Are ferns bad for your stamina? It's okay to eat like this[정세연 음식처방]

2024-05-13 04:13:34

Jeong Se-yeon, director of ‘Let’s Eat and Drink Oriental Medicine Clinic’

Bracken is so rich in nutrients that it is nicknamed mountain beef. After a forest fire, ferns are the first plants to grow by extracting nutrients from the ground.

There are two bad rumors about this fern. First, it is said to be bad for stamina. In ‘Donguibogam’, it says, ‘If you eat a lot of bracken, your yang energy decreases, your legs become weak and you become unable to walk,’ and in ‘Food Herbal Medicine’, it says, ‘It weakens your leg strength, causing difficulty in walking, and it takes away yang energy, causing your penis to shrivel.’ .

It is true that eating raw bracken weakens your leg strength. Raw fern contains an enzyme called thiaminase that breaks down thiamine, a vitamin B₁, which can cause vitamin B₁ deficiency, which can cause beriberi, which weakens leg strength and makes walking difficult. If a lack of thiamine reduces vitality and causes problems in the cardiovascular and nervous system, it may affect stamina. However, there are no direct research results on decreased sexual function.

Second, there is a common belief that eating bracken will cause cancer. ‘Donguibogam’ says, ‘If you eat a lot of bracken, your stomach will fill up,’ and ‘Cheongeumyobang’ says, ‘If you eat it for a long time, you will get a lot of gases.’ ‘Ga’ means tumor. In a recent study, rats were fed raw fern for 52 weeks, and all of the surviving rats in the fern-fed group had multiple intestinal tumors.

The main cause of this may be a toxic substance called phtaquiloside in fern. Ptaquiloside is a substance belonging to Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic) according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s classification of carcinogens. Fortunately, this ingredient is highly soluble in water and weak against heat. It is a compound that is particularly sensitive to alkali, so its toxicity can be easily removed by boiling it in salt water.

There may be people who, even after hearing this far, do not want to eat bracken. However, bracken is a vegetable rich in nutrients. It contains quite a lot of protein and contains a large amount of ingredients such as aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and astragalin, a type of flavonoid, so it has the effect of expelling toxins and filling the blood and bones with good things. In oriental medicine, bracken is cold in nature and has the effect of removing toxins called phlegm, so it is good for people who have phlegm in their throat or have chest burning symptoms due to gastric acid reflux. It also helps to feel better when urinating.

Just be careful about how you eat. Never eat it raw. Introducing the correct way to care for ferns. △Add salt to boiling water and boil for 10 minutes. △Turn off the heat and discard the boiled water. △Wash about 4 times until the water comes out clean. △Soak in water for more than 12 hours, changing the water in between. Gwangju Health and Environment Research Institute measured the residual amount of toxic substances after blanching raw fern for 10 minutes. When heated for 5 minutes, the residual amount of toxic substances was measured at 32.4 mg per kg, about 60% compared to raw fern, and when heated for 10 minutes, it decreased to 27.2 mg, about 66.4%. appeared to be removed.

We also introduce how to care for dried ferns. △ Soak in cold water for 1 to 2 hours △ Add salt to boiling water and boil for about 20 minutes △ Turn off the heat and leave to steam for about 1 hour with the lid closed △ Rinse in cold water about 4 times △ Then soak for another 12 hours. It is best to change the water more than 4 times.

Dr. Jeong Se-yeon of Oriental Medicine runs ‘Let’s Eat Jeong Se-yeon Oriental Medicine Clinic’, which treats patients with food, and introduces the efficacy of various foods through the YouTube ‘Jeong Lare Channel’. As of May, the number of channel subscribers was approximately 990,000.

※Director Jeong Se-yeon’s ‘Namul and Yukgaejang’ must-watch before eating! ‘How to boil bracken to completely remove bracken poison’ (https://youtu.be/eKb5oUtcCiE?si=rlDIPn4r8oi4AiKG)

Jeong Se-yeon, director of ‘Let’s Eat and Drink Oriental Medicine Clinic’