In many people's perception, eating takeout is almost synonymous with unhealth, so many people choose to cook at home. As everyone knows, some seemingly inconspicuous small habits when cooking at home can harm our health, and some bad habits when cooking can even hurt the body more than eating takeout.
Beijing Satellite TV once exposed a case, a local lady was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, and the terrible thing is that her father, brother and other family of four all died of cancer one after another.
In such a special case, the cause must be found, otherwise the tragedy may continue to repeat. After a lot of analysis and experiments, the doctor found that the carcinogenic factor in her family: it was actually a habit when cooking.
It turned out that doctors had found a large amount of aflatoxin on both the cutting board and chopsticks at the woman's house.
Wood products such as cutting boards and chopsticks, which are often used without drying or cleaning, are likely to lead to the production of Aspergillus flavus, and then produce a class of carcinogens that are more toxic than arsenic: aflatoxins!
Here are 9 bad habits when cooking, see if you have been tricked? If there is, it's not too late to change it!
1. The doors and windows of the kitchen are closed all year round
Some families close the doors and windows of the kitchen all the year round, and feel that when the windows are opened, the fumes will run out, and the home will be full of smoke and miasma. This is true, but it is indeed too selfish, because it only cares about the feelings of other people, and completely ignores the situation of the person in charge.
Kitchen fumes contain a large number of carcinogens such as aldehydes and phenylpyrene, which are very damaging to the respiratory tract if inhaled for a long time. In addition, studies have shown that staying in an unventilated oil smoke environment for half an hour can inhale harmful substances equivalent to smoking half a pack of cigarettes. It is conceivable that cooking in an unventilated kitchen for a long time and smoking oil fumes can easily lead to lung diseases and even lung cancer.
Suggestion: When stir-frying, try to open doors and windows to allow air convection.
Second, do not turn on the range hood for stir-frying
Some people not only do not open the kitchen doors and windows when cooking, but also do not even turn on the range hood, or turn off the range hood immediately after cooking, and this practice will also harm themselves and their families.
We've already talked about how harmful kitchen fumes are, and studies have shown that the longer you cook and the more you stir-fry every day, the greater the risk of lung cancer.
Suggestion: Turn on the range hood before starting the fire, and after frying, wait 3-5 minutes before turning off the range hood to ensure that the harmful gases are completely discharged.
3. Put the vegetables only when the pot is smoking
When stir-frying, many people like to wait for the oil in the pot to smoke before putting the vegetables in, which feels more "pot-like".
As everyone knows, most of the edible oil is now refined, and the smoke point is relatively high. At this time, it will not only destroy the nutrition of the food, but also cause the proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the food to change, and produce carcinogens such as benzopyrene and acrylamide.
Suggestion: You can heat the pot first, and then put in cold oil, if you don't know how high the oil temperature is, you can put a little ingredients on the edge of the oil, the ingredients are slightly bubbling, which means that the oil temperature is about the same.
Fourth, the oil used to fry things is used repeatedly
Every time you fry something, there will inevitably be a lot of oil left in the pot, and if you pour it directly, it will feel wasteful, so most people cook to keep this oil and use it again for the next cooking.
In fact, when the oil is heated at high temperatures, it produces trans fatty acids and toxic oil oxidation products, and if you continue to cook with this oil, the carcinogen production will increase dramatically, including the aforementioned benzopyrene.
In addition to this, the oil that has been fried has often oxidized and can easily spoil if not stored properly.
Suggestion: Try to eat less fried food, if you really want to eat fried food, you can use an air fryer to reduce the use of oil and avoid eating "leftover oil".
5. Mix of old and new oils
Once the newly bought oil is poured directly into the old oil pot, the new oil will be mixed with the old oil, so when the oil is heated during cooking, there will be large oil smoke and choking.
None of this matters, the most important thing is the production of epoxypropionaldehyde, which is also a carcinogen. Long-term ingestion can lead to acute respiration, circulatory failure, etc.
Suggestion: It is best to clean the oil pot regularly, do not mix the old and new oil together, and keep the oil pot away from natural gas and coal gas as much as possible.
6. Share a cutting board
If a cutting board is dirtier than a toilet, many people may not want to believe it.
According to a study by Harvard University, the amount of bacteria in household cutting boards is as high as 26,000 per square centimeter, which means that there are 200 times more bacteria hidden in a cutting board than in a toilet bowl!
CCTV has also done similar experiments, and the results show that there are as many as 200 million bacteria per square meter of cutting boards that have been used for more than 3 months.
Many families do not have the habit of cleaning the cutting board regularly, and some families share a cutting board for a long time, whether it is cutting raw meat, cooked food, fruits and vegetables, etc., all use the same cutting board. And this, it is easy to cause mixed cross-infection.
There are many more germs hidden in a cutting board than we think, such as staphylococcus, Enterobacter cloacae, E. coli, liver flukes, brain parasites and aflatoxin.
Suggestion: It is best to prepare two cutting boards, one for meat and one for fruits and vegetables; The cutting board should be changed every 2 years as much as possible; When cleaning the cutting board, you can first rinse it with clean water, then sprinkle it with salt, wipe it on the surface repeatedly, and finally rinse it well, try not to wash the cutting board with dish soap, because there may be residual dish soap.
7. Don't brush the pot after frying
Many people are accustomed to stir-frying without brushing the pot after stir-frying, and then directly stir-frying the next dish. After the end of the stir-frying, there are a lot of residues left in the pot, and when they are heated at high temperature again, these residues may be burned, especially after the residual oil left by the stir-fry is reheated, it is very easy to produce carcinogens such as epoxy propionaldehyde.
Suggestion: After stir-frying, you must finish brushing the pot and then stir-fry the next dish, don't be lazy.
8. Chopsticks and rags are reluctant to change
This mainly refers to wooden and bamboo chopsticks, and most of these chopsticks have a layer of lacquer on the surface in order to prolong their lifespan. After a long period of use, the paint on the surface will be damaged or peeled off, which is very easy to mold and breed aflatoxin.
The rag is even dirtier, and a survey conducted in Shanghai showed that 17.3% of the 300 families surveyed had more than 2,400 E. coli per square centimeter.
Suggestion: Try to choose stainless steel chopsticks or ceramic chopsticks, and throw away wooden chopsticks in time if the surface is moldy; Rags should be washed and disinfected frequently, and it is best to prepare a few more rags and change the rags frequently.
9. The rice cooker with the coating of the inner liner peeling off is reluctant to throw away
In the process of long-term cleaning, the coating of the rice cooker liner is easy to break or fall off, and some families continue to use this rice cooker and are reluctant to replace it.
As everyone knows, most rice cooker liners are made of aluminum that is evenly heated and has fast heat transfer. In a heated or acidic environment, aluminum can easily enter food, and long-term ingestion can damage the nervous system.
Suggestion: Try not to use steel wool balls, metal shovels, etc. when cleaning the inner tank, check the coating of the inner tank regularly, and don't use it if it is damaged.