Today I discovered two great Food and Drug Administration (FDA) YouTube videos!
Both videos teach you the ins-and-outs of food selection, storage, and preparation. The first video involves fruits and veggies, while the second video is all about fish.
#1. It’s healthier to eat raw broccoli as opposed to cooked broccoli because a naturally occurring compound known as isothiocyanate could be anti-carcinogenic.
#2. Wild mushrooms are typically more flavorful than cultivated, but WAY more dangerous–too risky! Mushrooms are good replacements for meat because they have a very savory flavor. In addition, some mushrooms will pick up flavors from their soil, like wine grapes do. Furthermore, mushrooms are high in protein, high in fiber, 90% water, high in B vitamins and vitamin C, low in carbohydrates, have some essential fatty acids, and may also be high in MSG (more on this later).
#3. Fugu, a japanese delicacy, is a fancy name for prepared puffer fish–the most poisonous fish in the world. Puffer fish produce a deadly toxin, known as tetrodotoxin, which interferes with the nerve conduction by blocking sodium channels which causes a numbness if consumed in very, very tiny amounts… or can cause death within 17 minutes.
Allergic to fish?? Maybe not!
Named after the Scombridae family (Tuna, Bonito, Skipjack, Saury, Mackerel), this type of poisoning can involve any fish containing high levels of free histidine (Mahi-Mahi, Yellowtail, Bluefish, Herring, Sardines, Anchovies). Scombroid fish poisoning occurs when there’s bacterial growth on the fish due to poor preservation. These bacteria can breakdown the free histidines into histamines.
Thus, the symptoms of this poisoning, due to the effectiveness of antihistamines, are very similar to food allergy symptoms.
ERGO, you may not actually be allergic to fish … even if you think you are.
And lastly, to avoid scombroid poisoning, fish must be promptly refrigerated or eaten after capture. Histamine content can increase 1000 fold at room temperature for 10 hours.
