Highly toxic and lethal! A 30-year-old girl made her own "mixed vegetable juice" to lose weight and was sent to the emergency room with cyanosis of lips

Improper weight loss can cause many harms. Not long ago, the emergency department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine received a young lady who was pale, swollen all over, had difficulty breathing, cyanotic lips, and blue fingernails.

"Doctor, my throat is tight... It feels like my neck is being strangled and I can't breathe!" When the emergency department director Lu Yuanqiang led the team to see Jia Jia, her blood oxygen saturation had dropped to 80% (the normal value should be above 95%), and she was in a state of severe hypoxia. After a series of examinations, Jia Jia was diagnosed with "nitrite poisoning", and the culprit of all this was a cup of homemade "vegetable weight loss juice".

Drink your homemade "weight loss juice"

She was swollen and having trouble breathing.

Jia Jia is 30 years old this year. She has fair skin and beautiful looks. She is 1.65 meters tall and her weight is maintained at 108 kilograms all year round. Because of good maintenance, she looks only in her twenties and is nicknamed "the face of the group" by her colleagues.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival that just passed, Jia Jia had many family dinners in a row, and she had to "eliminate" the mooncakes issued by the company. Jia Jia, who loves sweets, ate too much and gained nearly 3 kilograms in a week. Her best friend shared with her an article "Make juice with two ingredients, drink a cup every day, lose fat and get a slim waist". Jia Jia prepared celery and cucumber, made mixed vegetable juice according to the tutorial, and posted on WeChat Moments "Homemade vegetable juice for weight loss, lose fat and get rid of greasiness".

Jia Jia drank a large cup of it, which served as her dinner for the day, and put the remaining vegetable juice in the refrigerator. Due to her busy work, Jia Jia forgot about it, and it was not until three days later that she remembered the homemade "slimming vegetable juice".

In order to avoid waste and achieve better weight loss results, Jia Jia drank up the remaining vegetable juice in one go and also took a certain brand of dietary fiber meal replacement powder . As a result, not long after drinking the "slimming juice", the poisoning scene at the beginning appeared.

After oxygen inhalation, gastric lavage, catharsis and detoxification treatment, Jia Jia was out of danger, her symptoms improved significantly, and she was discharged safely.

Nitrite poisoning

In the past, we often saw

Why does vegetable juice used for weight loss also cause nitrite poisoning?

Lu Yuanqiang, director of the emergency department of Zhejiang University First Hospital , said that in the past, they often received patients who were poisoned by nitrites after eating leftovers, unpickled pickles, etc. In recent years, with the popularization of science, the number of patients with nitrite poisoning has decreased significantly, but it still occurs occasionally.

The original fault for poisoning from drinking vegetable juice is not the "vegetables" but the "long storage" . Director Lu explained that vegetables such as lettuce, celery, and Chinese toon contain a certain amount of nitrates. If the juice is left for too long, it will be converted into nitrites under the action of bacteria.

Nitrite is a highly toxic substance that can oxidize the iron-containing hemoglobin in the blood that normally carries oxygen into methemoglobin, which loses its ability to carry oxygen, leading to tissue hypoxia. It can also dilate blood vessels and lower blood pressure, causing acute poisoning in the human body, with symptoms such as cyanosis of the lips, tongue tip, and nails. In severe cases, even the conjunctiva, face, and even the skin of the whole body will turn blue. The incubation period of poisoning is only 1-3 hours. Ingestion of 0.2-0.5 grams in adults can cause poisoning, and 3 grams can be fatal.

In addition to acute poisoning, nitrite can be converted into nitrosamines, which have strong carcinogenic effects. Long-term consumption of foods containing nitrite can cause esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer and colorectal cancer, etc. In addition, fetuses under six months old are particularly sensitive to nitrite. If nitrite enters the placenta, it will have a teratogenic effect on the fetus.

"Vitamins in overnight vegetable juice quickly degrade and oxidize, and the nutritional content is greatly reduced. If left in the refrigerator for three days, the food itself may have deteriorated, and it may even cause poisoning." Director Lu emphasized, "Vegetable juice and fruit juice must be squeezed and drunk immediately!"

Preventing nitrite poisoning

Experts have something to say

In daily life, how to prevent nitrite poisoning, experts suggest:

1. Drink homemade fruit and vegetable juice immediately after squeezing it , and never drink it overnight.

2. Eat immediately after purchase. Do not store vegetables at room temperature for a long time . Especially in hot seasons, do not eat rotten or spoiled vegetables.

3. Try to eat less or no leftovers , especially seafood, green leafy vegetables, cold dishes, etc.

4. Eat less pickled foods , including but not limited to sausages, ham, smoked pork, salted fish, salted eggs, pickles, and pickled vegetables.

5. If you make your own kimchi or pickled vegetables, you should pay special attention to the pickling time, temperature and amount of salt. If the pickling time is too short, it will easily cause bacteria to multiply and the nitrite content will increase significantly (it will reach a peak in 5 to 8 days). It is best to eat them after pickling for half a month and until they are thoroughly pickled; eat them occasionally and in small amounts each time.

6. It is strictly forbidden to mix nitrite and table salt together to prevent unnecessary accidental ingestion or misuse due to confusion.

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Correspondent Wang Rui Jiang Chen Editor Zhang Jing

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Yu Qianqian Jin Jing

Producer Xu Fang Zhou Jieqiong