The most "spring" seasonal vegetables, eating too much will cause poisoning! 2 eating tips for you →

What dish is the most "spring-like"? For me, the answer is scrambled eggs with Chinese toon.

But one day, my mother suddenly said to me mysteriously, "Try today's toon fried eggs and see what's different."

As soon as I took a bite, I found something strange about it. The Chinese toon was soft and didn't have that unique fragrance and flavor.

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My mother said that this was in accordance with the advice of a TV program. Toon sprouts should be first boiled in hot water, then soaked in cold water, and then chopped and stir-fried. This will greatly reduce the nitrate content in them and be more beneficial to health.

I mechanically put the special fried egg into my mouth and chewed it, but I was thinking, "Is this nitrate really so fierce?"

01

Charming toon flavor

The "spring smell" of toon comes from its special volatiles, including terpenes, sesquiterpenes and other substances, so it is a mixture of caryophyllene, geranylene, acaciaene, caryophyllene, camphor and other odor components.

In particular, caryophyllene has a mixed aroma of citrus, camphor and clove. It seems that it is not strange to taste the flowers in the toon.

In addition to its special fragrance, toon has a special umami flavor that is extremely fresh without adding MSG. That’s because toon contains a lot of glutamate.

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Glutamic acid can account for 2.6% of the dry matter of toon sinensis. Combined with the nucleotides in eggs, the taste enhancement effect produced by the mixture of the two makes us feel the indescribable taste of spring.

02

Nitrate Shadow

I don’t know since when, nitrates have become the mortal enemy of mankind, and toon shoots with extremely high nitrate content are naturally no exception, so the special method of blanching and soaking in water was invented.

To clarify whether it is toxic or not, we must first understand the relationship between the nitrogen-containing compound family of nitric acid, nitrite and ammonium.

Nitrates and ammonium salts themselves have very low toxicity (the acute LD50 of nitrate is 3236 mg/kg, while that of sodium chloride is 3000 mg/kg), so few people are poisoned by exposure to nitrates.

As for nitrate’s little brother nitrite, it is not a good thing. It will occupy the hemoglobin in the human body and cause people to die from deprivation of oxygen.

What is even more worrying is that they will combine with amines to form nitrosamines, which are dangerous substances that can cause cancer.

The problem is that nitrates turn into nitrites in the body.

Generally speaking, nitrates ingested by humans enter the blood through the digestive tract and are then sent to the salivary glands.

With the secretion of saliva, nitrate enters the oral cavity again, where numerous bacteria reduce nitrate into nitrite. It turns out that the trouble is caused by the human body itself!

Most nitrates enter the digestive tract and begin a new cycle, while some are excreted from the body.

At this time, the restless nitrites start to cause trouble. If there is a problem with the acidity of the stomach, they can easily combine with amines and eventually turn into powerful carcinogens.

This is the most terrifying and dangerous thing about nitrates and nitrites.

However, trace amounts of nitrite are necessary to maintain the oral microbial environment. It is precisely because of the presence of nitrite that harmful anaerobic bacteria will not cause trouble.

At the same time, much of the nitrite will be further reduced to nitric oxide, which plays an important role in maintaining normal blood pressure in the human body. In addition, nitrite will not accumulate in the human body.

03

Can Chinese toon be eaten?

After understanding the dangers of nitrite, we turn our attention to Chinese toon.

For plants, nitrates and nitrites are both nutrients, but their final destination is amines for synthesizing amino acids and proteins.

However, the nitrogen in the soil is almost always in the form of nitrates, so Chinese toon must absorb a large amount of nitrates and then reduce and utilize them in the body;

Nitrite is just an intermediate stage in the reduction process and does not harm plants.

A large amount of nitrate usually accumulates in the areas with vigorous growth to ensure the plant's nutritional supply.

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Well, now the problem arises. When we eat these "nutritional" vegetables, we will encounter the problem of excessive nitrate and nitrite.

Let’s use data to see how many dangerous substances are contained in Chinese toon.

In 2006, Nanjing Forestry University investigated the nitrate and nitrite content in toon sprouts from six places, including Nanjing, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi. The results showed that the nitrite in the six samples did not exceed the national limit of 4 mg/kg.

This is largely related to the fact that nitrite is quickly reduced and utilized. After all, nitrite is just a passer-by in the plant body.

In fact, according to the maximum intake set by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a 60-kg adult can consume a maximum of 7.8 mg of nitrite, which is equivalent to eating about 2 kg of toon.

This can be considered a luxury poisoning incident, after all, the selling price of Chinese toon is usually as high as 100 yuan per kilogram!

Relatively speaking, the nitrate in toon sprouts is something worthy of attention. In the same study by Nanjing Forestry University, it was found that the nitrate content in toon sprouts ranged from 500 mg/kg to 3000 mg/kg.

Therefore, eating 100 grams of toon sprouts may reach the upper limit of nitrate ingestion (216 mg, based on a body weight of 60 kg).

But don't worry, two taels (100 grams) of Chinese toon we bought is enough to fry a large plate of eggs. If you don't eat it alone, it's not easy to eat too much.

04

Food Tips

① Oil-soaked Toona sinensis

The supply of Chinese toon is limited every year. If you want to eat it for a longer period of time, you should use the trick of soaking Chinese toon in oil.

Wash the fresh Chinese toon, dry it and then chop it into small pieces. Heat oil in a pan, add the Chinese toon, and fry it slowly over medium heat. If you like spicy taste, you can add some fine chili powder.

After the fried toon has cooled in the pot, put it into a sealed glass bottle and you can eat it until the end of summer.

②Don’t eat rotten toon

Pay special attention that if the Chinese toon appears to be rotten or spoiled, discard it as soon as possible because bacteria will convert the nitrate in it into nitrite.

Eating it this way may cause poisoning. So, don't be stingy with those Chinese toon sprouts.

Author: Shi Jun

Source: Guokr

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