Pregnant women eating hawthorn may cause miscarriage? What prejudices do you have about hawthorn?

gossip

In autumn and winter, there is a kind of fruit that tastes too sour, so people prefer to coat it with crystal sugar and make various combinations with sugar. I guess you guessed it, it is hawthorn.

A small hawthorn fruit is also burdened with many "right and wrong" rumors, such as eating hawthorn can cause uterine contractions and lead to miscarriage, and eating too much can cause cancer. So today, let's give hawthorn some "justice".

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analyze

How much do you know about the nutritional value of hawthorn?

Hawthorn, also commonly known as mountain red and red fruit, is native to my country and has been recorded since the Qin and Han dynasties. The detailed way to eat hawthorn was first recorded in Ming Dynasty's Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen.

The first impression we get from fresh hawthorn fruit is that it is too sour. This is because it contains a large amount of organic acid, with citric acid accounting for 69% of the total acid[1], followed by malic acid and tartaric acid. This acidity is even more sour than commercially available vinegar, and can reach a pH below 2.8. Organic acids help secrete some digestive juices, thereby promoting gastrointestinal motility[2], which to a certain extent also gives hawthorn the effect of "appetizing and promoting digestion".

It is rich in pectin. If you make a bowl of thick hawthorn soup, add appropriate amount of sugar to adjust the sweetness and sourness, and then put it in the refrigerator to cool, it will become jelly. This "gel" is the large amount of pectin that hawthorn has. Because of this, it is also the key ingredient in making hawthorn bars. [3] In addition to changing the properties of food, pectin can also be used as a prebiotic, which is very helpful in promoting intestinal health.

High in vitamin C. Every 100 grams (about 10 hawthorns) of fresh hawthorn fruit contains 53.8 mg of vitamin C, far more than lemons, oranges, and apples. [4] It also contains a lot of flavonoids, which have a good antioxidant effect; and a lot of beta-carotene, which is also good for the eyes.

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Will eating hawthorn cause uterine contractions and lead to miscarriage?

Will eating too much cause cancer?

This is pure rumor. If hawthorn has such a magical effect, what is the point of all the induction methods used in hospitals?

Don’t believe in the saying that “foods are incompatible”. There is no scientific basis, no theoretical explanation, and no proof in real life, so don’t believe it! If you have been eating hawthorn in the past without any problems, don’t worry about it and eat it without worries.

If the so-called "food incompatibility" really occurs, the following reasons may be the following: ① accidental coincidence leading to false rumors; ② food contamination and poisoning; ③ special physical condition and food allergy.

As for "eating too much hawthorn can cause cancer", it is also a rumor. Instead of focusing on the "risks of eating hawthorn", it is better to focus on the risks brought by "smoking and drinking".

Can eating hawthorn supplement iron?

There is no such thing. Hawthorn contains very little iron, and even if there is a little, it is non-heme iron, which has a low absorption rate and is not conducive to iron supplementation. People think it supplements iron probably because of its red "coat".

The high content of vitamin C can indeed promote iron absorption, but considering that there is not much iron in hawthorn, eating hawthorn alone will not have a good effect on iron supplementation. It is still necessary to have a balanced diet and consume more foods that are high in iron and have high utilization rates, such as animal blood, animal liver, lean meat, etc.

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Are hawthorn snacks appetizing?

Not only unappetizing

On the contrary, it may bury the hidden danger of tooth decay

Hawthorn is "both sour and unsuccessful" because it contains too much acid and not enough sugar, so the sugar-acid ratio is too low, so it tastes sour but not sweet. But people don't want to miss out on such a delicacy, so if they want to accept it, they have to add a lot of sugar or sugar substitutes, turning it into hawthorn slices, hawthorn cakes, hawthorn jams, etc., so that they can eat it.

There are also winter favorites like candied haws and rolls of fruit jelly, which are all added with a lot of sugar.

The picture shows a certain fruit danpi

From here, we can easily find that if you want these hawthorn snacks to whet your appetite, you have to "eat" a lot of sugar. If we look at the ingredient lists of a few hawthorn snacks, we can see that: for example, this hawthorn slice contains 82.7 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams of hawthorn slices because of the addition of sugar; the hawthorn cake in the picture below contains more than 87.4 grams.

Picture from a certain east

The sugar content is really high, which we can infer from the nutritional composition table. This means that for every 100 grams of hawthorn slices, the white sugar content can be as high as 57.6 grams, which is really equivalent to a child eating a mouthful of hawthorn slices, half of which is white sugar.

The Chinese Dietary Guidelines (2022 edition) recommends that daily added sugar intake should not exceed 50 grams, and preferably be kept below 25 grams. [5]

Excessive sugar intake can easily cause tooth decay in children; for adults, it can easily lead to excessive energy intake, increasing the risk of overweight and obesity.

In addition, although the manufacturer says "no preservatives are added", you should know that sugar is a good natural preservative, and there is no need to add additional food additives to extend its shelf life. Although the ingredients are clean, you should also pay attention to the intake of sugar.

Pay attention to these matters when eating hawthorn

1. Unripe hawthorn contains more tannic acid. Eating too much can easily cause gastrointestinal problems such as abdominal pain and bloating.

Even though the tannic acid content of mature hawthorn is significantly reduced, it is still not recommended to eat it in large quantities for a long time, especially when on an empty stomach.

2. Friends who have stomach problems, especially those with excessive stomach acid, gastritis, and gastric ulcers, should not eat it. If you really want to eat it, just eat one or two to try it.

3. The elderly and children with weak gastrointestinal function should not eat on an empty stomach and try to eat as little as possible.

4. People with healthy gastrointestinal tract should not eat too much. As the old saying goes: too much is as bad as too little. If you eat too much, be careful of your stomach being "stabbed".

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in conclusion

Hawthorn "stimulates appetite and promotes digestion", and is really good for satisfying cravings. However, please note that it contains more tannic acid, so people with gastrointestinal discomfort should stop eating after eating one or two to satisfy their cravings.

It has no effect of supplementing iron, nor does it have the so-called risk of causing miscarriage or cancer. Special attention should be paid to the fact that hawthorn cakes, candied haws, hawthorn slices, etc. made from hawthorn all contain a lot of sugar, so you should eat less of them to prevent tooth decay and overweight and obesity.

Author: Wang Yanli, registered dietitian

Reviewer: Zhang Na, Associate Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, Peking University School of Public Health

References:

[1] Zhao Ailing, Xue Xiaofang, Wang Yongkang, et al. Comparative analysis of sugar, acid and triterpene acid components in fruits of different tree species [J]. Journal of Fruit Resources, 2020, 1(06): 1-6. DOI: 10.16010/j.cnki.14-1127/s.2020.06.001.

[2] Wu Jianhua, Sun Jingyun. Effects of organic acid fractions of hawthorn on gastrointestinal motility[J]. Shaanxi Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2009, 30(10): 1402-1403.

[3] Li Li. Extraction of hawthorn pectin and preparation and drying of reduced-sugar hawthorn strips[D]. Jiangnan University, 2023. DOI: 10.27169/d.cnki.gwqgu.2022.000153.

[4] Yang Yuexin. Chinese Food Composition Table Standard Edition (6th Edition/First Edition)

Peking University Medical Press, 2018: 100, 107.

[5] Chinese Nutrition Society. Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)[M]. People's Medical Publishing House, 2022: 101.

Planning丨Zhong Yanping

Editor: Li Mengxin

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