But if nature provides for a small dose of nitrates in plant products, then greenhouse farms add them to fertilizers, exceeding the norm by several times. As a result, every buyer of such "healthy food" becomes a victim of poisoning.

Nitrates - what is it?

Salts of nitric acid, which are essentially nitrates, are used in many areas: in medicine (for the production of medicines), pyrotechnics and even astronautics (in the creation of rocket fuel). The most common sector of their application is agriculture. Farmers have long and successfully added nitrates to fertilizers to give vegetables and fruits ripeness in the off-season, as well as to make them more beautiful and juicy.

If the dose of the substance is exceeded, immediately after entering the body, nitrates are quickly absorbed, turning into poison. This happens as follows: nitric acid interacts in the blood with oxyhemoglobin (the main source of oxygen for the body), resulting in the formation of methemoglobin. He, unlike oxyhemoglobin, is not able to transport oxygen to the tissues. For this reason, the body experiences oxygen starvation.

For the manifestation of the first symptoms of nitrate poisoning, 15% of methemoglobin in the blood is sufficient. At 50%, a person can die from asphyxiation (usually 8-14g nitrates or 1-4g nitrites).

Nitrate poisoning. How to understand that vegetables are dangerous?

Products with an excess of nitrates have a specific unnatural taste.

They also differ in size and juiciness from the rest - it is better not to buy giant watermelons or plums.

Sometimes high concentrations are indicated by cracks in vegetables and fruits. Moreover, in contact with air, nitrates turn into nitrites for several minutes - substances that are even more dangerous to health.

Vegetables or fruits with nitrates are not capable of long-term storage, after a while inside they turn into a jelly-like slurry.

Nitrate poisoning: what foods are at risk?

Most often, a dose of nitrates dangerous to health is found in:

Winter cucumbers and tomatoes

Greens: dill, parsley, green onions

Watermelons and melons

• potato

The first "calls" from the body in the form of poor health begin to arrive 2-6 hours after nitrates enter the body. Each patient has a different severity of symptoms. In addition, their severity will depend on the dose of nitrates received, the state of the protective intestinal microflora and individual sensitivity.

In most cases, nitrate poisoning manifests itself:

Nausea, vomiting

Diarrhea (with chocolate-colored blood)

Yellowness of the whites of the eyes

Blue lips, mucous membranes, nail bed)

Pain in the right hypochondrium (in the region of the liver)

Decreased blood pressure, dizziness, weakness

• Drowsiness

  Temperature rise

  Impaired coordination

  Headache in the ears, noise

  cyanosis, tachycardia, dyspnea

  Loss of consciousness, convulsions (in rare cases)

Nitrate poisoning in children

A child can be poisoned by nitrates, even if he was not given vegetables and fruits the day before - for this, a milk formula prepared with poor-quality water, juice made from fruits with nitrates, and so on is enough.

Unlike adults, in children, poisoning affects the nervous and circulatory systems. The signs are:

Little activity

Blue lips and nails

• Convulsions, impaired coordination (with severe oxygen starvation)

But as for such "adult" signs as vomiting or diarrhea, they can be either mild or absent altogether.

Sometimes the clinical picture of nitrate poisoning is similar to toxic manifestations.

First aid for nitrate poisoning

If the patient is not unconscious, try to make him vomit. To do this, you must first drink a large amount of clean cold water. As soon as the stomach can be cleaned, you can use any medication from the group of enterosorbents (even suitable).

Remember: to remove nitrates, you need to drink plenty of fluids. As soon as the nausea stops, the victim can brew strong black tea with lemon. No alcohol with it! It only exacerbates the toxic effect of nitrates.

After poisoning the patient for a while, it is better for the patient to switch to, including:

Vegetable stew

Lean cooked meat

Bread kvass

Salted cucumbers

sauerkraut

These products help the body recover faster after poisoning.

If the patient loses consciousness, and diarrhea and shortness of breath do not go away, call an ambulance.

When hospitalizing a patient, doctors pay the greatest attention to:

Elimination of hypoxia

Restoration of hemoglobin

Removal of toxins from the body

For this purpose, solutions of ascorbic acid, sodium thiosulfate or oxygen therapy may be prescribed intravenously. To support the heart and restore tissue respiration, the patient is prescribed.

chronic nitrate poisoning

In most cases, the body is able to cope with microdoses of nitrates without assistance. But this does not apply to cases of pregnancy: when the cells of the mother's body are in desperate need of oxygen, this cannot but affect the child.

So far, the exact effect of nitrates on the fetus has not been identified, since it is inhumane to conduct such experiments, but animal studies show that long-term use of nitrates ends in miscarriage.

How to avoid nitrate poisoning

Most cases of poisoning occur in two seasons: spring and summer. As soon as it gets warmer outside, but the first fruits are still far from ripening, greenhouse products appear on store shelves. But in the summer melons and gourds gradually sing. During this period, you should be especially careful when buying fruits and vegetables - they could be grown on nitrates.

Buy watermelons only at certified points of sale, not earlier than in the middle of summer (before that they cannot sing without nitrates), try not to give watermelon to small children.

As for vegetables, before serving them on the table, do not forget about their heat treatment. This is especially true for carrots, beets and potatoes. But storing it in this form for too long is also not worth it - there is a high risk of nitrite formation.

Soak greens before use - so the risk of poisoning will be less.

Try to drink freshly squeezed juices immediately so that nitrates do not turn into more toxic nitrites during storage in the open air.

Remember: most nitrates accumulate near the surface. For example, cabbage is in the upper leaves, greens are in the stem, and watermelons are under the crust, so it’s best to get rid of them if possible, especially if the vegetable grew in the off-season.

poisoning , nitrates ,

Nitrates (salts of nitric acid) are present in all living organisms, both plant and animal. They are ingested with food, formed as a result of their own chemical processes, in small quantities they serve as an obligatory component of metabolism. Excessive intake of nitric acid salts into the body from the outside is pathological, most often as part of vegetables, fruits, water and sausages.

Source: depositphotos.com

Nitrates, also known under the obsolete name "nitrate", have become widespread in agriculture due to the intensification of production. The introduction of nitrogenous fertilizers into the soil can increase yields and speed up the process of fruit ripening.

The commercially justified use of high and ultra-high doses of nitrate fertilizers leads to their excessive accumulation in agricultural products. In addition, nitrogen fertilizers increase the mineralization of the soil in which the crop is planted, resulting in an additional intake of nitrates into the plant from the soil.

Up to 70% of agricultural products have an overestimated level of nitrates, out-of-season vegetables and melons grown in an unnatural season for them are especially dangerous. When storing the crop, the amount of nitrates in plants decreases significantly: in about six months, the concentration of nitric acid salts in potatoes decreases by 4 times, in table beets - by 1.5, in carrots and cabbage - by 3 times.

Of the cultivated plants, peas, corn, potatoes, beets, watermelon, melon, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and greens accumulate nitrates most actively.

In addition to agriculture, nitrates are widely used in the food industry, especially in the production of sausages. Interacting with the protein myoglobin contained in meat, they give the product an attractive pink color.

Large amounts of nitrates are harmful to the body, even more dangerous are the products of their restoration - salts of nitrous acid, or nitrites. The toxicity of nitrites is approximately 10 times higher than that of nitrates: the lethal dose for humans is 2–4 g and 10–15 g, respectively.

Poisoning most often occurs when agricultural products are consumed, in which the permissible norm of nitrates is exceeded.

It is often possible to identify such vegetables and gourds without measuring the level of harmful substances with special equipment, in appearance. The risk of acute intoxication is especially high when eating foods with the following symptoms:

• cucumbers saturated with nitrates do not have a light grassy skin tone, but dark green;
• tomatoes on the cut of a non-uniform color, pink-red flesh interspersed with dense light areas and veins, the peel around the stalk is light yellow or greenish;
• unnaturally bright color of greens (parsley, dill, lettuce);
• unnecessarily large size (potatoes, beets) and green top, bordering on tops, part of root crops (radishes, carrots);
• dark green skin around the stalk of the zucchini.

Poisoning of a child who is breastfed is possible when the mother consumes foods high in nitrates, since nitric acid salts penetrate well into breast milk.

Symptoms of poisoning

Once in the gastrointestinal tract, nitrates are rapidly absorbed into the systemic circulation. Upon contact with the respiratory protein hemoglobin, nitrites formed during the nitrate reduction reaction change the iron atom in the composition of hemoglobin and turn it into methemoglobin. The resulting substance is not able to bind and carry oxygen, which leads to a decrease in the oxygen capacity of the blood and the development of hypoxia of organs and tissues.

The destruction of methemoglobin occurs under the influence of an enzyme, the production of which begins at the age of three months, therefore children of the first year of life are especially vulnerable to nitrates.

Against the background of tissue hypoxia, a number of systems and organs are involved in the pathological process, which leads to the development of characteristic signs of acute intoxication with nitrates. Symptoms of poisoning appear 1-6 hours after eating high-nitrate foods:

• nausea, vomiting;
• liquid stool;
• pain and heaviness in the right hypochondrium due to enlarged liver;
• lowering blood pressure;
• frequent arrhythmic thready pulse;
• cold snap and cyanosis of the extremities;
• quickening of breathing;
• noise, ringing in the ears;
• headache, dizziness;
• drowsiness, deterioration in general well-being;
• in severe cases, loss of consciousness, coma.

In chronic poisoning with nitrates, working capacity decreases, vitamin deficiency develops, metabolic processes, the functioning of organs and systems are disturbed. The victims have a depressed state, up to the development of depression.

Source: depositphotos.com

First aid for nitrate poisoning

In case of acute poisoning with nitrates, it is necessary:

• rinse the stomach, for which you need to drink 1-1.5 liters of warm water or a weak solution of potassium permanganate and induce vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue;
• take an enterosorbent (Enterosgel, Polyphepan, Polysorb, activated carbon);
• take a saline laxative (Magnesium sulfate) - only if there is no diarrhea;
• organize an enhanced drinking regimen to prevent dehydration.

When is medical assistance required?

Qualified assistance is needed if:

• against the background of emergency measures, the condition of the victim remains stably severe or worsens;
• developed neurological symptoms (impaired coordination, vision or speech, convulsions);
• there are traces of blood in the vomit or feces;
• symptoms of dehydration developed (dry mouth, lowering blood pressure, a sharp decrease in urination, urine became concentrated, with a pungent odor);
• vomiting or diarrhea becomes uncontrollable;
• a child, an elderly person or a pregnant woman is injured.

In this case, the treatment of nitrate poisoning is carried out in stationary conditions. Detoxification therapy, measures aimed at maintaining the function of vital organs, symptomatic treatment are carried out.

Possible consequences

The consequences of nitrate poisoning can be:

• reactive inflammation of the pancreas, organs of the hepatobiliary zone;
• development of allergic reactions;
• exacerbation of chronic inflammatory processes;
• violation of water and electrolyte balance;
• violation of all types of metabolism.

The main danger of chronic intoxication with nitrates is that nitrites that are reduced from them combine with amines and amides of any protein products and form highly toxic nitrosamines and nitrosamides. These compounds have a pronounced carcinogenic effect, primarily damaging the hematopoietic, lymphoid and digestive systems.

Prevention

To avoid nitrate poisoning, you must:

• limit the consumption of out-of-season vegetables and fruits;
• thoroughly soak, wash and clean vegetables before eating;
• peel off the peel from vegetables, because it is in it that the maximum concentration of nitrates accumulates;
• before use, cut off the upper part of the root crops (carrots, beets) at a distance of 1-2 cm from the tops;
• do not eat the pulp of melon and watermelon in the immediate vicinity of the peel;
• defrost vegetables immediately before cooking;
• when cooking and stewing zucchini, beets and cabbage, do not cover with a lid;
• freshly prepared vegetable juices should be consumed immediately or sterilized.

Video from YouTube on the topic of the article:

Everyone knows that nitrates are bad. But few people can give an accurate definition of nitrates, and what exactly is fraught with excessive consumption of these compounds in food. Let's find out!

Nitrates are salts of nitric acid that are found in soil saturated with fertilizers, which are very useful for plants. But some types of vegetables, fruits and greens are able to absorb more nitrates from this soil than they need. Also, nitrates accumulate in products if there is too much nitrogen fertilizer in the soil. Part of the nitrates becomes a vegetable protein, and the rest enters our body unchanged. Most nitrates are excreted by the body, but some types cause serious health problems.

Why are nitrates dangerous?

The main cause of nitrate poisoning is the action of their metabolites (nitrites). Interacting with hemoglobin, nitrites form methemoglobin, which is not able to carry oxygen. As a result, oxygen starvation of the body occurs. In addition, nitrites cause a rapid expansion of peripheral vessels and a drop in blood pressure.

A healthy person has about 2% methemoglobin in the blood, and when its content rises to 30%, symptoms of acute poisoning appear. The content of methemoglobin in the blood is regulated by a special enzyme - methemoglobin reductase - which begins to be produced in humans only from the age of three months. Therefore, nitrate poisoning is most dangerous for children under one year old - it is worth remembering that nitrites pass into breast milk. It is very difficult to “recover” hemoglobin on your own, so if you have symptoms of nitrate poisoning, immediately consult a doctor.

Signs of poisoning

1-6 hours after eating a high-nitrate food, symptoms appear:

• nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea (often bloody);
• liver enlargement, sometimes yellowing of the whites of the eyes;
• lowering blood pressure;
• limb cooling;
• cyanosis of nails, lips, face, mucous membranes;
• shortness of breath, weakness, drowsiness;
• headache, tinnitus, clouding of consciousness up to its loss.

First aid

Photo Shutterstock

• Call an ambulance.
• Before the doctor arrives, rinse your stomach - drink 1.5-2 liters of water slightly cooler than body temperature and induce vomiting.
• Drink several tablets of activated charcoal (at the rate of 1 tablet for every 10 kg of weight), or the portion of smecta or enterosgel indicated in the instructions.

Safety

Cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, radishes, radishes, beets, celery, dill, parsley, and watermelon accumulate the most nitrates. Fruits that contain a lot of nitrates are usually quite large. In "high nitrate" carrots, the core is whiter than the rest of the parts. In cabbage, nitrates are concentrated in the stalk and upper leaves, while in cucumbers, in the skin and “tail” part.

The amount of nitrates is reduced by cleaning, boiling and soaking.

• From fresh vegetables, it is worth separating those parts that accumulate nitrates (“tails” and skins of carrots, cucumbers and zucchini, cabbage stumps, etc.)
• Soaking is good for leafy vegetables and cabbage: soak them twice in cold water for 2 hours, then leave them in the water overnight.
• When boiling, the nitrate content decreases by as much as 85%, it is important to drain the first broth hot - when cooling, the nitrates “return”.
• In the process of stewing, the amount of nitrates removed with steam is greater, so cabbage, zucchini and beets should not be covered with a lid when stewing.

Ascorbic acid helps to reduce almost three times the formation of dangerous compounds in the body. Therefore, if you are not sure about the safety of the product that you are going to eat, drink a glass of citrus juice and only then eat. However, this is not a reason to consume products containing nitrates, washing them down with liters of juice - a certain amount of harmful substances will enter the body upon contact with vitamin C. Just follow the rules for storage and processing - and be healthy!

A few centuries ago, sorrel was considered a weed. But today it has more than 200 varieties that can be eaten.

In the spring, when the need for vitamins is most felt, this is a good help to prevent beriberi and anemia.

The fiber that this product contains has a beneficial effect on gastrointestinal motility. Experts recommend adding a small amount of fresh sorrel to salads to normalize the functioning of the gallbladder and liver.

Sorrel consumption prevents the risk of stroke and heart attack.

Pregnant women (if there are no contraindications) sorrel can be added to soups, borscht and salads. It contains a sufficient amount of folic acid, which helps prevent serious birth defects of the spinal cord and brain defects in the fetus.

How to choose a quality sorrel?

Quality sorrel should be bright green in color. The cuttings should not be too long. When tearing off a piece, a sour-saturated smell is felt, without any other aromas. Leaves are evenly colored. They should be free of holes, dust and dirt. The leaves should not be dark green - this is already old sorrel. This is easy to check: the stem must be flexible and thin. If you break it, it will immediately break. But the old plant has a bending stem. And this means that it contains a large amount of oxalic acid. There will be no benefit from such a product. Therefore, choose young leaves.

How to identify low-quality sorrel?

• If nitrates are present in sorrel, then it has practically no aroma. Why is that? Because under the influence of nitrates, the plant grows very quickly and does not have time to accumulate essential oils. Hence the absence of any smell. But, sometimes, when pressed on a leaf, the sorrel exudes the smell of metal. This is definitely a nitrate product.
• The presence of a large amount of nitrates is indicated by an uneven or too dark green or dirty green color. And a rather long petiole tells us that the sorrel quickly stretched into growth due to nitrates.
• If there are numerous holes on the sorrel leaves, this indicates that it has been bitten by insects. And there is a possibility that the product was treated with insecticides.
• If the sorrel has yellow leaves, then most likely it contains heavy metals such as mercury, nickel, lead, cadmium and arsenic. And this is due, most likely, to the soil in which it grew.
• When buying sorrel, feel the leaves to the touch - if they are sticky, then they are too processed with chemical fertilizers. Such a product should not be consumed even after thorough washing.
• By the way, you can check the sorrel for nitrates at the market early in the morning, while the plants are still fresh. Take a bunch of sorrel in your hand, and if the leaves bend and fall, then there is a high probability of nitrates. Since the treated plants have very fragile cuttings.

Before use, the product should be rinsed well under running water and immersed in water for a while. This must be done in order to protect yourself from nitrates and small insects.

Do not forget poor-quality products can lead to severe poisoning, upset the gastrointestinal tract, diseases of the nervous system, thyroid gland, and also provoke the development of cancer.

Contraindications

People with urolithiasis should use sorrel with caution, as the product contains oxalic acid, which contributes to the formation of kidney stones. Also, the use of sorrel can cause an exacerbation of gout.

Nitrites tend to bind to hemoglobin, the main carrier of oxygen. Hemoglobin in such a situation turns into a special form - methemoglobin - and loses the ability to give oxygen to tissues. What does it look like in practice? With a significant concentration of methemoglobin in the blood, a person breathes, but oxygen does not enter the tissues, as, for example, with suffocation.

The severity of poisoning depends on the amount of nitrates received and the level of methemoglobin in the blood. However, in any case, exceeding the permissible concentration of methemoglobin adversely affects the state of health.

Worth paying attention! The most vulnerable in this situation are babies up to a year old, especially the first 3 months. The fact is that such crumbs do not have an “anti-nitrate” protective mechanism. Due to age, babies have few enzymes that contribute to the reverse conversion of methemoglobin to normal hemoglobin.

Signs of nitrate poisoning

Symptoms of poisoning are largely determined by the amount of nitrates received and the level of methemoglobin formed. It should be said that nitrate poisoning associated with the use of early vegetables and fruits is now rare. Much more often, experts encounter nitrate poisoning when a baby uses well water: as a drink and when preparing milk formula on it. The first signs of poisoning, as a rule, are malaise, lethargy of the baby and refusal to eat. Older children may complain of headaches. With a significant formation of methemoglobin (defective hemoglobin), the child's skin loses its natural pink color and becomes gray and cyanotic.

On a note! Often in everyday life, diarrhea and vomiting are considered typical signs of nitrate poisoning. However, most often such symptoms are associated with the phenomena of gastritis or intestinal dysfunction against the background of excessive consumption of fiber (vegetable fibers) or fats that are flavored with salad (sour cream, mayonnaise).

How to help a child?

For all cases of malaise in young children, the following rule is relevant: if the condition of the baby is not clear to you, consult a doctor! Parents should be alert for symptoms such as unexplained lethargy, refusal to eat and drink, and discoloration of the skin. If the baby does not vomit and swallowing is preserved, you should give him one age dose of any sorbent: activated charcoal, enterosgel, atoxil, smecta, etc. While waiting for the ambulance, the child can be fractionally given some water. It is important to get to a specialist as soon as possible. In large cities, care for children with poisoning is provided in the toxicology or intensive care units, in small cities - in the pediatrics department.

It is important! A baby with diarrhea and vomiting needs a medical examination also because it is important to determine the true cause of such manifestations. A baby with diarrhea is losing water, so it needs a more intense drinking regimen.

Read more about nitrates and their harm to the child's body in the magazine "Mom and I" No. 7/2013, you can buy it