Doctor: Canned yellow peaches cannot cure diseases. Netizens: You don’t understand

Reviewer: Wang Guoyi

Postdoctoral fellow in Nutrition and Food Safety, China Agricultural University

During this special period, many people around me are busy stockpiling supplies. Some are worried about their families and have stockpiled a lot of basic medicines. Some are worried about getting sick and unable to go out, so they are busy stockpiling all kinds of fast food. Others are stockpiling masks, alcohol, etc.

But in such a chaotic period, the editor saw that the canned yellow peaches in the supermarket were sold out, and even the eight-treasure porridge next door still had a lot of stock. The reason is that some people believe that "canned yellow peaches can cure diseases"!

Source: Weibo screenshot

As a kid from the north, canned yellow peaches are a big memory of my childhood. When I was sick, my parents would often give me canned yellow peaches. During festivals, I would also use them to visit relatives and friends. Although canned yellow peaches have become a taste of memory as I grow older, I didn’t expect that in this epidemic era, it would unexpectedly become popular?

Why are canned yellow peaches being snapped up by so many people? Does it really have the effect of "curing diseases"? After some investigation, the editor finally found out the truth.

Source: Weibo

Why canned yellow peaches?

There are many kinds of canned peaches, but why is it that only "canned yellow peaches" have become the favorite of children, rather than "white peaches" and "honey peaches"? Everything starts with the cultivation of yellow peaches.

Yellow peaches like to grow in cool climates and can adapt to sub-zero temperatures, so they are mainly planted in central, northern and southwestern my country.

A major characteristic of yellow peaches is that they are not resistant to storage and transportation . If they cannot be transported from the production site to the sales site within two or three days, the yellow peaches will wilt. In addition, the ripening time of yellow peaches is relatively concentrated. The yellow peaches in a production area need to be picked within half a month, otherwise they will rot.

Therefore, in order to preserve more yellow peaches, many farmers pick them directly and send them to canning factories after they are ripe.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In the 1960s, the canned food output value of Northeast China was not high in China, but it had a large canned food factory - Dalian Canned Food Factory. Dalian is a city with developed light industry. As early as the Qing Dynasty, there were many family canned food workshops. After the founding of New China, the state increased its investment in Dalian Canned Food Factory and introduced multiple production lines from abroad, which significantly improved the mechanization of the factory's production.

Later on, the Dalian Institute of Agricultural Sciences even bred a number of yellow peach varieties that were more suitable for canning. They tasted sour, but when canned in syrup they were just the right sweet and sour taste.

In addition, its flesh is more resilient and still chewy after being steamed and cooked, and the canned soup made from it is clear and transparent. Other peaches cannot withstand such destruction, and the canned food made from them is mostly soft and has a poor taste.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

With the blessing of this yellow peach, Dalian's canned yellow peaches have become very famous in the canned food industry and have become popular throughout the Northeast.

In general, climate conditions and the factory's promotion have made canned yellow peaches the protagonist of the canned food market for northerners.

For many children in the north, who don’t like to take medicine when they are sick as children, their parents often get a box of canned yellow peaches for them to take. With canned yellow peaches, taking medicine seems to become less painful, and canned yellow peaches have become a very special existence in their memories.

So it is not surprising that now that the epidemic is raging, many people have dug out from their memories this little companion that they always have at hand when they are sick.

Source: pixabay

Why do you want to eat canned peaches when you are sick?

Although it has something to do with many people's childhood memories and media propaganda, the fact that people feel more comfortable after eating canned yellow peaches is definitely not just a psychological effect.

First of all, we need to know that canned yellow peaches themselves do not have any medicinal effects . They are just canned syrup made from yellow peaches.

Secondly, yellow peach itself contains a variety of nutrients, including B vitamins, vitamin C, lycopene and carotene, etc. Eating canned yellow peaches can help improve human immunity and promote human metabolism. Yellow peaches are also rich in dietary fiber, which can also help promote gastrointestinal motility and regulate gastrointestinal function.

For people who are sick and have no appetite, canned yellow peaches contain more sugar and citric acid, which can promote the brain to secrete more serotonin, bring a good mood, and relieve the discomfort caused by the illness . In addition, canned yellow peaches are sweet and sour and delicious. Taking a bite of cool food when you are not feeling well can help stimulate appetite and replenish energy and nutrition for the body.

Supermarket shelves are cleared of canned yellow peaches Source: Hui Junbo

However, I have to remind everyone that canned yellow peaches contain a high amount of sugar. Not only should people with gastrointestinal discomfort avoid eating them, but patients with diabetes are also not recommended to eat them.

More importantly, if you already have coughing symptoms, eating canned yellow peaches may make the cough worse! Canned yellow peaches contain a lot of sugar, which will stimulate the nerves in the throat and cause reflex coughing; sugar will also stimulate the throat mucosa, promote increased secretions, make the sputum sticky and difficult to cough up, and aggravate the cough.

In addition, many people like to eat iced canned yellow peaches, but iced food can irritate the airways, causing airway spasms and contractions, and can also aggravate coughing.

Therefore, whether you can eat canned yellow peaches when you are sick depends on your preference. You can just treat canned yellow peaches as a normal food. In general, "canned yellow peaches can cure diseases?" is really a rumor!

Instead of hoping it can cure the disease, it is better to wear a mask, keep your hands clean, and take good protection. If you are sick, take medicine, and see a doctor immediately if the symptoms are serious.

How to choose high-quality canned yellow peaches

The New Year is coming, if you really like canned yellow peaches, you can buy some canned yellow peaches as New Year's goods. So what should you pay attention to when choosing canned yellow peaches?

If the canned peach is packaged in a transparent shell, you can check the integrity of the yellow peach, which should include no damage or gaps in the peach petals and clear, not turbid juice. Also check whether the shell is bulging. Bulging shell means the can is leaking and may have gone bad.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In addition, there are generally two food implementation standards for canned yellow peach production, **one is the GB 7098 canned food implementation standard, and the other is the GB/T 13516 peach canned food implementation standard. The latter is a special standard for canned peaches and has more stringent requirements for peaches used in cans.

There are also two grades of canned peaches: first-class and premium. Premium canned peaches are of higher quality, and you can check the quality grade on the packaging.

Source: A shopping website

With the advancement of technology, several varieties of yellow peaches suitable for fresh consumption have been developed, but northerners still love canned yellow peaches as much as they did in the past. The fact that canned yellow peaches have become a hot topic this time also proves this point.

In short, canned yellow peaches are not only a delicious food, but also carry a warm memory. The little taste in these memories can always let us unload our worries and heal many unhappiness at certain moments. As the saying goes, the smell of fireworks in the world is the most soothing to the hearts of ordinary people.