Be careful! Eating sugar cane in spring can be fatal! Why can't you eat this kind of sugar cane?

As the saying goes, "Sugarcane during Qingming Festival is as poisonous as a snake." I'm not trying to scare you. If you eat sugarcane improperly in spring, you may really be poisoned.

Sugarcane is a kind of fruit, sweet, juicy and refreshing. However, cases of sugarcane poisoning are not uncommon. Every year, people are poisoned by eating poisonous sugarcane, and in severe cases, it can be fatal. Why do people say that sugarcane in spring is "poisonous"? What kind of sugarcane can't be eaten? In this article, let's talk about sugarcane.

01

How nutritious is sugarcane?

Sugarcane is generally divided into two types: sugarcane for production and sugarcane for fresh consumption. The latter is the sugarcane for fresh consumption, which includes yellow-skinned sugarcane and black-skinned sugarcane. Sugarcane juice made from sugarcane is very popular in the market. I believe that every foodie cannot resist the temptation of sugarcane juice. It is really refreshing to have a glass of sugarcane juice when you are thirsty.

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However, don’t expect a glass of sugarcane juice to provide much nutrition. Sugarcane juice does not have any outstanding nutritional contribution. Drinking 100 grams can only provide 10 micrograms of carotene, 2 milligrams of vitamin C, 14 milligrams of calcium, 95 milligrams of potassium, and 0.4 milligrams of iron, which is only a drop in the bucket to meet our daily nutritional needs. [1] Therefore , its contribution to supplementing nutrients is very small. However, it does contain a lot of sugar. The sucrose, glucose, and fructose content are all as high as 12%, which is not conducive to blood sugar control. [2]

Sugarcane is the most important sugar crop in my country. In the food industry, sugarcane is often used to produce brown sugar and white sugar. Drinking it often may cause weight gain, and if you do not pay attention to oral hygiene, it may increase the risk of tooth decay.

02

Why is it easy to get poisoned by eating sugarcane in spring?

Sugarcane is generally harvested in October and November each year, but the season for people to eat sugarcane lasts until April of the following year. This period is still very long. During this storage period, sugarcane is prone to mold, especially in the hot and humid south. When the temperature rises in spring, it is easy to produce Arthrosporum fungi, which in turn produces a toxic metabolite, 3-nitropropionic acid. This is a highly toxic neurotoxin with stable toxicity. The toxicity is not reduced after heating and disinfectant treatment. The human body has no immunity to it, and there is no specific medicine to detoxify it. [3]

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Sugarcane poisoning incidents often occur between February and April each year. If moldy sugarcane is eaten, once infected with 3-nitropropionic acid poisoning, the onset of the disease is rapid , with an incubation period of 10 minutes to more than ten hours. Symptoms of acute poisoning include vomiting, dizziness, visual impairment, unilateral gaze of the eyeball, paroxysmal convulsions, limb rigidity, flexion, internal rotation, hands becoming like chicken claws, coma, etc. Severe cases are mostly children. In severe cases, cerebral ischemia and necrosis may lead to death within 1 to 3 days, and survivors often have lifelong disability sequelae. [4]

In particular, you must be cautious when buying sugarcane sold in the spring. From 2015 to 2016, someone tested the sugarcane sold in the Huzhou market and found that the positive rate of 3-nitropropionic acid in sugarcane was the lowest in November and December, at 9.86%, while in March and April, the positive rate was as high as 51.56%. Therefore, the risk of mold in sugarcane in the spring is very high, so you must be cautious when eating it . [5]

03

How to identify moldy sugarcane?

Since moldy sugarcane is so "toxic", we must learn to identify moldy sugarcane in our lives.

- Look: The surface of moldy sugarcane is generally dull in color and has a poor appearance. Traces of insect bites can be seen between nodes or between subsections. At the end of the moldy sugarcane, there will be floc-like or hairy white substances. After cutting, there will be red filaments on the cross section.

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- Smell: Fresh sugarcane has a sweet smell. If it smells moldy or lees, it means it is not fresh and may have already gone moldy. It is best not to buy or eat it.

-Pinch: Use your hands to pinch the sugarcane to feel its hardness. Fresh sugarcane is firm and hard. If it feels soft when pinched, it means it is not fresh.

When buying sugar cane, you must observe it carefully. If the color of the sugar cane looks wrong, the smell is wrong, and there are white mycelium and red spots, then don't eat it. Even if it is just a little moldy, don't eat the whole thing. Although other parts may look fine to the naked eye, they may have been contaminated by mold mycelium, but you just can't see it yet. Don't lose the big picture for the sake of "not wasting".

Special reminder: It is best not to drink the freshly squeezed sugarcane juice sold in the market. After all, you cannot tell whether it has gone bad without seeing the raw materials. If you like to drink sugarcane juice, buy fresh and high-quality sugarcane and squeeze the juice yourself, which is safe and reliable.

Summarize:

Although sugarcane tastes sweet and delicious, people who need to control blood sugar and weight should eat less or no sugarcane, and even healthy people should control the amount. In addition, spring is the peak season for sugarcane sales, so be sure to pay more attention to moldy sugarcane and never eat it!

References:

[1] Yang Yuexin, Wang Guangya, Pan Xingchang. Editors. Chinese Food Composition Table. December 2009. 2nd edition.

[2]https://www.samr.gov.cn/xw/zj/201903/t20190327_292391.html

[3] Wang Yanli, Ning Dejiao, Ya Yu, Xie Liping, Jiang Cuiwen, Liang Jing, Li Tao, Yan Feiyan, Tang Li. Research progress on detection methods of 3-nitropropionic acid in sugarcane and its products[J]. Guangxi Sugar Industry, 2022, 42(04): 3-7.

[4] WS/T 10-1996, Diagnostic criteria and treatment principles for spoiled sugarcane food poisoning[S].

[5] Fu Yun, Shao Guojian, Zhang Peng. Investigation of 3-nitropropionic acid contamination in commercially available sugarcane in Huzhou area[J]. Chinese Journal of Health Laboratory Technology, 2017, 27(11): 1616-1617.

Author: Xue Qingxin Member of Chinese Nutrition Society Registered Nutritionist Health Manager Public Nutritionist

Review | Zhang Na, Associate Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, Peking University School of Public Health

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