The truth about honey and soy milk causing death

Information on some types of food when eaten together can cause death, cancer, poisoning… on some forums recently has made many people worried. What is the truth about the combination?

Soy milk and honey are unreasonably rumored to be deadly when combined - Photo: QUANG DINH

Information noise

Some foods are said to be deadly when combined, such as honey with tapioca starch, honey with soy milk, goose eggs with garlic, dragon fruit with custard apple. In addition, eating potatoes with tomatoes, liver with bean sprouts is said to cause cancer. Chicken broth with green vegetables, egg soup, tomatoes with green onions are poisonous, duck eggs with garlic cause poisoning...

Information passed from person to person makes many people confused and afraid to eat these foods together.

Ms. TTĐ. (48 years old) said that about a year ago, when a neighbor showed her a piece of paper with a recipe for food combinations that were poisonous, even deadly, she never dared to eat anything with that combination again.

"In the past, my family often cooked vegetable soup with tomatoes and potatoes. We also occasionally ate stir-fried pork liver with bean sprouts. Egg soup with tomatoes and green onions was also a common dish. But we heard that eating them together causes cancer, so we stopped because we were too scared," said Ms. D.

No scientific basis

Nutritionist Truong Nhat Khue Tuong - Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City - said that according to Western medicine, there is no clear research or specific evidence to say that eating these foods together causes the above harmful effects.

In addition, the exact causes of cancer are not known, so it is impossible to determine which foods eaten together cause cancer.

Doctor Nguyen Minh Nhien - Traditional Medicine Department, Binh Tan Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City - said that each type of food used in daily meals according to Oriental medicine is also considered a medicine. Basically, foods when combined together will increase or decrease the active ingredients of that food, not causing death as rumored.

However, depending on the body's constitution and underlying pathology, there are appropriate food combinations to avoid the disease becoming more severe or the body becoming more uncomfortable.

According to Dr. Nhien, the main ingredients of a medicine will consist of 3 parts: the main medicine or also known as the main medicine that has the effect of treating the disease, will be combined with a supporting medicine to help increase or regulate the activity of the main medicine and combined with excipients to increase or decrease the active ingredients of the medicine to absorb into the body better (usually tonic medicines).

Combining foods in daily meals is similar to the above principle, using a side food to increase the effect of the main food. The main food with a cold nature will be combined with a hot spice, reducing the cold nature to help increase the secretion of digestive juices, making it easier to digest, not causing a cold stomach (causing diarrhea) or bloating, flatulence, indigestion...

To distinguish between cold and hot foods, look at the color or taste of that food.

For example, for meat and fish, white food is cold and red food is hot.

For vegetables and fruits, the more sour the food, the more cold it is, just like starchy foods when entering the body will convert substances that increase acidity and cause bloating, which are cold foods...

Master Tuong said that there are some substances that when combined together can create precipitates, but not all substances have been studied to see whether those precipitates cause indigestion or stomachaches.

According to TTO