Spring is the season to eat all kinds of wild vegetables, in the old days of mainland folk have the custom of "eating spring vegetables at the spring equinox", every year around the spring equinox, many farmers will carry baskets and sickles to the wild to dig up all kinds of wild vegetables.
When it comes to spring wild vegetables, there are too many types, the most representative of which are camelin, bracken, toon sprouts and purslane. Especially bracken, many people are from snacks to large, and also say that spring is incomplete without it.
But many people should have heard of it a few years ago, the World Health Organization listed bracken as a "carcinogenic vegetable", and now there is a vegetable that has been added to the WHO blacklist, which is the houttuynia that southwesterners love to eat every day. So can it still be eaten?
Does bracken really contain carcinogens?
There are indeed claims that bracken causes cancer. In a study conducted by IARC, an international research agency for cancer affiliated with the World Health Organization, a series of carcinogens can be found, among which bracken is also listed.
This is because some scientists have found that bracken contains a substance called "protofern glycosides", which is internationally recognized as a Class 2 B carcinogen.
This substance is hydrolyzed to produce dienones, which are highly carcinogenic.
At the same time, protofern glycosides are also genotoxic carcinogens, if long-term excessive intake of protofern glycosides, human DNA will change to produce a series of abnormal cell responses, resulting in cell mutations and induce cancer.
However, it should be noted that, as the old saying goes, "to talk about toxicity without dose is to play hooligans", and it is unscientific to talk about carcinogenicity if you ignore its dose. Because the protofern contained in bracken has the possibility of causing cancer, it is also very related to its dose.
In fact, the proportion of protofern in bracken is very small, that is, 0.1-06%. Some scientists have pointed out that as long as a person does not eat more than one pound of bracken every day and eats it continuously for 20 years, it is generally unlikely to cause cancer.
Houttuynia has also become a "carcinogenic vegetable"? WHO: Aristolochic acid is strongly carcinogenic
This vegetable is the southwest people especially love to eat houttuynia, some places also called it folded ear root, dog fly grass, side ear root, etc., its scientific name is mushroom, which is a perennial herb of the genus of the three-white grass family, because its plants emit a fishy smell and get its name.
For many people who have not eaten houttuynia, it is a very unpalatable vegetable that makes you want to vomit when you smell it, let alone eat it.
However, in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other southwest regions, it is a well-known vegetable, many people from snacks to large, and it is eaten every day throughout the year without getting tired.
However, this vegetable has also been questioned as a "carcinogenic vegetable" because of a substance called aristolochic acid. In fact, as early as 2008, the International Agency for Research on Cancer officially listed aristolochic acid as a Class 1 carcinogen.
Aristolochic acid is mainly a special chemical component present in aristolochic plants, and its metabolite Aristolochic lactam I can damage the kidneys and easily lead to the risk of kidney cancer and liver cancer.
Scientists found that houttuynia contains aristolochic lactam (BII, AII, FII), so there is a saying that houttuynia cannot be eaten, and even cancer will be obtained if eaten.
However, this completely makes houttuynia carry a black pot, because houttuynia does not contain aristolochic acid, but only contains aristolochic lactam-Bll, All, Fll these substances, the mechanism of the three in the human body can not be completely derived from aristolochic lactam I. analogy. This is very different from the highly carcinogenic Aristolochic Acid I.
More importantly, their content is very low, almost negligible. According to the clinical data currently available, none of these substances show that these substances cause cancer.
Therefore, some people say that houttuynia is carcinogenic, but in fact, aristolochic acid I and aristolochic lactam I are mistaken for the same substance, thus making houttuynia carcinogenic.
Combined with a previous view that bracken causes cancer, "putting aside the dose to talk about toxicity is hooliganism", if you just eat it as a vegetable normally, it will not cause damage to the kidneys, let alone cause cancer. Because the aristolochicamide content in houttuynia is very low and almost negligible.
What's more, we usually eat it only as a vegetable, not our daily main dish, even if we eat every day, the amount of food is very limited, so there is basically no risk, and it is worth mentioning that many foods we usually eat are carcinogens, and the risk of houttuynia is lower than many foods and drugs.
So far, there have been no reports of kidney damage caused by eating houttuynia. On the contrary, people in many places in the southwest also believe that it has high medicinal value, has a good antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect, and regular consumption is still beneficial to the body.
This statement is also not false, because houttuynia is already rich in vitamins, proteins and crude fats, in addition to hundreds of chemical components including flavonoids, organic acids, vitamins, water-soluble polysaccharides, alkaloids and so on.
Seeing this, everyone should also understand it, as long as it is not excessive consumption, it does not matter, everyone does not need to panic, as long as it is normal consumption. Do you like houttuynia? Welcome to leave a message to discuss!