Reheating dinner is a way of life. Whether it’s Friday night and you need to clean out your fridge, or you want to turn your leftovers from last night into a whole new meal, our microwaves are our handy kitchen companions. But research shows that reheating some of your favorite foods can be dangerous to your health. Take a look at these foods that can give you food poisoning (or worse).
1. Potato
Potatoes are very useful because they have many health benefits. However, those benefits and their dietary quality are lost if you don’t eat them the same day that you’ve cooked them. Eating them on another day and reheating them makes them dangerous for your body, instead of useful.
2. Rice
According to the Food Standards Agency, “Uncooked rice can contain spores of bacteria that can cause food poisoning. When the rice is cooked, the spores can survive…Then, if the rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores will multiply and may produce poisons that cause vomiting or diarrhoea. Reheating the rice won’t get rid of these poisons.”
3. Celery
We often use celery for soups. It is rich in nitrates as well. When you heat up your soup with celery, nitrates can be turned into nitrites. Therefore, take out the celery when you want to warm up your soup. Carrots should not be reheated too.
4. Mushrooms
It is known that mushrooms are the most important food that shouldn’t be warmed up. In general mushrooms should be eaten right after preparation. If you want to eat them the next day, be sure to consume them cold. If not, they can cause digestive problems and additional heart problems.
5. Spinach
You ought to never warm the spinach on the grounds that it is exceptionally unsafe thing to do. It is prescribed to eat it directly after readiness. The thing is spinach contains high rate of nitrates which transform into nitrites when warmed. This is carcinogenic to the body.
6. Chicken
It is very dangerous to eat chicken the next day after preparation. You can come into some digestive problems because the structure of proteins change. Chicken has more proteins than the red meat. It is recommended to eat cold chicken. And if you need to warm it up, then be sure to do it on a low temperature for longer period.
7. Turnips
Turnips are a common ingredient in soups and stews. Due to their high amount of nitrates, reheating the vegetable is not advisable, as it can become toxic.
8. Oils
Oils such as grape seed, walnut, avocado, hazelnut and flaxseed have very low smoke points. So, when you reheat them, they become rancid. Avoid using them as your cooking oil and sprinkle them onto your dish at the end to enhance taste.
9. Lettuce
This green leafy vegetable is best when eaten raw. Cook it if you must, but never reheat butter lettuce, as the high amount of nitrates can cause food poisoning.
10. Eggs
We can reheat foods that have eggs, but it is dangerous to re-heat scrambled or boiled eggs. Eggs can be toxic when exposed to high temperature once they have been cooked. They are also full of protein and re-heating eggs cause protein to be destroyed and change its composition to become toxic.
