What are the dietary taboos and people who should not eat crab when it is fat and delicious, and can it cause difficult labor in pregnant women?

“When the autumn wind rises, crab legs itch; when chrysanthemums bloom, smell the crabs coming.” Right now is the perfect season for eating crab. However, although crab is plump, delicious and highly nutritious, it is a cold-natured food, and doctors remind people with certain diseases or weak constitutions to avoid it or eat less. So what are the taboos of eating crab? Who cannot eat it? Will a pregnant woman who eats it have difficult labor?

Does eating crab during pregnancy cause difficult labor?

Xiaoyin, 26, is 5 months pregnant. Her family all say that shrimp and crab are cold in nature, and that a pregnant woman who eats them will suffer bleeding or miscarriage. Now that the fetus is stable, her family still will not let Xiaoyin touch crab. Her mother-in-law says that a pregnant woman eating crab will cause the fetus to lie transverse and trigger difficult labor. Xiaoyin hopes an expert will give a definitive answer.

Zhang Yingchun, director of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department of Hubei Maternal and Child Health Hospital, explains that miscarriage from a pregnant woman eating crab is absolutely not caused by eating crab itself, but by the pregnant woman being allergic to freshwater seafood, or by the crab itself not being fresh or carrying parasites and other such causes. “There is no restriction on pregnant women eating Chinese mitten crab, but it is still best not to eat it in early pregnancy, because crab is a cold-natured food, and extremely cold or extremely hot foods can cause threatened miscarriage and restless fetal movement. After the middle trimester, pay attention to the amount eaten; eating 1-2 medium-sized Chinese mitten crabs each time is enough.”

Can crab allergy cause shock?

The day before, after 9-year-old Xiaoen ate two crabs at dinner, allergic symptoms such as itchy skin, redness and swelling appeared. Around 11 p.m., Xiaoen began to feel dizzy and nauseated, and the family hurriedly took him to Hubei Maternal and Child Health Hospital. By the time he reached the hospital, he was close to shock.

Zou Xiaoyan, director of the hospital's Dermatology Department, explains that every year some children are allergic to crab, and families need to know more about their children's physical condition. An allergic reaction can lead to arrhythmia, acute renal failure, cerebral hypoxia and ischemia, and in more severe cases can cause death. It is worth reminding that seafood is best cooked thoroughly before eating, otherwise the natural proteins in seafood will trigger allergies.

Who should avoid or eat less crab?

People with an allergic constitution: after people with an allergic constitution eat crab, the specific crab protein triggers an allergic reaction, producing large amounts of histamine and the like, causing spasm of gastrointestinal and other smooth muscle and angioedema, with nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea, and in some cases also hives or asthma. People with skin diseases such as dermatitis, eczema and ringworm should also eat it cautiously.

People with cardiovascular disease: Chinese mitten crab contains relatively high cholesterol, and patients with cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, arteriosclerosis, hypertension and hyperlipidemia will have increased cholesterol after eating it, worsening the cardiovascular disease.

People with gout: when people with gout take in too much protein, the purine content in the body increases and triggers gout.

People with liver, gallbladder or kidney disease: foods like Chinese mitten crab, which are not low in protein, cholesterol or fat, place quite a burden on the liver, gallbladder and kidneys, and eating them may cause acute flare-ups of these diseases.

What should you pay attention to when eating crab?

1. Eat fresh crab. When a crab dies, it secretes a toxic substance called histamine, which accumulates as the time since death lengthens; after death, the crab meat and crab roe quickly spoil and deteriorate, and bacteria multiply rapidly.

2. Do not eat crab raw; it must be cooked. Although there is a way of eating crab known as drunken crab, because of water quality issues crabs often harbor large amounts of bacteria, so crab must be cooked thoroughly before eating.

Crabs taboos circulating online: true or false?

Claim one: When eating crab you cannot drink beer or tea; you should pair it with yellow rice wine or baijiu. This claim has some truth, but it depends on who you are. If you have gout or hyperuricemia, all alcohol should be avoided, and baijiu is no exception. If your digestion and absorption are poor, do not pair it with green tea, because tea polyphenols lower digestive enzyme activity. If your digestion is very good, then pairing it with tea or alcohol, as long as it is not too much, will not cause trouble.

Claim two: Crab cannot be eaten with vitamin C. In fact, one or two hundred milligrams of vitamin C will not produce large amounts of toxic trivalent arsenic through “reduction.” So even if you took a multivitamin tablet that day, it does not affect eating a crab as well.

Claim three: Crab cannot be eaten with fruit. For some people this makes sense, but it is not a taboo for everyone. For example, pear is a cold-natured food, and eating it together with cold-natured crab will damage the spleen and stomach and cause indigestion; people with deficient cold of the spleen and stomach need to be careful.