Eat bamboo shoots properly to avoid poisoning

Bamboo shoots are a favorite dish of many people, but you need to process them carefully to avoid harming your health.

Bamboo shoots are a favorite food of Vietnamese people in both rural and urban areas, especially in feasts and on holidays. However, improper use of bamboo shoots is extremely dangerous, affecting health and can cause death.

Cyanide is an acid radical (-CN) whose compounds include salts or acids, which are very toxic, the fatal dose through the digestive tract is 1 mg/kg of body weight. Fresh bamboo shoots have a very high cyanide content, about 230mg/kg of bamboo shoots. When people eat bamboo shoots containing a lot of cyanide, under the influence of digestive enzymes, cyanide immediately turns into hydrocyanic acid (HCN), which is extremely toxic to the body and causes poisoning.

Each kilogram of bamboo shoots contains about 230mg of cyanide, which can cause instant death to two children over one year old. When boiled for about 12 hours, the cyanide content is still about 160mg per kilogram. However, if boiled and soaked in water for a long time, when the bamboo shoots have turned yellow and smelled sour, the cyanide content is only less than 9mg per kilogram. To avoid poisoning when eating bamboo shoots, the best way is to boil the bamboo shoots thoroughly, change the water many times when boiling, and soak the bamboo shoots for a sufficient amount of time before using.

Bamboo shoots must be boiled many times to reduce the toxicity. Photo: Cún Khang.

Symptoms of fresh bamboo shoot poisoning

Depending on the cyanide content in the bamboo shoots, the person who eats them will have different levels of poisoning. Symptoms usually appear about 5-30 minutes after eating bamboo shoots. In mild cases, symptoms include fear, anxiety, dizziness, headache, impaired consciousness, nausea, vomiting, irritation of the respiratory tract mucosa, etc.

Severe cases show signs of convulsions, jaw stiffness, stiffness, dilated pupils, respiratory failure, cyanosis, and coma. More severe cases will cause respiratory arrest, rapid and irregular heartbeat, atrioventricular conduction disorders, which are the main causes of death within minutes if not treated promptly.

Treatment of bamboo shoot poisoning

Detoxified bamboo shoots can be made into many delicious dishes. Photo: Cún Khang.

When a person who has eaten a lot of bamboo shoots shows the above signs, it is necessary to immediately help the victim vomit. Vomiting can be induced by drinking a full glass of water and then inserting a stick into the throat to induce vomiting. Perform artificial respiration if breathing stops, and immediately take the victim to the nearest medical center for timely treatment.

How to detoxify bamboo shoots

To ensure safety when using fresh bamboo shoots, we can apply the following detoxification methods:

Method 1:Peel off all the leaf sheaths (bamboo shoot skin), wash away the dirt and sand, then depending on the type of bamboo shoot, whether it is more or less poisonous, regular bamboo shoot or bitter bamboo shoot, there are different ways to handle it. You can cut it into thin slices or tear it into small pieces, soak it in clean water overnight to reduce the toxicity, then wash it again before processing it into dishes.

Method 2:Peel the fresh bamboo shoots, put them in a pot of water to boil. Boil them 2-3 times. Then soak them in rice water for 2 days before eating (change the rice water regularly, 2 times/day). Or boil them many times in boiling water and then rinse with clean water. When the bamboo shoots are soft, the bitterness is gone, then prepare the dish.

Method 3:

Peel the bamboo shoots, cut them into small slices, add a handful of Malabar spinach leaves and boil them in a pot once. When the bamboo shoots are cooked, remove them from the pot, drain off all the hot water, then pour in cold water, remove the Malabar spinach leaves and rinse with cold water one more time before cooking.

Method 4:Leave the fresh bamboo shoots in their skins and arrange them neatly in the pot. Add a few seedless chilies and add rice water to almost cover the bamboo shoots. Cook over medium heat until the bamboo shoots are soft, then turn off the heat. Wait for the bamboo shoots to cool, remove them, peel them, and rinse them several times with clean water. The bamboo shoots will no longer taste bitter and you can use them to prepare the dish.

Method 5:With poisonous bamboo shoots, bitter bamboo shoots should be soaked in lime water; boil several times to discard the first water until the water is clear before processing. While boiling, open the lid to let the poison evaporate.

Method 6:Before drying or sun-drying bamboo shoots, soak them in salt water. When using them to prepare dishes, blanch them in hot water or boil them again, even better. Pickling bamboo shoots is also a way to reduce the toxicity of bamboo shoots.

Note:Drinking fresh bamboo shoot juice to reduce fever and cure diseases, not cooking bamboo shoots thoroughly for fear of losing nutrients, eating bamboo shoots soaked in vinegar for insufficient time is an extremely wrong concept that seriously affects your health. Do not let people with malaria, malnourished people, or people with weak bodies eat bamboo shoots because bamboo shoots are toxic and make the disease worse. Do not overeat bamboo shoots and pay attention to cooking them thoroughly before eating.

According to the Star