The "king of mountain vegetables" bracken, which contains highly toxic carcinogens? Why are people okay after eating for thousands of years?
Crisp and tenderofBrackenIt is one of the most popular spring wild plants, as a fern herbaceous plant, even passed down 100 million years agoAge of DinosaursIt's the staple of vegetarian dinosaurs.
For the first time in the history of our country, there is a mention of brackenBook of Songs, roughly recorded that bracken had three functions in ancient times, one isSacrifice, two areServeand three are used as:Medicinal herbs
Therefore, it is also known"King of wild vegetables".The title. The bracken has a fist-shaped front end and grows extremely fast, so it needs to be picked in time, because the fist part in front of it will open and straighten in a few days, and this bracken will not taste good.
Because of the short picking cycle, bracken is precious, and major restaurants are vying to add this dish to their menus. There is also a very popular cold dish-Fern root powderIt is also made of starch extracted from the rhizomes of bracken, and is very popular with diners.
As a very popular dish, why did bracken slowly withdraw from people's tables? If you look it up on the Internet, there will be a lot of them".Bracken is poisonous"Bracken is the only oneCarcinogenicvegetables". When these articles were repeatedly put into the group chat of "Blind Date and Love Family", it appeared now"Ti fern discoloration".bracken has gradually faded out of people's field of vision.
Is bracken really poisonous? Let's take a look at what history says about bracken. As early as the Tang Dynasty, the medicine king Sun Simiao once said about eating bracken"Eat for a long time"., which means that if you eat bracken for a long time, it will have adverse effects on the body. Li Shizhen, a famous pharmacist in the Ming Dynasty, also mentioned it in the Compendium of Materia Medica".Long-term food makes people dark, stuffy, and hairy. It is also cold and eaten, and there is a lot of bloating. Children eat it, and their feet are weak and can't do it。It can be seen that eating a large amount of bracken does cause adverse reactions in the body.
However, from the descriptions of the two pharmacists, we can only see that a large amount of bracken will only appearNasal congestion, bloatingand other common symptoms, so what is the cause of cancer? It turns out that during World War II, it was reported that most cattle were diagnosed in pastures where bracken was flourishingChronic hematuria。Later, in 1983, Japanese scientists announced the results of scientific research, saying that a species called "bracken" had been extracted from brackenProtofernincarcinogens.
On October 27, 2017, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published a preliminary list of carcinogensGroup 3 carcinogensThere's a particularly striking name on the list –Protofernin。It is a unique substance extracted from bracken, which confirms the claim that bracken can cause cancer.
With the blessing of scientific research reports, it seems that the bracken has been sent to hell overnight. Can you still eat bracken? Why do humans eat it for thousands of years and become carcinogens in modern times?
In fact, if you want to know whether bracken can be eaten, you can first understand the substance protofernin. Group 3 carcinogensmeans,Evidence of carcinogenicity in humans is insufficient and evidence of carcinogenicity in animals is insufficient or limited. In other words, whether protofertinosides, a carcinogen, are really carcinogenic to the human body have not yet been fully experimentally proven.
Seeing this, some people must say that emaciated camels are bigger than horses, protofern is carcinogen after all, and bracken is still not edible. In fact, many things we come into contact with in our daily life contain carcinogens, such as second-hand smoke, which is the most commonly mentionedNicotineBelongsClass 1 carcinogensquality, that is, there have been enough experiments to prove that it is carcinogenic to the human body.
At present, second-hand smoke often appears in our lives, I believe everyone has smelled it, so has anyone got cancer after smelling it once? Apparently not.
There are also processed meats that are sold in major supermarkets, such as:Bacon, dried meat, canned meatand so on, as well as those in coastal areas that families often pickleSalted fish, which is contained in these foodsNitrite, nitrite is formed when it reacts with meat proteinsNitroso compoundsThis is also a very carcinogenic substance, I believe everyone has eaten the above types of food in daily life.
Therefore, for the fact that there is a carcinogen protofern in bracken, you really don't have to waste food because of chokingBecause talking about harm aside from the dosage is itself a hooligan. If you're still a little apprehensive, you can take a look at the following example.
Many people like to eat tomatoes, but they actually contain a substance that can poison people, calledSolanine, this substance will make people feelDizziness, nausea, and even difficulty breathing. So the question is, why don't we usually feel this way after eating tomatoes?
The reason is,Only eating 4 tons of tomatoes in one meal can cause poisoning。Who would eat 4 tons of tomatoes in one meal?
So bracken is actually one of the victims of this impression, as the saying goes: too much, you can't eat too much food. You can't just look at the harm, but also the dose。Eating some bracken in moderation is even good for the body.
Bracken containsVitamin C, vitamin E, folic acidand other substances, which have a very goodAntioxidant effect, which is good for the body. In addition to the bracken itselfProtein contentIt is also very high and can provide the body with the amino acids it needs.
Bracken also contains:Calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, phosphorusand other essential minerals for the human body, also containingCarbohydrates, fiberand other substances that are beneficial to the human body. Therefore, the nutritional value of bracken is also relatively high, and eating a small amount is beneficial to the body.
In fact, in addition to China, other countries also like to eat bracken. For example, inSouth KoreaBracken is often pickled and made into crisp and refreshing kimchi that appears on Korean dinner tablesSometimes, when you go to a Korean restaurant, you will find that bracken is also in the free pickles offered by them.
JapaneseThe love for bracken is obvious, and even a series of movies that are very famous in Japan"Little Forest: Winter and Spring".bracken is emphatically mentioned. It is depicted in the movie: When spring comes, people like to go to the mountains to pick fresh wild bracken. And often come home with a full load. In their backpacks, in the bags they carry, and even in the cloth bags hanging from their arms, they are full of wild bracken.
Some of the bracken is washed and blanched, and some of it is made into fresh dishes on the Japanese table, and some of it is pickled and stored as pickles, waiting for the winter when vegetables are in short supply. Japan and South Korea love bracken no less than in ChinaThere is a special bracken breeding base in the northeast of our country, which is specially exported to Japan and South Korea.
Looking at the world, Westerners also have a pursuit of bracken. Europeansthink,The taste of bracken is very similar to asparagus, so I make bracken as a side mealBracken can even be found in Western pies and pizzas, and it seems that bracken has indeed conquered the taste buds of the world.
Before cooking bracken on a daily basis, it is best to firstBlanch the waterBecause a large amount of protofern can be removed after blanching, the bracken that comes out in this way is not only crisp and refreshingThe content of hazardous substances has also been greatly reduced.
In fact, there are two sides to everything, and we can't just grasp the negative effects of things and ignore the positive ones. The carcinogenic risk of bracken is not absolute, but its nutritional value is certain, and a small amount of consumption is indeed beneficial to the human body. It is believed that in the near future, bracken will be justified, make a comeback, and return to people's tables.