The scientific name of oxalic acid is oxalic acid, and its chemical formula is HOOC-COOH. Around us, oxalic acid is generally used as a rust remover or to remove ink stains on white clothes, but it is actually a dangerous chemical that can kill people. But do you know that the chocolate you usually eat also contains oxalic acid? Don’t panic, this dangerous situation rarely occurs.
We consume oxalic acid through many different channels every day. Oxalic acid is present in small amounts in many foods and in high concentrations in a few foods. Cocoa is one of the foods with the highest content. Every 100 grams of cocoa contains 500 mg of oxalic acid. The content of oxalic acid in green vegetables is generally very high. Spinach contains 600 mg per 100 grams, rhubarb contains 500 mg. It is also found in beets, peanuts, and tea. More oxalic acid. The average person consumes about 150 mg of oxalic acid a day, and the half-lethal dose (LD50) of pure oxalic acid, measured in terms of its effect on rats, is about 375 mg per kilogram of body weight. When converted to a person of about 65 kg, it takes about Serving size 25 grams. Additionally, the lowest lethal dose (LDLo) taken orally is approximately 600 mg/kg.
Rhubarb was once called “edible rhubarb” in the United States. In the past, people often stewed it with sugar. Rhubarb is best known for its properties in treating constipation, as it contains oxalic acid, a substance that stimulates the intestinal tract to eliminate natural toxins. A bowl of stewed rhubarb contains oxalic acid that is close to a poisonous dose. During World War I, some people died of oxalic acid poisoning because they ate rhubarb leaves as vegetables. There is no need to worry about eating chocolate. No matter how much you love chocolate, the oxalic acid content in chocolate is too low. Even if you cannot swallow it, the oxalic acid content in your body is still not high enough to cause diarrhea.
When rhubarb was popular, there were endless ways to cook rhubarb. I once used an aluminum pot to stew rhubarb, and found an unexpected benefit: it could “stew” the aluminum pot very clean. The reason for this effect is that oxalic acid can dissolve the oxide film and surface metal of the aluminum pot. Of course, this method also exposes consumers to potentially harmful aluminum intake.
This metal-interacting property of oxalic acid also explains some other surprising anomalies, which is why nutritionists always say rhubarb is unhealthy: oxalic acid interacts with some essential inorganic salts. , such as iron ions, magnesium ions, especially calcium ions. In our daily nutritional recipes, spinach is a vegetable rich in iron. Indeed, spinach contains more iron than most other vegetables. 100 grams of spinach contains 4 mg of iron! Despite this, the oxalic acid contained in it will prevent 95% of the iron from having a beneficial effect on the human body, which means that people can only absorb 5% of the iron. The famous cartoon character “Popeye” attributes his powers to spinach, but this is actually a misconception. Some scientists believe that no matter what method is used, spinach can only be eaten as an ordinary vegetable. Apart from getting an appropriate amount of plant protein and a little VC, it is difficult to get any inorganic salt nutrients. Magnesium ions are the central metal ions of chlorophyll. If the pot lid is covered when cooking green vegetables, the combination of oxalic acid and magnesium ions will cause the fried vegetables to turn yellow. Therefore, when frying green vegetables, open the pot lid to allow the oxalic acid to evaporate in time. Maintain the color of vegetables.
The fatal thing about oxalic acid is that it can reduce the calcium ion content in human blood to critical levels. Everyone knows that calcium plays a vital role in maintaining stable acidity and viscosity in the blood, and also plays a key role in the transport and coagulation of phosphate in the body. If you are poisoned by oxalic acid, how to detoxify may be what you are concerned about! From the perspective of chemical balance, we should replenish calcium ions in the blood in time, and calcium gluconate, which once became a hot topic in TV advertisements, is the antidote to the right medicine.
Even if the oxalic acid content in the body is not enough to put people in danger of life, its effect on calcium ions cannot be ignored because it can form insoluble calcium oxalate, and its crystals will grow in organs such as the bladder and kidneys. Stones are very painful. Although we can usually avoid eating too much of the above foods, it is impossible to completely eliminate oxalic acid from the body because people can obtain it from other sources. For example, the famous chemist Pauling once advocated taking a large amount of VC to prevent colds. During the SARS period, health scientists also recommended using VC to enhance the body’s resistance. However, things must be reversed. Our bodies cannot store excess VC, but it can Converted into oxalic acid. Therefore, excessive intake of VC can easily cause diarrhea and even kidney stones. If we usually consume too little water, the above situation is likely to occur.
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