"Especially cautious during summer!"... 8 foods that require caution

Summer is exhausting with the hot weather, ongoing tropical nights making it hard to sleep, and fatigue setting in. Carelessly eating food without caution can even jeopardize your health. Among various foods, we looked into those that require special attention during the summer.

 

▶ If you have kidney disease, avoid eating watermelon... Cantaloupe also has a high potassium content

 

It may be frustrating to hear not to eat watermelon, a representative summer fruit. Watermelon is good for hydration, recovery from fatigue, and diuretic effects, but it can be fatal for people with kidney disease. This is because it has a high potassium content, which can cause muscle weakness or arrhythmia. Cantaloupe also has a high potassium content and requires caution.

 

▶ The pairing of peaches and eel is the worst... Sometimes eel sashimi can cause toxicity, so be cautious.

 

Peaches, like watermelons, are summer fruits. They are rich in vitamins and minerals but are also a common food that can cause allergies. In particular, peaches can cause diarrhea when eaten together with eel. Many people enjoy eel as a summer health food, but the blood of snake eels and conger eels contains a protein toxin called ichthyotoxin. While cooking or grilling destroys this toxin, consuming raw eel may sometimes leave the blood partially intact, which can lead to vomiting, diarrhea, and difficulty breathing, so caution is advised.

 

▶ During the summer, it is advisable to be cautious when consuming seafood such as oysters, mussels, conchs, and small octopuses.

 

Oysters are easily spoiled due to high temperatures in summer. Therefore, they should be avoided raw because of the risk of food poisoning such as enteritis or vibrio. Wild mussels also contain deadly paralytic shellfish toxins, so caution is especially needed when consuming them from May to July, but farmed mussels can be safely eaten. Additionally, green entrails of small octopuses contain toxic substances and must be removed before consumption, and the purple ink of small octopuses should be removed for safe eating.

 

Plum must be aged before eating to be safe.

 

Unripe green plums contain a large amount of a toxin called amygdalin. Consuming them can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, but fortunately, this compound almost disappears after aging for about 6 months to a year, so it is better to make and eat preserved plums.