At this time, it is a good season for crab fat and yellow, and the golden crab yellow and full crab meat make people very appetizing at first sight.
According to the data of Yangcheng Lake hairy crab production area in Suzhou City, this year's hairy crab production in Yangcheng Lake has increased by 17%, up to 11,000 tons, the largest output in the past three years; the quality of crabs is also better than last year, the largest male crab can reach more than 5 taels, and the largest female crab is about 4 halves. The price of hairy crabs has decreased, taking the direct stores of major online platforms as an example, the price of hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake of the same specification is about 10% lower than last year.
However, with the arrival of crab eating season, there are many rumors and concerns about it: "Crabs cannot be eaten with oranges or persimmons", "Unscrupulous traders put paste into hairy crabs..." Let's take a look together~
Once, an article titled "The US Department of Health stopped Chinese from eating crab roe because it may cause cancer" was widely circulated. In fact, the New York City Department of Health's consumption recommendations are not for crabs or crab roe, but because New York's local industry is heavily polluted, it is recommended not to eat or eat limited, and may not be applicable elsewhere.
A video of suspected injection of unknown liquid into the body of a green crab went viral on the Internet, and netizens speculated that the injection was carotene, crab yellow paste and urea essence, which sparked widespread public discussion.
△The picture is a screenshot of the online rumor video
Du Zongjun, a professor at the Department of Fisheries at Sichuan Agricultural University, said that in general, crabs are sold alive, and after injecting liquid into crabs, the environmental osmotic pressure will change drastically, which will lead to the rapid death of crabs. Fishermen and traders cannot turn live crabs into dead crabs in order to add a little weight, and do a loss-making business. The injection of orange liquid into the crab with a syringe in the video is most likely a southern cooking method, and it will be more flavorful to inject cooking wine and seasonings into the crab before going to the steamer.
In addition, the yellow and paste of crabs are firmly grown in the body, and the injection paste and crab yellow will be obviously separated, and can be distinguished at a glance, which is difficult to achieve the effect of simulating crab paste crab yellow.
A video of cooked river crabs suspected to have gelatinous substances circulated in the circle of friends made friends who love river crabs lose their appetite. Aquatic experts have refuted rumors that the milky, translucent and sticky substance in male crabs is actually crab paste, not glue.
Hairy crabs have also become the protagonists of "Food Restraint". Some people say that hairy crabs cannot be eaten with persimmons and are easily poisoned. It is an exaggeration to say "poisoning", mainly because crabs belong to high-protein foods, and eating with such foods is easy to cause gastrointestinal discomfort, but it is not "poisoning".
The human body ingests a large amount of high-protein foods, which will produce a huge demand for proteases in the digestive tract, increase the burden on the digestive system, and cause uncomfortable symptoms. For those groups that eat less protein food, eating more crabs is easy to upset the stomach.
As for persimmons, because they are rich in tannic acid, when paired with protein, they will affect intestinal absorption and hinder gastrointestinal movement, resulting in indigestion. Fruits similar to persimmons that contain tannic acid, including pomegranates, hawthorns, etc.
If you want to avoid discomfort after eating crabs, you should also be careful not to eat with tea and pears. Tea is rich in tannins, which combine with the protein in crabs, which is easy to coagulate, affecting intestinal absorption, slowing down intestinal peristalsis, and causing constipation. Pear cold, eating with hairy crabs, is equivalent to "cold on cold", easy to damage the spleen and stomach, causing indigestion.
It should be noted that there is a case where you may be poisoned after eating hairy crabs - eating dead crabs or dying "leg crabs". When a crab dies or dies, histooxygen acid breaks down in the body to produce histamine. Histamine is a toxic substance, the longer the death time, the more histamine accumulates in the crab body, the higher the toxin, and it will not be destroyed by high temperatures. After eating this type of crab, it is easy to cause food poisoning.
Since ancient times, there has been a saying of "crab cold". This is true, people with a weak spleen and stomach should not eat more crabs.
However, due to the "crab cold", there are also many rumors. The most typical is that "pregnant and lactating women cannot eat crabs". Rumors say that pregnant women who eat crabs will miscarry, and that maternal eating crabs will affect the quality of breast milk, and children spit bubbles in their mouths and walk sideways.
Duan Tao, chief physician of the obstetrics department of Shanghai First Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, said that pregnant and lactating women can eat crab, but it is not recommended to eat more. As for the statement of "eating crabs and spitting bubbles", it is even more nonsense. Duan Tao said that if it was really as the rumors claimed, wouldn't it be eating mushrooms during pregnancy, and the child would be born to look like mushrooms; Eat durian, the child is born like durian? "Please, rumor-makers and purveyors don't think with their heels and draw bizarre conclusions."
So, how many crabs do you eat fall under "don't eat more"? You can refer to the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents 2022". The guidelines recommend that adults consume 40 grams to 75 grams of aquatic products per day (in terms of edible portions), while the edible portion of a 3 large hairy crab is about 60 grams. That is to say, eating one hairy crab per person per day for about 4 taels is not much.
However, it should be noted that the crab heart, crab stomach, crab gills, and crab intestines of hairy crabs are not edible and must be removed. Among them, the hexagonal flaky crab heart belongs to the big cold thing; The stomach of the "bone triangle" crab contains toxins and crab excrement; The two rows of white soft and fluffy substances on the belly of the crab are crab gills, which are the respiratory organs of crabs, which are prone to parasites; A black line from crab stomach to crab navel is crab intestines, which contain crab excrement.
"Is female crab delicious or male crab delicious" is also a topic of concern for many consumers. As the old saying goes, "nine females and ten males", so it's October, should you eat male crabs?
"That's not right." Wang Hao, the descendant of the "Wang Bao and Crab Banquet" of Shanghai's intangible cultural heritage item, explained that the old saying "nine females and ten males" refers to the ninth month of the lunar calendar and the October month of the lunar calendar, corresponding to October and November of the Gregorian calendar. So, right now, the female crabs are fuller. However, "ten males" does not mean that female crabs in October are not delicious, but that male crabs are fatter in October of the lunar calendar, and female crabs are still the best tasting period in October of the lunar calendar. Usually, hairy crabs from the Gangnam area can be supplied until the end of November and the beginning of December of that year.
However, beware of some businesses taking advantage of information asymmetry to confuse female crabs with male crabs. Some businesses have put up the banner of "all female crabs", but there are consumer evaluation feedback, and the crabs received do not seem to be female crabs, but male crabs. On social platforms, there are also consumers who ask how to distinguish female crabs from male crabs, and there are various answers. In fact, the easiest way to distinguish between male and female hairy crabs is to look at the navel - the navel with sharp horns and can be turned open is the male crab, and the flat without sharp horns is the female crab.
Male crab↑
Female crab↑
One last thing to note:
Crab though nutritious and delicious
But not everyone is suitable for eating
These four groups of people should eat less
(1) Crabs are cold and high-protein foods, which are difficult to digest, so people with chronic gastritis, chronic diarrhea, cholecystitis, pancreatitis and other digestive systems are not suitable for consumption.
(2) Crabs are rich in protein and cholesterol, so they are actually not suitable for the three high people and patients with cardiovascular diseases, which will aggravate the condition.
(3) Hepatitis patients: If you also eat high-protein crabs that are difficult to digest and absorb, it may cause symptoms of indigestion such as bloating, abdominal pain or diarrhea.
(4) Patients with cold and fever: when cold and fever, the diet should be mainly light, crab is a high-protein food, it is not easy to digest and absorb after eating, easy to aggravate the disease.