In summer evenings, call friends and family or three or five confidants, whether it's eating a seafood meal at home, or going out to a restaurant to eat seafood dishes, self-service seafood, seafood barbecue, with air conditioning and beer, it's very comfortable.
However, there are still some health risks in eating seafood. If you don't pay attention, it may cause allergies, acute gastroenteritis, food poisoning, gout and other diseases. Therefore, ordinary people need to know some health and safety knowledge about eating seafood in order to protect their health and avoid various diseases while enjoying delicious food.
What should I pay attention to when eating seafood?
1. People with allergies, especially those who are allergic to seafood, should avoid seafood.
The protein content of fish, shrimp, crabs and other varieties in seafood is very high, especially it contains a large number of heterologous proteins, which can directly or indirectly activate immune cells in the body, cause the release of chemical mediators, and produce some complex biochemical reactions in the human body, leading to allergic reactions.
A few people will develop allergies after eating fresh fish, shrimp, crabs, etc. due to their innate lack of enzymes that break down histamine. The symptoms of allergies after eating seafood are generally itching, redness, edema, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, etc. Once you have an allergy to eating seafood, you should stop eating seafood immediately and use anti-allergic drugs for treatment under the guidance of a doctor, usually including antihistamines such as loratadine and diphenhydramine. If patients with severe allergies may experience laryngeal edema, dyspnea, shock and other emergencies, they should immediately go to the hospital for emergency treatment. Generally, glucocorticoids, anti-allergic drugs, etc. need to be used urgently for emergency treatment.
Therefore, for people with allergies, especially those who are allergic to seafood, it is recommended not to eat seafood because it may cause serious allergic reactions.
2. Seafood is best cooked and eaten raw. Eating it raw is risky.
Seafood may be contaminated with some pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and parasites. The bacteria often carried in seafood such as fish, shrimp, crabs, conch, etc. are Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio trauma, Vibrio cholerae, Listeria monocytogenes, pathogenic Escherichia coli, salmonella, etc. The most important pathogen is Vibrio parahaemolyticus. The heat resistance of Vibrio parahemolyticus is relatively strong, and it can only be killed at more than 80℃, and it can only be completely sterilized by cooking in boiling water for 4-5 minutes.
At the same time, shellfish such as conch may contain a variety of parasites such as tube worms, pulmonary flukes, and schistosomiasis, as well as pathogenic viruses such as norovirus and hepatitis A virus. If you eat raw seafood or eat undercooked seafood, infection with bacteria such as Vibrio parahemolyticus can cause nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever and other acute gastroenteritis symptoms, severe cases cause sepsis, or blood pressure drops, shock and other symptoms due to severe diarrhea. Infection with parasites such as pulmonary flukes and schistosomiasis can lead to parasitic diseases such as pulmonary flukes or schistosomiasis.
Infection with norovirus often causes gastroenteritis in autumn and winter, while infection with hepatitis A virus can cause acute viral hepatitis. Therefore, seafood should be fully cooked and steamed before eating, because high temperature can kill bacteria, viruses, and parasitic eggs, which is the most convenient and economical method of disinfection and sterilization.
If you must eat seafood raw, it is recommended to freeze it for 1-2 hours, then soak it in light salt water, and finally add mustard and vinegar when eating seafood raw, which has a certain bactericidal and parasite-killing effect.
3. Eat seafood and try to choose live and fresh seafood as much as possible
In order to reduce acute gastroenteritis and food poisoning caused by eating seafood, you should try to buy live and fresh seafood when buying seafood. Since shrimp and crabs are high in protein, if they are not frozen in time after death, the protein can easily corrupt and deteriorate, resulting in some toxins. In addition, frozen seafood may also deteriorate during freezing, storage, and thawing. The possibility of spoilage. It should also be noted that it is not recommended to keep seafood in the refrigerator overnight. Seafood belongs to a class of foods that are more prone to bacteria. If you can't finish eating on the same day, a large number of bacteria may grow overnight and produce more protein degradables at the same time, resulting in the destruction of nutrients in seafood and deterioration. Therefore, after eating seafood overnight and refrigerated, it is very likely that you will experience symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
4. It is best not to drink beer when eating seafood
It is best not to drink beer when eating seafood. Seafood is a high-protein, low-fat food, containing two components, purines and glycosides, which are metabolized to produce uric acid; beer contains vitamin B1, which is the catalyst for the catabolism of purines and glycosides. When purines, glycosides and vitamin B1 are mixed together, chemical effects will occur, which will cause the content of uric acid in the human blood to increase rapidly, destroying the original balance; if uric acid cannot be excreted in time, it will precipitate in the form of sodium salt, which will eventually lead to gout and kidney stones, especially for people with a history of gout. It is recommendedEat less seafood and avoid drinking beer when eating seafood, because it can induce gout attacks.
If you want to drink alcohol, it is recommended to match white wine or wine when eating seafood. The purine content in Baijiu is relatively low, and seafood itself is a food of a cold nature, which can easily cause stomach pain after eating too much. Baijiu is a kind of hot drink, which can minimize the irritation of seafood to the gastrointestinal tract. White wine has a high acidity and has a good fishy effect. In addition, it can play a bactericidal role and is also suitable for pairing with seafood.
5. Patients with certain special diseases need to avoid eating seafood
Patients with the following diseases should limit or avoid eating seafood：
(1) Liver and kidney insufficiency: The high protein content in seafood may increase the burden on the liver and kidney and aggravate the symptoms of the disease. Therefore, people with liver and kidney insufficiency should limit or avoid eating seafood.
(2) Digestive system diseases: People suffering from digestive system diseases such as gastric ulcers and gastritis should eat seafood with caution, because seafood often has some irritating substances and high levels of protein that may irritate the gastric mucosa and worsen the condition.
(3) Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases: People suffering from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease should limit or avoid eating high-cholesterol seafood, such as shrimp and crabs, to prevent elevated hemostatic lipids and blood vessel blockage.
(4) Hyperuricemia: Seafood is a high-protein, low-fat food that contains two components, purine and glycine, which are metabolized to produce uric acid. Therefore, people with hyperuricemia or gout should avoid seafood that can easily cause elevated uric acid.
6. Seafood cannot be eaten with the following foods
Under normal circumstances, seafood cannot be eaten with the following foods to avoid adverse effects on the body.
(1) Foods containing tannic acid: Seafood is usually high in protein, calcium, phosphorus and other nutrients. If eaten with grapes, hawthorn, persimmon, tea and other foods with high tannic acid content, calcium and tannic acid will combine, causing condensation, causing vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and other gastrointestinal discomfort..
(2) Foods with high vitamin C content: Shrimp, crabs, and oysters all contain a small amount of arsenic in seafood. The arsenic contained in seafood is fifth-order arsenic that is not harmful to the human body. When we eat seafood and take a lot of vitamin C at the same time, fifth-order arsenic reacts chemically with vitamin C, which will causeProduces third-order arsenic, which is highly toxic to the human body. Therefore, when seafood is eaten with a large amount of vitamin C, it can cause food poisoning. It is best not to eat it together.
The above are the health tips you need to know when eating seafood. I hope you will pay attention to these precautions when eating seafood so that you can enjoy the delicious food while protecting your health.
