This article is from WeChat official account: Slot value (ID: caozhi163), author: sister slot values, from the head of FIG: visual China
Under the trend of health preservation among contemporary adults, various health myths are always wave after wave. The effect that comes faster than the myths claims is to “slap face” these myths. The sea cucumber, once touted to the altar, has recently fallen into controversy.
This year’s CCTV 315 party revealed that some farmers will use dichlorvos to clean up other creatures in the sea cucumber breeding lake, leaving only sea cucumbers with strong anti-virus ability. But in fact, even ordinary sea cucumbers, which are pure natural and additive-free, are far less magical. The myth about sea cucumbers should have been broken long ago.
1. Sea cucumbers that are madly sought after
Drink bird’s nest to nourish beauty, eat donkey-hide gelatin to replenish qi and blood, eat sea cucumber to treat kidney deficiency… These news that used to only appear in family groups are now appearing more and more frequently in search engines for young people.
Young people who “make up for” every day / Weibo
Facts have proved that people of any age group will inevitably step into the trap of “false health preservation” as long as they are engulfed by the flood of health preservation culture. The sea cucumber known as “high nutrition, high protein, low fat” is one of the representatives.
Under the banner of “precious delicacies”, sea cucumbers have always been enthusiastic about health preservation. The price of just over a thousand kilos at random seems to be enough “noble”. The seafood set meal in the restaurant, a few small plates of sea cucumber, at least one to two thousand base.
On a certain treasure, half a catty of dried sea cucumber costs thousands of yuan.
Eating one bite is nearly 40 yuan.
But looking at the miraculous effect of sea cucumbers, some people gritted their teeth and suffocated one sentence: “Buy!” With the spirit of hoarding on Double Eleven, the more the quantity, the better.
Be cautious when buying sea cucumbers, don’t let impulsive mothers know / Weibo
DomesticThe unabated pursuit of sea cucumber by Shengquan has not only contributed to the emergence of sea cucumber breeding bases in large numbers, but also allowed some overseas purchasing agents to see business opportunities. Out of the principle of nature protection, Chinese law stipulates that sea cucumbers are organisms that are not allowed to be brought into or out of the country at will and will be subject to strict immigration inspections.
China related immigration regulations
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun once reported that more and more Chinese tourists are snapping up local famous sea cucumbers in Hokkaido, causing the price of Hokkaido sea cucumbers to soar, 80 grams of premium sea cucumbers sold for 48,000 yen(about 3000 RMB). Focusing on the rising domestic demand for sea cucumbers and market dividends, many daigou decided to try frantically on the verge of illegality.
A Chinese man once purchased 23,000 dried sea cucumbers in Russia, weighing 54 kilograms and worth close to 200,000 yuan, and they were detained by the Russian border.
It is not known whether the sea cucumbers at home and abroad are superior or inferior, but the persistence of the daigou is enough to see how popular the domestic sea cucumber market is. In this way, after Japan grabbed toilet lids and Paris grabbed luxury goods, Chinese overseas shopping has another label-grabbing sea cucumbers. In 2019, Costco newly launched dried sea cucumbers in a branch in Canada, which triggered a rush by Chinese.
CanadaCostco stores grabbed the sea cucumber grand occasion
Most of these people are purchasing agents who are active overseas. They bring their own carts and pile up sea cucumbers like goods, starting with 20 or 30 packages per person. On the other hand, the “Canadian Sea Cucumber” advertisement has spread to the circle of friends in the domestic regimen, setting off another wave of panic buying.
In some Southeast Asian countries that also believe in “diet therapy”, the trend of sea cucumber health preservation is also hot.
Second, sea cucumber = big supplement? Anti-cancer?
The idea of sea cucumber health preservation is not entirely groundless. In many records in ancient China, the “effects” of sea cucumbers have been touted as supernatural. Some scholars believe that the history of China’s consumption of sea cucumbers can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period. According to the records of “Linhai Water Soil Foreign Objects”, the first sea cucumber to be discovered is also called “soil meat”.
The cooking method at that time was simple and rude, with only one word: roasting. This record is very sketchy. It doesn’t mention whether people considered the pharmacological properties of sea cucumbers when they ate them. It only mentioned that it was out of novelty and deliciousness.
After this, with the fishing and eating of sea cucumbers it became common. In the Ming Dynasty, sea cucumber was used as the royal foodGong has also been dubbed a gimmick related to pharmacology. Supplementing the shape by shape is one of the important reasons why sea cucumbers are considered to be “big tonic”. The physical characteristics of sea cucumbers are considered to be similar to male reproductive organs, so they are “bound” to male health and are believed to have the effect of nourishing the kidney and strengthening yang.
A sea cucumber regularly appears on the table of every health expert
Not only “tonic”, the pharmacological ingredients contained in sea cucumbers are also being marketed.
The sea cucumber polysaccharides(full name “sea cucumber acid mucopolysaccharide”), in many sea cucumber advertisements and packaging, are labeled as anti- The miraculous effect of cancer. People’s Daily Online reported that a best-selling book titled “Cancer: Breaking the Convention” was once popular in China. When the author Tym Bollinger was interviewed, he especially mentioned its magical effect on cancer.
Sea cucumbers became “magic medicine” in his mouth. Not only can it directly kill cancer cells, but it can also perform immunomodulation, thereby reducing the side effects of chemotherapy.
Tym Bollinger accepts an interview with foreign program “A Healthy You”
Under all kinds of violent publicity, sea cucumber is just a mediocre “sea cucumber” in foreign countries.(sea cucumber)< /span>, when I arrived in China, I gained the reputation of “Sea Ginseng” in one fell swoop. Tonic, anti-cancer… Just by looking at these health gimmicks, you may be able to understand why sea cucumbers are so expensive, and many people are willing to pay for it.
3. Is the sea cucumber that is held up to the sky really useful?
The affirmation of the nutrients contained in sea cucumbers by existing studies is the reason why many “component parties” insist on keeping the sea cucumbers in good health. But the question is, can the beneficial elements of these sea cucumbers be fully absorbed after entering the human body?
Physiological structure diagram of sea cucumber
In daily life, the most common edible type of sea cucumbers is dried sea cucumbers that are processed and dried. Compared with fresh sea cucumbers with high water content, the protein content of dried sea cucumbers can reach more than 50%, which can indeed be called “high protein”.
However, the way people eat dried sea cucumbers is generally to first soak them in water and then cook them at high temperatures. These two processes are exactly the “culprits” that greatly reduce the protein content of sea cucumbers. The process of soaking increases the water content and reduces the proportion of sea cucumber protein content; At the same time, related studies have shown that under high temperature boiling, as long as the duration exceeds 30 minutes, the protein contained in sea cucumbers will lose 20%. Left and right.
High temperature boiling, the only way to eat sea cucumber
Looking at it this way, after the final cooked food, the effect of sea cucumbers in replenishing protein will be a question mark. As for whether sea cucumbers really have such a strong pharmacological potential, current research is also controversial. The American Cancer Society stated in a discussion on the functions of sea cucumbers, although some laboratory studies have shown that the components extracted from sea cucumbers have a certain effect on inhibiting tumor growth. However, there is no clinical evidence to prove the role of sea cucumbers in anti-cancer in animals or humans.
Studies have shown that Philinopside A, a saponin extracted from sea cucumbers, may have an anti-tumor effect by inhibiting the formation of new blood vessels, but this research result has not been proven in living organisms. On the other hand, although the active substances contained in sea cucumbers have been shown to have the effect of inhibiting tumor cells, it is unscientific to talk about the efficacy regardless of the dosage.
In the report of People’s Daily Online, professional physicians from the Clinical Nutrition Department of Tongji Hospital analyzed: Taking sea cucumber polysaccharides, which account for 6% of dried sea cucumbers, as an example, an adult cancer patient needs to eat at least one tael of dried sea cucumbers a day, and he needs to insist on eating them. It may be effective in a few months. 1 Two dried sea cucumbers are converted into 40 heads of high-quality sea cucumbers, and you need to eat at least 4 per day.
Even if people can really insist on eating so much every day, there is a prerequisite to ensure that these active substances with anti-cancer effects still exist in sea cucumbers. In fact, the polysaccharides, saponins and other elements contained in sea cucumbers have certain characteristics such as high temperature denaturation and soluble in water. Therefore, these biologically active substances will be lost or destroyed to a certain extent during the drying process, boiling and other processes.
Blast drying and vacuum drying will affect the active substances contained in sea cucumbers
The sea cucumber that was once held up to the sky is really not that magical. As soon as the “3·15” news came to light, the status of sea cucumbers in people’s minds dropped significantly.
The result of a poll initiated by Weibo, most of the netizens said they would not dare to eat sea cucumbers/@广州日报
Over-reliance on various “food therapies” and “health preservation recipes”, always hoping to see “miracle” after supplementation. In the end all the money was spent, but with little effect. Rather than relying on the “magic medicine” and “big tonic”, it is better to go to bed and get up early and eat healthy. Good living habits are the fundamental guarantee of health(this article has been reviewed by professional physicians)