"Sea Ginseng" or "Sea Cucumber"?

Because of football, sea cucumbers have recently gained huge attention, and various "stalks" of sea cucumbers playing football emerge in an endless stream
.

 

In the history of Chinese football, Sun Jihai is one of the most outstanding players; the Dalian team of that era created a "unique" brilliance
.

 

Recently, some media revealed: "Sun Jihai ate a sea cucumber a day when he was growing up, which is the case for many Dalian players
.
"

 

Sea cucumbers are produced in Dalian, and it is not surprising that people with higher living standards eat them every day.
It is like finding athletes who "eat olive oil every day" in the Mediterranean region, and those who "drink milk every day" in Inner Mongolia.
Mobilize, find athletes who "eat high-quality rice every day" in Heilongjiang, and find athletes who "eat spicy food every day" in Sichuan, Chongqing and Hunan.
.
.

 

At this time, it was revealed that "Sun Jihai ate a sea cucumber a day when he was growing up".
If he carefully stroked it, he would be very confused about the relationship between "sea participation and good football"
.
For example, from this information and the recent sea cucumber topic, the following questions can be discussed:

 

1.
Eating sea cucumber will not make players play worse (such as Sun Jihai and the Dalian team of that era)

 

　　2.
Eating sea cucumber will not make players play better (such as losing to Vietnam)

 

　　3.
If "sea cucumbers are useful" and eat every day and still lose to Vietnam, how hard do players have to work?

 

　　4.
If "sea cucumbers are useless", wouldn't it be fooling the fans?

 

　　5, .
.
.
(everyone is free to play)

 

　　After the ranting is over, here is the serious science:

 

　　Not only in China, but throughout East Asia, sea cucumbers have the highest appeal
.
Like shark fin, bird's nest, ginseng , Ganoderma lucidum, etc.
, it is considered to be "big tonic" and is highly sought after
.

 

　　There are at least 1,400 species of sea cucumbers in nature, and only some of them are certain to be eaten
.
As food, it's still good
.
With almost no fat and more than half of the protein by dry weight, probably only eggs without the yolk win out of all the foods
.
But protein is obviously not the reason why it is "precious" - if you measure this, eggs, lean meat, milk, and tofu are countless times more economical than it
.

 

　　People spend so much money, of course, hoping that there are magical "active ingredients" in them
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The content of sea cucumber next to protein is a kind of thing called "mucopolysaccharide"
.
The mucopolysaccharide in sea cucumber is chondroitin sulfate, which can account for more than 10% of the dry weight
.
Chondroitin sulfate is usually extracted from shark fins or the trachea of ​​cows.
There are many studies, and clinical trials have shown that it seems to be effective in relieving joint pain
.
Although scientifically it is only "seems", health care product manufacturers have long said it is "can"
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Because they are all "natural products", people accept them with the attitude of "prefer to have them"
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For the relief of symptoms such as joint pain, "better to have it" is an extremely effective prescription
.
In clinical trials of chondroitin sulfate (and its partner, glucosamine sulfate) for joint pain relief, the experimental group did respond "feeling better
.
" However, the placebo group also responded "feeling better"—that is, just thinking "I'm on therapy" and eating "feeling better" no matter what
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As for the effect of taking chondroitin sulfate and the placebo group, the difference is not so big
.
The results of previous trials generally considered them to be "slightly better" than the placebo, but recent studies have shown that they are no different from the placebo
.
Translating the results of this scientific study into popular language is: eating sea cucumber or chondroitin sulfate to relieve joint pain is not a fool, but as long as you eat something else and believe that they are "as effective as sea cucumber", the last The effect is similar
.

 

　　In dealing with various "bioactive ingredients", the Chinese are accustomed to relying on "I believe", while the Japanese are keen to get some scientific experiments to "prove"
.
For example, some Japanese have obtained a patent, saying that chondroitin sulfate can be used to inhibit the HIV virus
.
It's hard to say whether this is reliable or not - anyway, claiming the function of health care products does not require very reliable scientific evidence, "believers believe it, and those who don't believe it don't believe it"
.
In the United States, as long as there are some such research results, they can be sold as "dietary supplements" - as long as they do not claim efficacy and state that "the above function claims have not been approved by the FDA", they can also be sold to "Xinzhi" spirit" people
.

 

　　The ancient Chinese called this sea cucumber "sea cucumber" because they thought it was as "nutritious" as ginseng
.
In fact, sea cucumber and ginseng are not similar in growth - Americans call it "sea cucumber ", which is far less high-end than China's "sea ginseng"
.
The "active ingredients" in ginseng are generally considered to be saponins -- saponins are components found in many plants, such as soybeans
.
What's interesting is that there are quite a lot of saponins in sea cucumber, so many scientists are also interested in these saponins
.
In fact, sea cucumber produces saponins, which are used as "chemical weapons" for self-defense - just like the ladies' chili water, which is quite lethal to those who approach with bad intentions
.
Scientists have discovered that saponins are cytotoxic and appear to be anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and immune-modulating, among other things
.
But the most appealing, or anti-tumor
.
In some cell experiments, ginsenosides showed good inhibitory effect on specific cancer cells
.
This of course makes pharmaceutical companies or sea cucumber lovers very happy, but it is too early to be happy - scientists also found that these saponins can not only inhibit cancer cells, but also have the ability to kill normal cells
.
Thinking that it was originally created for the self-defense of sea cucumbers, it would be too "hard for sea cucumbers" to make it ruthlessly kill cancer cells and get along with normal cells
.
What's worse, those experiments used sea cucumber extract or saponins - and from salvage to the table, sea cucumbers have to undergo quite complicated processing and cooking, and it is not known whether those saponins are still "alive"
.
In other words, from the current scientific evidence, eating sea cucumber to fight cancer is not very reliable
.

 

　　Not getting the "magic" they wanted from these main ingredients, scientists have also set their sights on the fat in it - although the content is small, what if it "has a miraculous effect"? As a result, two unique ingredients were found, one similar to fish oil, and the other had the activity of inhibiting fat oxidation
.
The latter is used to treat asthma, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, and has also shown activity in inhibiting cancer cell growth in cell tests
.
However, these experiments are also very preliminary, and it is quite far from "eating sea cucumbers with these functions"
.

 

　　Considering that it is unclear whether the "active ingredients" have "bad aspects", starting from the principle of prudence and conservativeness, it is recommended that pregnant women not take the risk of "maybe there" for the benefit of "maybe"
.
For the general population, sea cucumber is also a good food
.
If you like to eat and you have money to eat, there is nothing wrong with eating
.
As for the purported "treatment of cancer, arthritis, sports injuries, tendonitis and other inflammatory diseases," don't take it seriously
.