Tofu is made from soybeans, green beans, and black beans, and is one of the most widely used and popular cooking ingredients through the processes of soaking, grinding, filtering, cooking, refining, solidifying, and molding.
Tofu and tofu products have a higher protein content than soybeans, and tofu protein is a complete protein, not only contains the eight essential amino acids, and its ratio is close to human needs; tofu also contains fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, etc., with high nutritional efficiency.
The theory of Chinese medicine is that tofu is sweet and cool, entering the spleen, stomach, and large intestine meridian has the effect of benefitting the qi and the middle, moistening the dryness, clearing heat, and detoxifying, and can be used to treat red eyes, thirst, sulfur, burning wine poison, etc.
Although tofu is good, eating more also has disadvantages, too much can be harmful to health.
1. Cause indigestion
Tofu is extremely rich in protein, once consumed too much not only impede the body’s absorption of iron, and easily causes protein indigestion, bloating, diarrhea, and other uncomfortable symptoms.
2. Prompting gout attack
Tofu contains more purines, purine metabolism disorders in gout patients, and increased blood uric acid concentration of patients more food easily leads to gout attacks, especially gout patients eat less.
3. Promote the decline of kidney function
Under normal circumstances, people eat into the body of plant proteins through metabolic changes, and finally, most of them become nitrogenous waste, excreted by the kidneys.
When people reach middle and old age, the kidney’s ability to excrete waste decreases. At this time, if you do not pay attention to diet, eat a large amount of tofu, ingestion of too much vegetable protein, it is bound to make the nitrogen-containing waste generated in the body increase, aggravate the burden of the kidney, make the kidney function decline further, which is not conducive to health.
4. Promote the formation of atherosclerosis
American medical experts pointed out that soy products are extremely rich in methionine, methionine in the role of enzymes can be converted into cysteine. Cysteine will damage the endothelial cells of the arterial wall, making it easy for cholesterol and triglycerides to be deposited on the arterial wall, prompting the formation of atherosclerosis.
5. Leading to iodine deficiency
The soybeans used to make tofu contain a substance called saponin, which not only prevents atherosclerosis but also promotes the excretion of iodine in the human body. Long-term excessive consumption of tofu is likely to cause iodine deficiency, leading to an iodine deficiency disease.
Rheumatism network experts suggest that the elderly and kidney disease, iron deficiency anemia, gout disease, and atherosclerosis patients should control the amount of consumption. According to Chinese medicine, tofu is cold and should not be eaten by people with cold stomachs and those prone to diarrhea, bloating spleen deficiency, and those with kidney deficiency who often suffer from seminal emission.
Conclusion
As you can see, although tofu is good, it should not be eaten every day, and not too much at a time.