"This thing stinks, why are you eating it again, I heard Aunt Wang next door say that eating this will cause cancer, why don't you listen!"
Just now, Xiao Lin and his mother-in-law quarreled again, Xiao Lin, as an authentic snail noodle lover, has to eat several meals of snail noodles every week, and he feels panicked if he doesn't eat it for a day.
My mother-in-law always felt that the snail noodles tasted bad, and I was very disgusted with Xiao Lin eating snail noodles, and Xiao Lin was also aware of this problem, so she ate them every time when her mother-in-law was away. On this day, she saw that her mother-in-law had just gone out for a walk, so she hurriedly ordered a snail noodle to eat, but who knew that her mother-in-law came back early today, and the opening scene happened.
Although Xiao Lin didn't take what her mother-in-law said to heart, she still muttered in her heart when she thought that it would cause cancer. So she checked the Internet and found that there were indeed many similar statements on the Internet, which further exacerbated her inner doubts.
Could it be that snail flour really contains carcinogens, and long-term consumption will cause cancer?
Why does snail flour have a strong smell?
The smell of snail flour mainly comes from the sour bamboo shoots inside, which generally need to be fermented, and during fermentation, most of the proteins in the raw bamboo shoots will be degraded and released into amino acids. At the same time, a large number of sugars are converted into organic acids due to the action of microorganisms.
Amino acids, organic acids, sugars and other components will further react with fermentation and eventually convert into aldehydes, acids, alcohols and esters, many of which are flavor substances, so the final flavor of sour bamboo shoots is different.
The smell of snail noodles also comes from part of the snail meat, because some screws will be added to the snail flour soup during the boiling process, and the screw soup will have a special fishy smell after it is cooled, and this fishy smell is mixed with the taste of sour bamboo shoots, which is even more difficult to express. But fortunately, the smell does not last long, and it will disappear after the snail flour is cooked. [1]
Can eating snail flour cause cancer for a long time?
This is true, but don't worry too much, and eating a small amount occasionally is generally not risky.
The reason why eating snail flour for a long time can cause cancer is because many merchants will choose to add a lot of oil and salt and other condiments to snail flour in order to taste better.
On the other hand, the sour bamboo shoots in snail flour are pickled foods, and nitrite is likely to be produced after bacterial fermentation. Nitrite is a carcinogen and long-term intake may increase the risk of cancer. Of course, it should be clear that it does not mean that nitrite intake will necessarily cause cancer, and there is no need to worry about occasional small intake, and the focus is to control the amount.
Finally, there is the issue of bacteria and parasites, as we mentioned earlier, the soup base of snail noodles is made from snails. The environment in which snails grow determines that they can carry a variety of parasites and bacteria that can be harmful to human health if they are not cooked thoroughly during cooking. But there is a reality that is very heart-wrenching, that is, many of the current snail noodles do not have screws, so there is no need to worry about this problem, which makes people laugh and cry.
How to eat snail noodles healthily and safely?
(1) Use less seasoning packets
In order to facilitate preservation and taste, many of the seasoning packets that come with snail noodles will add excessive salt and preservatives, so try to put a little less of their own seasoning packets when eating snail noodles, and if you feel that the taste is not enough, you can add a little of your own seasoning.
(2) Don't eat for a long time
No matter how much you like it, don't eat it for a long time, because eating only the same thing for a long time will cause some problems even if it seems healthy. Taking snail flour as an example, long-term consumption may not only lead to malnutrition, but also may cause high blood pressure and gastrointestinal diseases.
(3) Attention
A pack of snail noodles is mainly composed of dry rice noodles and seasoning packets, the data shows that the calories per 100g of dry rice noodles are about 351kcal, and the seasoning packets are about 200g, and its calories are 426kcal, which adds up to 777kcal. A bowl of rice is about 4 taels, and its calories are about 232kcal. [2]
In other words, one packet of snail noodles has almost 3.3 bowls of white rice, so the calories are high. Therefore, it is recommended that friends who are losing weight try not to eat snail noodles. In addition, the nutritional content of snail flour is relatively simple, so we can add some fresh vegetables to eat snail flour with milk and yogurt.
In addition, it should be reminded that due to the high oil and salt content of snail flour and high sodium content, it is best not to eat snail powder for those patients who have cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and heart disease, because this may cause excessive workload on the heart, trigger changes in plasma osmotic pressure, lead to an increase in extracellular fluid, a large amount of water and sodium retention, lead to cell swelling in vitro, and eventually cause an increase in blood pressure, which is not conducive to disease control.
Why does a lot of food smell bad and taste good?
Stinky is actually an overly strong incense.
To put it bluntly, it is fragrant to the extreme, and it is smelly to the extreme. There are many odors that will become fragrant after dilution, for example, some scientists have done experiments that after diluting the indole molecules in feces with alcohol 400-1000 times, the original taste will become the aroma of jasmine. [3]
Stinky is actually a flavor, but this flavor is more special, some people like it, and some people don't like it. And whether you like the smell or not is also related to a "reaction" switch in everyone's brain.
Researchers at the University of Lyon in France have done a similar experiment, in which the researchers replaced stinky food with stinky cheese and used fMRI imaging technology to observe the people studied. The study found that when people who don't like the smell smell of stinky cheese smell stinky cheese, the key nodes related to pleasure and motivation in the brain are not activated, which means that these people are not interested in stinky cheese. On the other hand, this is not the case in people who are interested in smells. [4]
There are two main sources of the smell of bad food, one is caused by fermentation, and the other is innate.
For example, the smell of snail flour is caused by fermentation, and in addition to snail flour, the smell of stinky tofu is also due to fermentation. Stinky tofu is generally made by pressing dry normal tofu and then soaking it in brine to ferment it. Of course, the production process of stinky tofu in different regions is also different, for example, Beijing's stinky tofu is fermented from tofu and only eaten raw and cold, so many people also like to call it fermented bean curd, while Changsha's stinky tofu is made with fresh tofu and marinated in stinky marinade and then fried or steamed.
Regardless of the process, the soy protein will be decomposed into sulfides under the action of brine containing microorganisms, plus the indole molecules (we mentioned above) produced by the fermentation of the brine, and when volatilized into the air, the odor is produced.
There is also the famous dish of Hui cuisine "stinky mandarin fish", whose smell is also caused by fermentation. Stinky mandarin fish needs to be salted when making, and the microorganisms will degrade part of the protein and form amino acids during pickling, and the content will reach the highest when fermented for a week.
At the same time, stinky mandarin fish produces various flavor substances and sulfur-containing compounds when fermented, which mix together to form a stinky mandarin fish that smells and tastes good.
Finally, it is born with a smell, and durian is a typical representative of it. A study published in Nature Genetics pointed out that durian has genes that control sulfide synthesis, and these genes are activated when the durian is ripe, so the ripe durian will emit a strong and pungent smell. [5]
Bibliography:
- Zhu Zhaohua (2014). Detection of nutrients and main flavor compounds of sour bamboo shoots. (Doctoral dissertation, Guangxi University).
- YANG Yuexin. (2019). Chinese Food Composition Table, 6th ed. Beijing:Peking University Medical Press.
- Lin Xiangyun. (2013). Perfumery, Chemical Industry Press
- Jean-Pierre, R. , David, M. , Nicolas, T. , Anne-Marie, M. , & Tao, J. . (2016). The neural bases of disgust for cheese: an fmri study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10.
- Teh, B. T. Nature Genet. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3972 (2017)