Top 10 Food Myths in China (Part 1)
If you've lived in Beijing long enough, you've probably heard the rumors that “fensi noodles and seaweed are made of plastic,” “eating crab and persimmon at the same time will poison you,” “pork blood and mu’er mushrooms can protect you from PM2.5.”
In an attempt to quell some of this ignorance and scaremongering, The Beijing News recently listed a number of the most prevalent and pervasive fake rumors that have spread across China in recent years. Of course, it pays to be vigilant and conscious of what you're putting in your body but it also pays to know when people are feeding you lies.
On that note, let's take a look at some debunked food rumors that have had China gripped with fear in the past few years.
Myth 1: Seafood + Vitamin C = Poison
Rumor: Last October, a number of websites shared the a story describing how “two women died from eating crabs and persimmons together.” Many people believe that eating seafood alongside a dose of vitamin C will poison you.
Fact: The only way in which you could be poisoned by eating seafood and vitamin C is if you ate several kilograms of arsenic-contaminated crabs as well as the equivalent of five kilograms of tomatoes, making it nearly impossible. “Vitamin C can transform pentavalent arsenic into trivalent arsenic under laboratory conditions, but it’s hard to replicate in normal conditions,” Zhu Yi, deputy professor at the College of Food Science at China Agricultural University, explains.
Myth 2: Pig's blood and mu’er fungus can protect you from PM2.5
Rumor: Pig's blood, thanks to the detoxifying plasma proteins held within, can absorb the toxins in your body and also undergo a chemical reaction with dust and metal particles, transforming them into non-absorbable material to be excreted through the digestive tract. Mu’er or wood ear fungus, on the other hand, performs a similar function for our lungs.
Fact: Theoretically, these foods can't cleanse your lungs. In traditional Chinese medicine books, the beneficial function of pig's blood, duck's blood, and mu’er has never been outlined. But there is some research that shows that animal blood can affect the digestive tract and help absorb fewer poisonous materials from our food, and help it to excrete them. However, PM2.5 lodges itself in the bronchus of the lungs, and there is no solid proof that these foods can reach these areas or have an affect on them.
Myth 3: Eating poultry will give you bird flu
Rumor: Around Spring Festival of this year the following rumor did the rounds online: “Hao Aijun from Jiangxi Province ate dapanji [a chicken dish from Xinjiang] at Wushijie restaurant and died after being infected by H7N9 (bird flu).” There were also other rumors on the Internet saying that after eating paojiao fengzhua [chicken feet with pickled chili] one person had become infected with bird flu.
Fact: “The main way that people can be infected by the H7N9 virus is to be directly or indirectly exposed to an environment contaminated by infected birds, and there’s no proof that H7N9 virus can affect human beings through cooked meat,” explains the National Health and Family Planning Commission. Also, bird flu can’t be transmitted between human beings.
Myth 4: Eating pig’s trotters can improve your looks
Rumor: Eating pig's trotters will improve your looks.
Fact: “Collagen found in pig’s trotters is not made up of quality protein, and eating an egg or drinking a glass of milk is much better from the point of consuming protein,” Zhu Yi said. “If your body is healthy, and you have no issue digesting or sleeping, then your skin will naturally be glossy.”
Myth 5: Eating bracken will give you cancer
Rumor: In early 2008, there were rumors about bracken (a large, coarse fern) and bracken powder giving people stomach cancer.
Fact: “Whenever you see a rumor about a specific ingredient giving people cancer, don’t believe it, except for when it comes to smoking, which has been proven to increase the chances of getting lung cancer, throat cancer, and oral cancer. In order to get cancer from food you would have to constantly eat that same ingredient over a very long period of time. The human body can self-regulate, so there won’t be a big risk,” says Fan Zhijiang from the China Agricultural University.
So, we hope you learned something today and you should never be so quick to jump on the rumor-mongering bandwagon. Until part 2, eat health(il)y and wisely.
Photos: giphy.com，nipic.com，Belarus.by, pighalle.co.uk, gobotany.newenglandwild.org
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