Can you eat the head of a crayfish? After so many years, I have eaten the wrong one, with the most complete shrimp eating strategy

Summer is here, and it's the season to eat "crayfish and beer" again!

Looking at the red shrimp body, the golden shrimp brain, just wanted to take a mouthful, but suddenly remembered my mother's admonition:

"Crayfish grew up in stinking gutters and ate garbage every day!"

"That shrimp head is full of heavy metals, you can't eat it!"

"Crayfish eat too much, and the muscles will die."

Is that really the case?

First preside over a fair: it's 2023, why are you still slandering crayfish!

As the spokesperson of the crayfish wild, Dian Ge is going to hold a whitewashing conference for crayfish today. (After all, it is whitewashed, it is convenient to eat~)

Crayfish, also known as "cruzi crayfish", is a kind of freshwater shrimp [1] that is a fake package, and it is a little related to the large lobster in the sea.

Since it is a shrimp, it must have the dignity of being a shrimp!

Crayfish also love clean water, fresh food, and a clean environment. And then...... Gracefully walk up to people's tables.

As early as 2011, some people did relevant research and found that crayfish not only have no preference for high concentrations of ammonia nitrogen sewage, but will actively avoid when the concentration is too high, and those who cannot avoid will have abnormal behavior and even death [1].

You might say that someone has indeed seen crayfish in sewage! But that was pure helplessness!

Those who can survive in the sewage can also be regarded as the "battle shrimp" in the crayfish. If the water quality is poor, crayfish not only have difficulty breeding, but also grow poorly and shed their shells slowly. When the water quality becomes bad and smelly, crayfish die in large numbers [1].

Before the "fame", there were indeed many crayfish caught from rivers, lakes and even rice fields.

But in recent years, the number of wild crayfish simply cannot meet the needs of the market, and the price has continued to rise, which has attracted more and more people to start farming crayfish.

In the breeding environment, the bait of crayfish includes soybean meal, rapeseed meal, bran and so on.

Therefore, they did not grow up with the legendary "eating garbage" and "eating corpses".

In addition, the shrimp head of crayfish usually does not exceed the heavy metal standard.

Under normal farming conditions, the heavy metal content in water bodies and bait is very limited. Crayfish are also very good at protecting themselves, transferring most of the heavy metals ingested into the body to the shell.

As they grow and shell, these heavy metals are removed from the body. Zeng Classic Brother has also professionally evaluated, and the heavy metal content of crayfish currently purchased on the market has not exceeded the standard.

Not only are crayfish not as dirty as you think, they are also full of advantages.

1. Low in calories

As we all know, half a pound of holes in a pound of lotus root, and a pound of shells in half a kilogram of shrimp. Crayfish produce less meat, but the good thing is that the calories are also low!

The edible portion of each crayfish is about 31% [2], which means that one pound (500 grams) of crayfish can eat about 155 grams.

Of course, there will be some wear and tear when everyone picks shrimp, and it will not be so clean. So, you can actually eat less meat.

(Source: Soogif)

100 grams of crayfish meat has 93 calories, which is equivalent to less than the calories of an apple (200 grams).

In this way, eating two pounds of crayfish in the middle of the night = eating two apples, and suddenly changed from a depravity to a representative of self-discipline.

But the above low-calorie has a prerequisite - crayfish should be steamed. 100 grams of steamed crayfish contains about 16.66 grams of protein, of which the fat content is about 1 gram more, which is beneficial for weight control.

In reality, everyone's favorite spicy crayfish and thirteen-spiced crayfish are heavy oil and salt, and the calories will naturally increase.

But overall, as long as you eat less juice and try to avoid frying, the fat content of crayfish will not increase too much.

2. Nutrient-rich

Crayfish meat contains a variety of essential amino acids needed by the human body, which is better than ordinary meat, and the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the fatty acids is relatively large, which can be regarded as a high-quality protein food.

In addition, crayfish are also rich in calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, selenium, potassium and other trace elements, astaxanthin, vitamin B2, vitamin E, carotenoids and other nutrients. Each 100 grams of crayfish contains 85 mg of calcium, 1.45 mg of zinc, 7.9 mg of selenium, 550 mg of potassium, 0.18 mg of vitamin B2, etc.

So, crayfish can be regarded as the bearer of the night snack!

(1) When is the best time to eat?

Every March, the first batch of crayfish is on the market, but they are smaller;

May to September is the peak season for crayfish, which is larger at this time; Among them, the crayfish in June and August are tender and tender, and this time is the best time to eat shrimp.

(Source: Soogif)

(2) Where to eat?

Where there are hungry cats, there are crayfish.

At present, crayfish are farmed in 23 provinces across the country. Among them, the five traditional crayfish farming provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Hunan, Jiangsu and Jiangxi still occupy an absolute dominant position [3].

The well-known Hubei Qianjiang oil-braised crayfish, the flavored shrimp from Changsha, Hunan Province, and the thirteen-spiced crayfish from Jiangsu Xuyi all have their own flavors, and friends who want to have a good taste can easily take advantage of the holiday to find out.

(Source: Soogif)

(3) How do you pick out something delicious?

If you buy it yourself, choose it like this:

The shrimp meat is best in a translucent state, shiny, and the shrimp shell is elastic when pressed on it, and it is not sticky to the hands.

It smells fresh, with no fishy, sour or ammonia smell.

Eating in a restaurant, you can distinguish it like this:

Relatively fresh: the shrimp body is bent more severely, and the shrimp meat is firm, elastic and chewy.

Not too fresh: the body is straight, the flesh is looser, and the shell is sticky to the touch.

(4) How to make it delicious?

When making, crayfish should be soaked in water for half an hour, and be sure to fully heat and cook thoroughly, trying to keep it above 70 degrees for 15 minutes. This kills bacteria and parasites that may be present.

Try to choose steamed, chilled (cooked) and other oily methods to not only eat the delicious taste, but also reduce calorie intake.

Unfinished crayfish can be refrigerated and sealed, but the next day to eat it again fully reheated!

(5) How to eat the healthiest?

People with allergies and gout are best not to eat crayfish.

Eat in moderation: Although delicious and tempting, after all, many practices are heavy on oil and salt, and eating more is not good for health. Especially for special groups such as children and pregnant women, it is especially necessary to control the amount. It is best not to exceed one pound at a time.

Reviewer: Ma Yueqing

Nutritionist, Department of Nutrition, Aerospace Center Hospital

bibliography

[1] CHEN Ting,ZHANG Lei,TANG Jianqing,HUANG Cheng. Selection of water environment with different ammonia concentration by subadults and larvae of Protocrayus cruzi[J].Resources and Environment in the Yangtze Basin,2011,20(10):1186-1190.)

[2] Chinese Food Composition Table (Volume 1) (2nd Edition).

[3] 2022 China Crayfish Industry Development Report http://www.china-cfa.org/xwzx/xydt/2022/0531/732.html

*Produced by Tencent Medical Codex Content Team