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Did you know that some fruits and vegetables contain toxins that are harmful to the body? Yup! It turns out that your favorite fruit or vegetable has secretly contained toxins that can be harmful to the body. How can you stay safe? Check out the following explanation.
1. Lychee fruit
The lychee when viewed from the outside looks rough and prickly. Even so, the pulp has a sweet taste, is soft and contains a lot of water. However, if you eat this fruit before it is ripe, especially eaten on an empty stomach or consumed by malnourished children, then lychees can be poisonous and have fatal consequences. As recently happened in the city of Muzaffarpur India, which is the largest lychee production area in India.
Every year, hundreds of children in India are hospitalized for fever and seizures. Recent reports reveal that they may have been exposed to poison from raw lychees. These toxins cause sugar production in the body to be inhibited, resulting in lower blood sugar levels or hypoglycemia. This can lead to encephalopathy, or a functional change in brain function.
2. Cassava
According to the World Bank, cassava is the most important source of calories after corn and rice, which are consumed by 600 million people worldwide every day. This type of plant is delicious when fried, boiled, or grilled. But be careful! Cassava can be poisonous if not processed properly. In fact, this plant naturally contains hydrogen cyanide, so it needs proper processing to reduce its toxicity.
Cassava processing can be done by fermentation, stripping, drying, and cooking to remove toxins. If someone eats raw or unprocessed, eating cassava can affect thyroid hormones and damage to nerve cells in the brain associated with movement, and can even lead to paralysis.
3. Star fruit
Star fruit has a high enough risk for people who suffer from kidney disease. According to the National Kidney Foundation in the United States, star fruit contains toxins that can affect the brain and can cause nervous disorders.
For people who have healthy kidneys, these toxins can be processed and eliminated in the body, but on the other hand, people who have chronic kidney disease cannot detoxify this fruit. As a result, the poison can potentially cause death.
4. Sugarcane plant
This plant is actually not dangerous to eat, but if left for too long, the effect is not good. Eating moldy or sugarcane that has been stored for too long has the risk of causing poisoning.
Even if the fungus in sugarcane is eaten by children, it can cause death or lifelong neurological disease. Not only children, this poison is also dangerous for all circles. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this fungus called artbrinium produces toxins that can cause vomiting, seizures, and coma.
5. Cycads
One of the most well-known products of the cycad plant is sago. Starch that comes from the trunk of the sago tree can be eaten in many forms. Just like cassava, cycads need processing to get rid of the toxins in them. The reason is, cycads are ancient plants which are one of the most poisonous plants in the world and trigger neurodegenerative diseases.
This neurodegenerative disease plays a role in thrush, which is a neurological disease such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's on the island of Guam - the origin of this plant. Two poisons contained in cycads, namely cycasin and BIMAA, must be removed by washing, fermentation and cooking.
6. Potatoes
Maybe you are surprised why potatoes can be included in the list of types of fruits and vegetables that contain toxins. The reason is, potatoes are one of the foods that are in great demand by people but in fact they can be toxic to the body. Salanine - a poison in potatoes, in fact can be dangerous if the potato is consumed when the sprouts have grown and are green.
Potatoes that have sprouted and are green will taste even more bitter. This bitter taste is allegedly a sign that there is poison in the potato.
7. Red beans
Many nuts contain phytohemagglutinin toxins, but the most toxic content is red beans. Even so, the toxic content can be reduced when the red beans are cooked. Within one to three hours, people can experience nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea which can develop into stomach pain. However, the impact is not as bad as when exposed to the poison of cassava and star fruit. People can recover fairly quickly within three or four hours after symptoms begin.
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