This "nut" can detoxify the liver for 40 days after eating one? You may have it at home...

Expert of this article: Zhang Zhaomin, Master of Food Science, Senior Engineer

Nuts were once considered healthy food and were loved by many people.

During every festival, I believe every household will buy a variety of melon seeds, peanuts, pine nuts, almonds...

Recently, a news report said that a woman in Nanning ate a bag of nuts every day for three months and was diagnosed with high blood lipids.

News screenshots

There is also a saying among the people: eating a moldy peanut can detoxify the liver for 40 days. Is it true?

Don’t be too nervous to shudder at this. Today, let’s learn about the benefits of eating nuts, can we still eat them, and what precautions should be taken when eating nuts.

What are the benefits of eating nuts?

Nuts, also known as shell fruits, mainly refer to the edible seeds of woody plants with a hard shell, including pine nuts, pistachios, almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans (pecans) and chestnuts.

Generally, nut seeds are high in lipids and carbohydrates (such as starch), and are rich in unsaturated fatty acids. For example, most nuts are rich in oleic acid and linoleic acid.

Nutritionally, unsaturated fatty acids include monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUMA).

Studies have shown that in addition to playing a positive role in preventing cardiovascular disease, unsaturated fatty acids can also improve insulin sensitivity and help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids can also promote the growth and development of the body, and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids can also play an important role in the healthy development of the brain and retina.

In addition, some polyunsaturated fatty acids can also participate in the regulation of eicosanoid metabolism and inflammatory response, thereby exerting a good anti-inflammatory effect. For example, lipoxin (a derivative of arachidonic acid) is an endogenous anti-inflammatory mediator with anti-inflammatory effects.

Therefore, eating some nuts regularly will help maintain our health.

However, nuts also contain relatively high levels of protein, which can be an allergen and are not suitable for everyone.

People with certain allergies need to avoid eating it or prevent accidental ingestion, otherwise it may cause allergic reactions, such as nausea, vomiting, chest tightness and difficulty breathing, and severe cases may even be life-threatening.

Eating a moldy peanut can detoxify the liver for 40 days?

I believe many people have heard similar sayings: eating a moldy peanut can help your liver detoxify for 40 days? Is this true or false?

In fact, this statement is mainly to highlight the dangers of eating moldy peanuts, which is caused by aflatoxin.

Aflatoxin is a secondary toxic metabolite produced by Aspergillus fungi (such as Aspergillus flavus). It is one of the most powerful mutagenic and carcinogenic substances known.

Its median lethal dose (LD50, the dose that can cause 50% mortality in animals) is 0.249 mg/kg body weight. If we simply calculate based on an adult weighing 60 kg, there is a risk of death if one ingests 15 mg of aflatoxin.

Many foods in our daily life may be contaminated by aflatoxins, and the ones that pose the greatest risks to our health are mainly aflatoxin B1 and aflatoxin M1. The former is mainly found in foods such as cereals (such as rice, corn), nuts and seeds (such as peanuts), and the latter is mainly found in dairy products such as milk. However, our country has strict requirements on the limit of aflatoxin in these foods, so there is no need to worry too much.

If you eat moldy peanuts or nuts, it may indeed cause great harm to your body, because aflatoxin is mainly metabolized in the liver, it can induce tumors in the human liver, and then lead to the risk of cancer.

Considering that the aflatoxin content in different moldy peanuts is unlikely to be the same, and the metabolic capacity of each person's liver is different, so if you accidentally eat a moldy peanut, how long it takes for it to be metabolized in the body varies from person to person.

A study on oral low-dose aflatoxin B1 showed that only about one-third of the dose was excreted through urine within three days. This shows that it does take a relatively long time for the human body to metabolize aflatoxin.

Therefore, how many days it takes to metabolize moldy peanuts or nuts varies from person to person. To be safe, moldy peanuts and nuts should never be eaten.

Which kinds of dried fruits and nuts should not be bought for the New Year?

When buying nuts and seeds, keep the following in mind:

Try to choose foods with the original flavor. To a certain extent, this can prevent some unscrupulous merchants from using technical means to cover up some defects of the food itself, such as the rancid smell caused by oxidized fat and the dull color.

In addition, be careful not to buy too much at one time to prevent potential risks due to improper storage. When storing in small quantities, keep it dry and avoid an environment with humidity that is suitable for mold growth.

There are many varieties of nuts on the market now. You can purchase them according to your personal preferences or the situation of family members. For example, if there are elderly people, you can buy some walnuts, and if there are children, you can buy some pistachios and cashews.

What precautions should be taken when eating nuts?

Nuts mainly exert their health effects through unsaturated fatty acids, but excessive intake of unsaturated fatty acids can easily lead to lipid peroxidation, which in turn produces more free radicals and reactive oxygen species, causing certain damage to human cells.

Moreover, nuts are high in fat and are high-energy foods. Eating too much may lead to excessive energy intake, which is not conducive to weight control.

First of all, control the amount of nuts you eat.

According to the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2016 edition), the average weekly intake of nuts is 50-70g (about 10g per day), which is equivalent to eating 2-3 walnuts or 4-5 chestnuts per day.

Secondly, try to choose nuts that have not been seasoned or processed. This can not only prevent you from losing control of your appetite and eating too much, but also prevent you from consuming too much salt.

Again, when feeding nuts to younger children (such as 2-3 years old), they can be crushed appropriately. Smaller and more crushed particles can prevent the risk of choking.

For the elderly with good teeth, they can break some of it into pieces before eating.

Finally, if you really cannot control your appetite and eat too much, you need to pay attention to reducing the intake of energy and fat in other meals or foods to avoid excessive energy and fat intake throughout the day.

In summary, nuts are rich in unsaturated fatty acids, and eating them in moderation is good for your health, but moldy nuts should not be eaten.

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