[Medical Q&A] What should you pay attention to while enjoying delicious seafood?

Author: Li Haijie, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, North China University of Technology

Reviewer: Yan Shengguang, Professor of School of Public Health, North China University of Technology

Seafood is not only delicious, but also rich in protein and minerals. However, as seafood-related food safety issues frequently occur, we should pay special attention to the following points when enjoying it.

Seafood that is not cooked thoroughly contains bacteria, so it must be strictly sterilized before eating. As people pursue the freshness of food, "raw marinated seafood" is becoming more and more popular, but the pathogens in seafood are mainly Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which are relatively heat-resistant and can only be killed at temperatures above 80°C. In addition to bacteria, seafood may also contain parasite eggs and bacteria and virus contamination caused by processing. Generally speaking, boiling in boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes is considered to be completely sterilized. Therefore, you must be cautious about seafood that is not heated and cooked, and you must ensure that the fish is fresh and hygienic.

Be sure to eat seafood in moderation and try to avoid eating it with fruit. Although seafood tastes delicious, the high protein content and relatively complex food ingredients may put a certain burden on the human stomach. Fruits contain more tannic acid. If you eat them with fruit, it will not only affect the body's absorption of protein, but also irritate the gastrointestinal tract and even cause abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms. Therefore, it is best to wait for more than 2 hours after a seafood meal (because it takes 2 to 3 hours for food to empty in the stomach) before eating fruit.

People with gout should eat less seafood, and people with allergies should not eat seafood. Seafood is a food with high purine content, which has a significant effect of raising uric acid and can easily aggravate gout symptoms. Therefore, people with gout should eat less seafood. Seafood is a food that can easily cause allergies, because the rich protein contained in seafood is a foreign protein to the human body and is the most common food-borne allergen. If you are allergic to seafood, you should abstain from it to avoid allergic symptoms.