There is often leftover food at the end of the meal, and although mothers insist on eating leftovers in the following days, some items should never be reheated and eaten due to the health risks that may occur. What are these types?
Spinach
According to American nutritionist Harini Bala, spinach contains nitrates, and their levels increase with cooking, as studies have shown. Nitrates are simple compounds found naturally in our bodies.
Nitrates are also found in healthy and unhealthy foods. At high temperatures – such as reheating leafy vegetables – nitrates turn into nitrosamines, a compound linked to cancer.
Tea
Substances that have antioxidant properties in tea decompose when heated, while the level of other substances increases, contributing to giving it its bitter taste. Bala tells the New York Post that any “latent bacteria” in the tea could become “active” with reheating, posing a health risk to consumers.
rice
Bala said the starch is okay to reheat as long as it is stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator within two hours of cooking it. She warned that waiting more than two hours to store it increases the risk of spreading dangerous bacteria in the food.
If you cook rice in the morning and store it in the refrigerator at night to eat the next day, there is a high possibility of the formation of Bacillus cereus, a type of bacteria that usually affects starchy foods and leads to food poisoning, often referred to as “fried rice syndrome,” which is a disease. Serious, leading to death in rare cases.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, there are an estimated 63,400 cases of poisoning from Bacillus cereus each year. Symptoms usually include stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever.