Seafood hot pot is a delightful dish for many families, but it's essential to be cautious about certain foods to avoid stomach discomfort or potential health risks. Explore these tips when indulging in seafood hot pot.
Seafood hot pot is a popular choice for gatherings, meeting friends, or weekend family meals among the Vietnamese. Its widespread popularity is due to its delicious aroma and high nutritional value. However, it's crucial to be aware of certain conflicting foods that may pose health risks.
Foods to Avoid When Eating Seafood Hot Pot
Avoid Consuming Fruits High in Vitamin C After Having Seafood Hot Pot
Eating fruits after enjoying seafood hot pot is a common practice. While tasty, consuming fruits rich in vitamin C such as oranges, pomelos, kiwis, guavas, mangoes, etc., can lead to bloating, indigestion, and nausea due to the interaction of pentavalent arsenic in seafood with vitamin C in fruits, converting into arsenic trioxide, also known as arsenious acid, causing discomfort to the body. If you still crave fruits, opt for those with lower vitamin C content and consume them 30-40 minutes after your hot pot meal.
Avoid Drinking Green Tea Immediately After Seafood Hot Pot
When drinking green tea right after seafood hot pot, the tannic acid in the leaves will combine with calcium in shellfish like shrimp and crab, causing indigestion, forming insoluble calcium that can lead to stomach pain and stone formation. If you enjoy green tea, limit its consumption and have it either before or after seafood hot pot, approximately 2 hours apart.
Avoid Having Seafood Hot Pot with Beer
Seafood and beer make a popular dining combination. However, consuming these two together stimulates the body to produce uric acid, leading to conditions like gout, joint inflammation, soft tissue inflammation, etc. While for healthy individuals, symptoms may not immediately surface, this poses a potentially harmful hidden health risk.
Avoid Mixing Cold and Cooling Foods with Seafood Hot Pot
Seafood is inherently cooling, and when combined with other cooling foods like cold water, carbonated beverages, watermelon, cucumber, pear, etc., it can result in bloating, indigestion, or worse, stomach discomfort.
Watermelon is a food that clashes with seafood
Who Should Avoid Seafood Hot Pot
Pregnant and breastfeeding women should not consume excessive seafood hot pot
While seafood is rich in nutrients, it's not advisable for mothers-to-be and breastfeeding moms to indulge excessively. Studies indicate that frequent consumption of seafood during pregnancy or breastfeeding can impact the child's nervous system. Additionally, certain types of seafood like ocean fish containing high mercury or crabs with parasites can be harmful to the mother's body. Ideally, limit intake to 1-2 times per week with portions below 100g.
Patients with gout or arthritis should restrict seafood hot pot consumption
Individuals suffering from gout or arthritis should maintain a low-purine diet, avoiding high-purine foods such as seafood. Seafood intake elevates uric acid levels in the blood, worsening the conditions. Therefore, despite the fondness for seafood, it's necessary to limit consumption.
Those prone to allergies should exercise caution when having seafood hot pot
Seafood is among the most allergenic foods. Allergens present in seafood can trigger hypersensitivity reactions in the body. Allergic reactions to seafood typically occur within minutes or hours after consumption, manifesting in various ways such as itching, facial swelling, abdominal pain, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, and in rare cases, anaphylactic shock leading to potential fatality.
Best Practices When Enjoying Seafood Hot Pot
- Clean all eating utensils like bowls, chopsticks, spoons, ladles, hot pot, etc., to ensure safe hygiene.
- Use high-quality seafood with certified food safety standards, avoiding seafood of unclear origin. Avoid leaving the hot pot ingredients exposed to the air for too long, as it can lead to ingredient spoilage and toxin production.
- Cook the ingredients thoroughly in the seafood hot pot, especially various types of fish, crabs, snails, shrimp, clams, etc. Incomplete cooking may leave bacteria, parasites, and microorganisms alive, causing symptoms like nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, headaches, and potentially dangerous illnesses.
- Consume hot pot broth and dipping items at a moderate temperature. If scooping hot pot broth or items right from boiling, waiting a few minutes for it to cool slightly is advisable. Eating immediately may lead to mouth burns, mouth and esophagus ulcers, negatively affecting the stomach and teeth.
- Follow a logical eating sequence—start with half a cup of fruit juice, grape wine, white wine, soft drinks, etc. Then, eat some starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes to activate the stomach. Finally, consume vegetables and meats, including seafood.
- The dipping time for seafood is 15 minutes, meat around 10 minutes, organs 5 minutes, and vegetables 1-2 minutes depending on the type.
- Finish the meal with fruits around 30-40 minutes after enjoying hot pot to enhance taste without losing the fruit's nutritional value.
- Use hot pot broth and ingredients on the same day; avoid leaving them overnight. Seafood hot pot remains an enticing dish with high nutritional value beneficial for health.
Simply adhere to these guidelines when having seafood hot pot to ensure both health and taste. PasGo Ship is pleased to introduce you to our fresh, high-quality seafood hot pot sets, certified for food safety.
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