During the Spring Festival, the feast of reunion is essential, and the saying of “food compatibility” has once again attracted people’s attention. On some portals, articles and videos about “food compatibility” are often seen; on shopping sites such as Dangdang.com and Excel.com, there are more than a hundred kinds of books about food compatibility, all under the banner of nutritionists. Is the phenomenon of “food compatibility” common in life? Is there a scientific basis? Different food with “improper” whether it will affect the absorption of nutrients or even lead to poisoning, death? People’s Daily “for proof” column reporter interviewed a number of nutrition, medical experts. Can “food compatibility” cause death? There is no clinical report, as early as 1935 was denied by a population test Snail and fava beans together will be colic, rabbit and celery together will be dehydrated …… “food compatibility” argument, triggering a part of people’s concerns about diet. Where do these claims come from? The Chinese Nutritionist Society honorary president Ge Keyou said, “food grams” legend has a long history, but only a legend, not seen scientific evidence. Xu Fengqin, chief physician of Xiyuan Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, introduced the theory of “food compatibility” in Chinese folklore, as early as 1935, Nanjing, there is a folklore bananas and taro mixed with food poisoning caused by food compatibility. In that year, Zheng Ji, a leading nutritionist and professor at Nanjing University, decided to test the claim that “food compatibility” causes disease. He collected 184 pairs of folklore food, from which he chose bananas and taro, peanuts and cucumbers, green onions and honey, baked green beans and caramel, turtle and amaranth, crab and {, crab and pomegranate, crab and Wujia Pi wine, crab and thornbush, carp and thornbush, carp and licorice, beef and corn, and egg and sugar, etc. 14 groups of food, so that animals and people try to eat, in the 24 hours after eating In 2008, Lanzhou University and Harbin Medical University also conducted similar experiments, and the subjects did not have any obvious adverse reactions. Lin Yin, director of the Department of Health and Rehabilitation at the Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, also pointed out that the idea of “food compatibility” is meaningless, as there are no clinical reports and it has been disproved by population trials. “In nutrition, there are no food and food taboos, only taboos between food and disease.” Song Xin, a nutritionist at the Department of Nutrition at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, believes that suffering from a certain disease, certain foods should be contraindicated, for example, if a patient has high blood lipids, he should not eat high-fat foods. “Legend has it that ‘lamb is contraindicated from watermelon, chicken is contraindicated from chrysanthemum, and eating together is poisonous.’ But these foods are often eaten together at the dinner table, and no one has been seen to be poisoned!” Fan Zhihong, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at China Agricultural University, said. According to her, the so-called “compatibility” can be divided into two categories: one is related to “reducing nutrient absorption” or “causing the destruction of certain nutrients”; the other is related to poisoning, illness and so on. The former is almost harmless, while the latter is harmful due to the consumption of certain foods is a prerequisite. Take shrimp and vitamin C together, for example, rumors say that it will be poisoned, the reason is that shrimp contains a high concentration of “pentavalent arsenic compounds”, vitamin C will transform it into highly toxic trivalent arsenic that is arsenic, and then spread the word that seafood can not be eaten with food containing vitamin C. In fact, 100-200 mg of arsenic is a fatal risk, China’s general fish arsenic content standard is 0.1 mg / kg, that is, qualified aquatic products even if you eat 10 kg, plus enough vitamin C, will not be poisoned. Some foods eaten together why trigger discomfort? The answer is that it is related to unhygienic food, improper cooking methods, uncontrolled diet and personal constitution. People sometimes get gastrointestinal discomfort, itchy skin and even food poisoning after eating. Is this caused by “food compatibility”? “This symptom is related to unhygienic food, parasites, improper cooking methods and personal constitution.” Zhang Chunyan, director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Shanghai Oriental Hospital, said that in her many years of medical experience, she has never encountered a case of death caused by “food compatibility”. For the net rumors of the cause of food compatibility disease, Zhang Chunyan summarized into two categories: one is from the chemical theory in modern science. Such as sea shrimp and vitamin C; the second is the food with hot and cold temperature. For example, mutton with garlic, both are hot food, eating together will fire. Lin Yin categorized and analyzed 163 kinds of so-called compatible foods, and found that these foods have five characteristics: First, there are more exotic species. Second, meat, especially aquatic products accounted for a relatively high proportion of such foods are rich in high protein, easy to rot and infected with parasites, but also easy to cause human allergies. Third, raw foods. Fourth, fermented foods such as pickles. Fifth, edible mushrooms, there is a risk of food poisoning caused by accidental ingestion, etc.. The above-mentioned foods can also go wrong if consumed improperly and have nothing to do with ensiling. “Food poisoning and ‘food compatibility’ are not the same concept.” Song Xin said that food poisoning, refers to a certain food containing harmful substances, such as unclean food, poisoned honey, puffer fish poisoning. And the so-called gram refers to food interaction, the human body has adverse effects. Song Xin said he has been working in the hospital for more than 10 years and has not encountered any patients treated for “food compatibility”. “For a certain food, only the inappropriate body, there is no gram of food.” According to Zhang Chunyan, some people with weak stomach and intestinal function will have diarrhea after eating crab and then persimmon, but not everyone will. For the possible adverse reactions caused by eating two foods together, the rumors are misleading and exaggerated. For people who know more about eating seafood and drinking beer will induce gout, the director of the Shanghai Nutrition Society and the director of the nutrition department of Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, Gao Jian, believes that seafood and beer are both high purine foods, eaten alone or with other foods, may cause gout attacks in sensitive people, and has nothing to do with phasing. Zhang Chunyan said, in line with the principle of a light diet, easy to digest, moderate food, and then combined with their own physique and the cold, hot, warm and cold properties of food, can ensure safe consumption. Why is the theory of “food compatibility” prevalent? Many people do not consider the premise of physical fitness, improper understanding of the “opposite of food” in Chinese medicine, the “opposite of food” absolute Xu Fengqin said, the improper combination of food, the ancient Chinese medical texts called “opposite of food “The opposite of food The opposite of food is the opposite of physical or food nature, which is not the same thing as the exaggerated concept of “food grams”. According to the concept of Chinese medicine, the “opposite” of the superposition of physical properties to appear side effects varies from person to person, but also has the premise. For example, crab is cold, persimmon is also cold, two cold things put together, if it happens to catch the cold body of people, may lead to diarrhea. The reason for the prevalence of “food compatibility”, according to Xu Fengqin, is that many people lack a deep understanding of traditional Chinese medicine theory, and only according to their own daily life experience, the diet, life discomfort symptoms as “food compatibility”. Lin Yin pointed out that the prevalence of “food compatibility” indicates that our health education has gone awry over the years. This reminds us to spread scientific health knowledge, so that the people know the common sense characteristics of food. Fan Zhihong said, Chinese medicine is actually saying that if you eat food that does not fit your constitution, or nutritionally inappropriate, or the amount of consumption is not appropriate, it is the way to eat to the detriment of health. Each person’s physique is different, and dietary scruples vary greatly. Absolute and uniform taboos are unscientific and will affect dietary diversity, which is not good for health. Gao Jian said that the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents advocates that people should “diversify their food”, and that people should not be concerned about what is compatible with each other when choosing food, and that it is easier to achieve a balanced diet and comprehensive nutrition by consuming a variety of foods every day.