Can okra be eaten overnight?

In fact, whether it is okra or other vegetables, if they are fried and not eaten the night before, they will become leftover dishes or overnight dishes the next day. If such dishes are preserved relatively well, there is generally no problem in eating a little, but if you eat overnight dishes frequently, it will be harmful to your body. Because overnight food is likely to breed bacteria or decompose some toxic and harmful substances to the human body, it is not recommended to eat overnight food frequently.

Although overnight okra can be eaten, the nutritional value of the food has been greatly reduced. Leftover food will produce nitrite. After entering the stomach, it will generate a substance called NC (N-nitroso compound) under certain conditions. It is one of the risk factors for inducing gastric cancer. It’s not a big deal to eat it occasionally, but eating leftovers for a long time can easily cause cancer.

From a food science perspective, whether or not to store it overnight is not the issue. The essence of the problem is what happens to the prepared dishes during the storage process. What we are worried about is the conversion of nitrates in vegetables into nitrites. This conversion process can be achieved by the reductase naturally found in vegetables, but when the vegetables are heated and cooked, these enzymes lose their activity and this pathway is cut off.

Another pathway is the action of bacteria. Originally, the vegetables were cooked and the bacteria in them were almost killed. However, during the eating process, some bacteria on the chopsticks will enter the leftovers; during the storage process, some bacteria in the air may also enter. Cooked vegetables are more suitable for bacteria, and under appropriate conditions they will grow in large numbers, and nitrates may be converted into nitrites during the growth process.

In fact, overnight food will produce more or less nitrite, and eating it frequently can cause cancer. In addition, the vitamins contained in overnight dishes will be lost in large quantities during the repeated heating process, so eating them again will not achieve the purpose of replenishing the body's nutrition. The taste of leftover food is not as good as the first time, so it is not recommended to eat leftover food.