digestive glands of the crayfish, that is, the shrimp liver and pancreas.
In fact, “shrimp yellow” is rich in unsaturated fatty acid (DHA, EPA, etc.) protein, trace element selenium, and various vitamins. Hmm, still sounds great, right? It’s a pity that reality is always cruel, you have overlooked an important issue-
Heavy metal pollution.
Crayfish are indeed very adaptable to the environment and can survive in heavily polluted places. In the case of water pollution, fish, shrimp, crabs and other aquatic products living in it will indeed enrich pollutants, the most typical ones include methylmercury, cadmium, polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins. The accumulation ability of crayfish for heavy metals is also higher than that of grass carp and crucian carp.
Where do all these heavy metals and pollutants go? Most of them were transferred to the shell, and with the continuous growth and shelling, these heavy metal toxins were also removed from the body; the other part, concentrated in the gills and internal organs >, while the gills and viscera are mainly in the head…
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
Don’t worry about the shrimp body pie. There is not much heavy metal in the meat of the tail, which is unlikely to cause heavy metal poisoning. But the shrimp head…
I can already hear the heartbreak of “Shrimp Head Pie”.
Seeing this, I am afraid that some foodies will be shocked: I have eaten crayfish head for so long, will something happen?
Don’t panic. Consumers eat crayfish mainly in summer, and the consumption may be relatively large in the short term, but the average intake throughout the year is still relatively small. As long as you don’t eat every day, every day, or all year round, then the part that has already been eaten does not need to be alarmed, just pay attention in the future.
In addition, I would like to remind the majority of foodies that in order to enjoy crayfish safely, they must be cultivated in an environment with better water quality. (Important thing repeated three times: Don’t eat wild crayfish! Don’t eat wild crayfish! Don’t eat wild crayfish!) Wash the shells before cooking. It must be completely cooked at a temperature higher than 100 degrees to kill the parasites in the shrimp.
And the shrimp head, try to remove it and do not eat it.
Can the “tail” of a snail be eaten?
Some people think it can be eaten: the inside of the tail is “yellow“, the taste is the most fragrant, and the bloggers even choose this place to eat it. Some people think that it should not be eaten: the tail is filled with feces, the excrement of the conch and sand impurities are mixed in it, and it may be poisoned if eaten.
Then today, let’s take a look at the composition of the snail’s “tail” and analyze whether it can be eaten from a scientific point of view.
(Eat the snail tail pulled out by the blogger｜bilibili/Xiangxiang battle)
What’s in the “tail”?
What people call the “tail” of a snail generally refers to the soft body part curled up in the snail shell except for the snail’s head and feet. Let’s take a look at an anatomical map:
（Anatomy of snails｜njscuba.net）
Have you discovered that the “tail” is actually the visceral mass of the snail. The snail’s heart, kidney, stomach, gills, gonads, digestive glands and other organs are wrapped inside. The excretion, reproduction, digestion and some neurological functions of snails are accomplished through the visceral mass. The largest proportion of the visceral mass are the digestive glands and gonads, which are also called “yellow”.
Then our question now becomes – Can the internal organs of snails be eaten?
First answer an age-old question: The shells of snails are closed, so how do they poop?
Carefully observe the digestive system of the snail in the anatomical diagram. Food enters from the mouth, passes through the crop, stomach and intestines, and reaches the anus. The place where the anus leads is not the tip of the conch shell, but the mantle cavity that communicates with the outside world. Therefore, as soon as the feces are pulled out, they are discharged into the external water body. There is no feces in the “tail” of the conch. In other words, the conch’s butt is on the edge of the mouth, and the shit is not in the “tail”.
But that doesn’t mean the conch “tail” is clean. While there is no shit, there are some risks associated with eating snail tails.
*The content of this article is for the popularization of health knowledge and cannot be used as a specific diagnosis and treatment suggestion, nor can it replace the face-to-face consultation of a licensed physician, and is for reference only.
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