Complete list of dietary taboos

90% of the "food-compatible" taboos posted on the Internet are rumors. There are only three types of dietary taboos that you really need to be vigilant about - dietary restrictions corresponding to specific diseases, risk avoidance at special physiological stages, and the risk of poisoning caused by improper handling of ingredients. The rest are mostly false common sense that you should not pay attention to.

To be honest, I accompanied my aunt to the nutrition department for a follow-up consultation a while ago. At the dinner table, my relatives were still advising her, "People with diabetes must not touch watermelon, not even a bite." Then he turned around and said, "Eating crabs and persimmons together will cause poisoning. Yesterday, Lao Li's daughter-in-law ate it and was admitted to the hospital. Don't try it." I have heard similar statements many times. Many people really treat eating as a blind box, and have to look at the comparison table to check whether they can eat. It is really unnecessary.

Let’s just say that the most widely spread foods are in conflict with each other. Crab with persimmons, vitamin C with shrimps, and tofu with spinach can cause stones. Last autumn, I was greedy. I ate steamed hairy crabs and cool frozen persimmons at the same time. Apart from a slight stomachache, there was no sign of poisoning at all. A few years ago, the Chinese Nutrition Society and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a special experiment. Hundreds of volunteers were asked to eat a "combining food combination" posted online for a week, and no one showed any abnormalities. Of course, it should be said here that there is indeed a saying in traditional Chinese medicine that "improper combination of cold and hot attributes can easily damage the spleen and stomach." But the premise is that your spleen and stomach are weak. If you cook 3 hairy crabs and 4 cold persimmons in one meal, then everyone will have diarrhea. The essence is that you eat too much and eat inappropriately. It is not that the two foods are "competitive". There are also spinach and tofu. As long as the spinach is blanched for 1 minute in advance to remove most of the oxalic acid, stewing it with tofu can actually reduce the risk of stones, so there is no need to avoid it at all.

Compared with these invisible "mutual restraints", the taboos that really need to be kept in mind are actually linked to your own physical condition.

My old uncle has had gout for almost ten years. Last year, he was greedy for the oxtail soup that his wife had stewed for 3 hours. His hind legs were rolling in pain in the middle of the night and he went to the emergency room. The uric acid level soared to over 700. For gout patients, thick broth, animal offal, shelled seafood, and high-alcohol alcohol are real taboos and cannot be touched at all. But don’t make a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, in the past, everyone thought that people with diabetes could not drink porridge or eat fruits at all. Now the latest clinical nutritional views have been updated: multigrain porridge cooked with mixed beans, oats, and quinoa should be limited to a small bowl, paired with green leafy vegetables and fried eggs, and it can raise blood sugar more slowly than white rice. ； For diabetics with stable blood sugar control, it is perfectly fine to eat half an apple and half a pound of strawberries two hours after a meal. Some practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine will also advise diabetics to eat less refined rice and noodles, which raise blood sugar quickly. The essence of both opinions is to control sugar. There is no need to argue about right or wrong, as long as it suits your own blood sugar response.

There is also a lot of controversy over whether you can eat eggs when you have a cold. Western medicine believes that eggs are high-quality protein. As long as you don’t feel nauseated after eating them, they can actually help your body recover.； Traditional Chinese medicine believes that eating high protein when you have a fever will aggravate internal heat, so it is better to eat light porridge and noodles. In fact, there is no need to worry about it at all. If you have a cold and have a good appetite, and you feel comfortable eating steamed egg custard, then just eat it. ； If you have a sore throat, nausea, and are annoyed by the sight of eggs, then don't touch them. No matter who gives you advice, it will help.

Don’t take the taboos of special physiological stages seriously, let alone overcorrect. When my best friend was 4 months pregnant, she was so greedy that she ate raw arctic clams from a Japanese restaurant. She had diarrhea for two days and almost threatened a miscarriage. She was so scared that she didn't even dare to touch cooked shrimps. In fact, what pregnant women need to avoid are only undercooked foods - soft-boiled eggs, sashimi, half-cooked steaks, and other things that may carry parasites and pathogenic bacteria. Try not to touch them. Fully cooked seafood and meat are good sources of nutrition. As for the older generation's saying that "children who eat rabbit meat will develop cleft lip" and "children who eat mutton will develop epilepsy" are simply unfounded old sayings, don't believe them. There is also the bad habit of not being allowed to eat salt or fruits during the confinement period. It should be thrown away long ago. Just eat lighter during the confinement period. Not eating a little salt will cause electrolyte imbalance. Eat normal-temperature apples and bananas scraped into puree, which is much more reliable than drinking brown sugar water every day.

The last category is also the most easily overlooked, which are the taboos caused by improper handling of ingredients, which can really kill people. My mother bought fresh day lilies at the vegetable market in the spring of last year and fried them directly without blanching them. Our whole family had heartburn and nausea after eating them, and it took us a long time to recover. The colchicine in fresh daylilies must be blanched and soaked for more than 2 hours to be completely removed, otherwise it will be easily poisoned. Also, don’t be reluctant to throw away sprouted and green potatoes. If you eat too much of the solanine in them, you will end up in the ICU. Oh, by the way, there is also the often asked question "fungus is poisonous if soaked for more than 8 hours", but it is not absolute: if it is soaked in a sealed refrigerator for 24 hours, it will be fine within 24 hours. If it is soaked in the kitchen at room temperature for two or three days in summer, then really don't eat it. The rice fermentation acid in it is resistant to high temperatures and cannot be killed by ordinary cooking. The poisoning mortality rate can reach more than 40%. Don't joke with your own life.

After all, dietary taboos are never shackles for ordinary people, but a reminder to help special people avoid risks. There is really no need to hold a comparison chart. For example, if you have diarrhea after drinking ordinary milk, you must avoid ordinary milk and replace it with Shuhua milk or yogurt. There is no need to carry it. ； If you are allergic to mango, don’t touch it no matter how delicious it is. Pay more attention to your body's reaction when eating, as most of the various taboos will work.