What are the dietary taboos that conflict with food?

99% of the widely circulated "food conflict" claims are rumors without scientific basis. The dietary taboos that really deserve the attention of ordinary people are essentially a combination of individual physical fitness, food safety, and eating methods. There is no such thing as two fresh, compliant, and properly processed ordinary food ingredients that, when eaten together in regular consumption, will lead to poisoning and illness.

I was chatting with a friend who works in the Municipal Disease Control and Nutrition Department. She said that in the past two years, the institute had done a round of verification experiments on food compatibility. She chose the 12 most vicious combinations reported on the Internet, such as shrimp plus vitamin C, crab plus persimmon, tofu plus honey, and found 120 volunteers of different ages and different physiques to try them. After eating them for three days, no one had any abnormal reactions. It’s quite interesting to say that at that time, the experiment also specially found a few people who claimed that they “will not feel comfortable eating foods that are incompatible with each other.” After eating them for three days, nothing happened. After further questioning, I found out that they either had a gastrointestinal cold during that time, or the ingredients they ate were not fresh.

The most outrageous example I have encountered before was when a relative's child ate mango and shrimp, and a red rash appeared on his arm. The whole family was saying that "mango and shrimp are incompatible." They rushed to the hospital. After investigation, they found out that it was the first time the child was allergic to mango. Even if he did not eat shrimp, he would get a rash if he ate half of a mango alone. Just put it together and it became a "real hammer". There are also those who have diarrhea after eating skewers from a roadside stall and drinking iced Coke. It is most likely that the skewers are undercooked or the E. coli bacteria exceed the standard.

Of course, this does not mean that all the statements related to "uncomfortable food combinations" are all made up. I have asked a friend who is a traditional Chinese medicine doctor and he said that the "food opposite" in traditional Chinese medicine is not a logic at all and what is posted on the Internet is based on the human body and the nature and taste of food. For example, you I have a weak spleen and stomach, and I get diarrhea when I eat cold food. If I eat half a pound of cold crabs and two iced persimmons just taken out of the refrigerator at the same time, I am bound to feel uncomfortable, but this pot should not be deducted from the "crabs and persimmons are incompatible". If a young man with a strong spleen and stomach eats like this, nothing will happen. Don't tell me, last time we had a family dinner, we met an aunt who firmly believed that eating crabs and persimmons together would cause poisoning. She forcibly stopped her grandson from touching the persimmons, saying that he had just eaten half a crab. As a result, the child lost his temper and secretly took two bites. He jumped and played all afternoon, which made the aunt very embarrassed.

But having said that, you can't just eat everything just because there are rumors that food is incompatible. There are some taboos that you really need to remember: for example, if you take drugs such as cephalosporins and metronidazole, you must not drink alcohol within a week, whether it is liquor, beer or alcoholic sparkling water. Serious cases can really kill people. I once had a colleague who just didn't know it. He went to drink wedding wine after taking cephalosporin. After drinking half a glass of beer, he couldn't breathe and was sent to the emergency room for a whole night. It was scary. This kind of taboo should not be taken seriously. There are also people who have gout, don’t eat seafood with cold beer, the uric acid will rise quickly and it will really hurt. ； Sprouted potatoes, uncooked green beans, fresh daylilies and other ingredients that contain toxins are dangerous no matter what they are eaten with. Don’t overdo it.

I used to believe in the evil of mutual conflict. I dared not make spinach and tofu soup for several years because I was afraid that the combination of oxalic acid and calcium would cause stones. Later, I was scolded by a friend in the nutrition department, saying that if you blanch the spinach for a minute in advance, 80% of the oxalic acid will be gone. If you eat it with tofu, the oxalic acid will be directly combined with the calcium in the pot and will not go to your kidneys at all, but it is safer. I now drink spinach and tofu soup twice a week, sprinkled with chopped green onion and it tastes very fresh, and there are no problems.

To put it bluntly, most of the miraculous mutual restraint tables that are circulating on the Internet are based on the rules that people used to make up the occasional bad stomach situations when supplies were scarce and the ingredients were easy to spoil. Now many self-media have come up with it in order to gain traffic. The saying "You must not eat these ten combinations" is essentially deceiving people. Instead of eating with a counterweight watch and not daring to touch this or eat that, it is better to pay more attention to your body's reaction, wash the ingredients well and cook them, and don't overeat. It is more reliable than anything else. If you really feel uncomfortable after eating something, don't rush to find the compatible pot first. Think first whether the ingredients are bad or whether you are allergic to something. If it doesn't work, go to the hospital. It is much more useful than blindly wondering about the compatible pot.