With everything coming back to life in spring, it’s a great time to eat wild vegetables again. Shepherd’s purse, parsnip, amaranth, dandelion, etc. are all familiar wild vegetables delicious. What are the nutritional benefits of these wild vegetables? How to eat safer? What are the precautions when picking?

Five common spring wild vegetables are tasty and nourishing

Shepherd’s purse – calming the liver and improving eyesight, clearing away heat and stopping diarrhea, diuretic and swelling.

Beijing Chaoyang Hospital Nutrition Department dietitian Song Xin introduced, shepherd’s purse is the most representative of the spring wild vegetables, taste very fresh, have the liver and eyesight, clearing heat and stopping diarrhea, diuretic swelling and other effects.

“From a nutritional point of view, the protein content of capers is superior in vegetables, not only rich in vitamin B2 and vitamin C, etc., calcium content is also very rich.” According to Song Xin, people most commonly use capers and fillings made into spring rolls, buns, dumplings, etc., or capers made into steamed vegetables to eat.

“Shepherd’s purse also has high medicinal value, can harmonize the spleen, diuretic, stop bleeding, bright eyes, and the rich vitamin C and carotene contained in shepherd’s purse helps to enhance the body’s immune function.” Song Xin said.

Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Oriental Hospital, deputy director of the Department of Sub-health physician Liu Yang also shared that the caper, also known as Qingming grass, is a good spring liver dish, so there is “March 3, caper race elixir” said, can do caper meat, caper tofu soup and other delicious.

Amaranth – antihypertensive and heart protection, clearing heat and detoxification, sterilization and anti-inflammation

Song Xin introduced, amaranth, also known as five lines of grass, fresh food, dry food can be. “In addition to containing protein, fat, sugar, crude fiber and calcium, phosphorus, iron and other nutrients, amaranth is also rich in potassium salts and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which have the effect of lowering blood pressure and protecting the heart.” He said that there are many ways to eat amaranth, in addition to making stuffing, blanched amaranth can also be fried, cold, porridge and soup.

Shandong University Qilu Hospital Nutrition Department nutritionist Zhao Yan said, amaranth is not only edible, but also has medicinal value, can clear heat and detoxification, sterilization and anti-inflammatory.

“It should be noted that the amaranth is a cold product, weak spleen and stomach, often prone to diarrhea and pregnant women to eat less, in addition, it is best not to eat with pepper, turtle armor.” Zhao Yan prompted.

Fern – lowering the gas and laxative, digestion and weight loss

Song Xin introduced, fern, also known as dragon head vegetable, is very common in mountainous areas. Fern is rich in protein, fat, minerals and a variety of vitamins. Fern in the crude fiber can promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, reduce gastrointestinal absorption of fat, play the role of gas laxative, digestion and weight loss. Fern in the fern has a certain inhibitory effect on bacteria, has a good heat detoxification, sterilization and inflammation effect.

“Common eating methods include cold fern, fern fried shredded pork and so on.” Song Xin reminded that fern is cold in nature and should not be eaten by people with cold spleen and stomach.

Toon – strengthen the spleen and stomach, enhance appetite

Song Xin said, toon is not only rich in calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and other ingredients, and contains toonin and other organic matter, can strengthen the spleen and appetite, enhance appetite; vitamin C, carotene, etc. to help enhance the body’s immunity.

“Toon scrambled eggs, toon mixed with tofu, etc. are common practice, but Chinese medicine believes that the toon for hair, eat too much may induce the original chronic disease, so the slow patient population should try to eat as little as possible.” Song Xin said.

Dandelion – clearing heat and detoxification, swelling and knot dissipation

“Dandelion can be eaten raw. Its tender stems and leaves, washed and drained and dipped in sauce to eat, although slightly bitter, but fresh and fragrant.” Liu Yang introduced, in the Chinese medicine clinic, dandelion is a widely used, efficacious commonly used traditional Chinese medicine, has the effect of clearing heat and detoxification, eliminating swelling and dispersing knots.

Contaminated wild vegetables should not be eaten, easy to cause food poisoning.

As the weather turns warm, many people in the green landscape at the same time, always like to dig a handful of fresh wild vegetables to taste fresh. Unbeknownst to many unclean wild vegetables mixed in, accidentally eaten easily triggered discomfort.

Especially in the industrial wastewater flow through the grass, highway growth of wild vegetables, due to waste water, automobile exhaust and other pollution, resulting in which mercury, lead and other heavy metals and other harmful substances in high content, if consumed inadvertently or served too much, it is easy to cause food poisoning.

In this regard, Zhao Yan emphasized: “Eat wild vegetables is best to the market to buy ready-made, because it is difficult to pick their own to ensure the safety of wild vegetables. If you want to go, picking wild vegetables in the location must be selected in a non-polluting environment, especially not in the congestion of the roadside and industrial pollution areas. And it is recommended to be accompanied by someone who has experience in picking.”

In daily life, the wild vegetables picked should be washed and eaten. If stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and other suspected food poisoning symptoms occur after consumption, you should immediately stop eating and seek medical attention.

Eat wild vegetables to prevent solar dermatitis Allergy sufferers should eat less or no food

Although wild vegetables are delicious and nutritious, some of them may contain allergenic substances that can cause allergic reactions in allergic individuals. For example, some people eat amaranth filled dumplings, not long after the allergic reaction, face and hands itchy, red, the results of the examination diagnosed as “solar dermatitis”.

In this regard, Qingdao Hai Ci Medical Group dermatology deputy chief physician Zhang Hong explained that, like wild vegetables in the ash greens, amaranth, amaranth, and even life often eat greens, celery, etc., in the human body can be decomposed into light-sensitive substances. Some people are very sensitive to this light-sensitive substances, if you eat too much, these light-sensitive substances will accumulate in the body to reach a certain concentration, the exposed parts of the human body such as the face, the skin of the hands after direct sunlight, can lead to metabolic disorders and induced dermatitis, medically known as “solar dermatitis”.

“Wild vegetables in the amaranth, elm, etc. contain allergenic substances, eaten if the skin is exposed to the sun, it is very easy to induce solar dermatitis, so easy to allergic people to eat less or not eat.” Song Xin also suggests.

Consumption of wild vegetables to follow the three principles of safety, nutrition and both

First, I do not know not to eat: do not pick next to the road, ditches, suburbs around the chemical plant wild vegetables, not familiar with the wild vegetables do not pick, eat indiscriminately.

Second, soak in salt water: wild vegetables attached to the top of many fungi and impurities, after washing should be soaked in lightly salted water, it is recommended that no less than 1 hour.

Third, eat before hot blanching: some wild vegetables contain microtoxins, blanch them in hot water before eating, can remove the bitter flavor of the wild vegetables themselves, the taste will also become better.