Is it true that eating incompatible foods together can easily lead to poisoning?

According to folklore, there are foods that are taboo against each other and eating them together will lead to "poisoning". From the perspective of modern medicine, does this really make sense? If you look at the "Food Incompatibility Poisoning Diagrams" that are often found in traditional farmers' almanacs, it is not difficult to find that the chances of certain types of food poisoning being particularly high, such as freshwater fish and shellfish, snails, hairy crabs, etc., are easily contaminated by bacteria or parasites. If they are not cooked before being eaten, they may cause gastroenteritis. Foods high in fat or protein, such as meat and milk, can easily become rancid and rot if not properly preserved. Specific ingredients themselves are prone to problems, and whether they are eaten together or not has little effect.

Discomfort caused by food is usually related to the freshness of the ingredients themselves.

Foods rich in salicylic acid (strawberries, pineapples, etc.) and histamine (bamboo shoots, eggplants, etc.) can cause itching easily after eating, while foods containing oligosaccharides (onions, beans, etc.) and crude fiber (cabbage, sweet potatoes, etc.) can cause bloating easily after eating, which may also be mistakenly believed to be the result of food incompatibility. The lactase activity in the gastrointestinal tract of Oriental people is generally low, so if they drink a lot of milk or other dairy products, it can easily cause indigestion.

If we really have to talk about food incompatibility, the more scientifically based one is the precipitation reaction between tannic acid and protein. Foods rich in tannins include persimmons, pomegranates or many unripe fruits. In fact, the astringent taste we experience when we eat them is due to the precipitation of tannins and protein in saliva. If you consume a large amount of tannic acid, milk, soy milk, etc. at the same time, it may form lumps in your stomach and cause discomfort. In addition, raw soy milk that is not fully cooked contains trypsin inhibitors, which can easily cause gastrointestinal discomfort if consumed with meat.

Nitrite is often added to pickled meats, and if consumed with lactic acid beverages, it may form carcinogenic nitrosamines. Some leafy vegetables contain more nitrates, such as Chinese cabbage and kale. If they are left for too long and are not fresh, they will turn into nitrites. If you eat them, you will suffer from the opposite, so you must be careful.

Another type of food incompatibility is a nutritional consideration. If taken at the same time, it may hinder the absorption of nutrients. Plants rich in oxalic acid and phytic acid, such as spinach, peanuts, tea, coffee, etc., easily combine with minerals such as calcium and iron and hinder their absorption. Some foods, such as cucumbers and carrots, contain vitamin C-degrading enzymes. Eating too much of them raw can lead to vitamin C deficiency. However, this situation may only occur in the livestock industry and is unlikely to occur in humans.