Is CABBAGE Really Harmful Now

Nattusbs

Indizen:

That's a really vague allegation, painting all Indian doctors with the same brush.

Same brush it may be, but, we use different colors for each doctor

All this hog-wash about cabbage and worms. Give me a break.

In many South East countries people actually eat worms, I guess it depends on the kind, these people know - it is not as if the skin of the worms have a sign that says "Poison" or "Eat me".

As long the vegetables are properly cleaned, washed in several changes of water after thorough visual inspection of each and every leaf ( I dutifully do it, and believe me the worms do have color very similar to the leaves - the key is to see a little wiggle here and a little wiggle there of some black spot which would be the end of the bloody worm!

Toss the leaves in some salted boiling water - get it to a roaring boil for 1 minute and dump it into cold water and strain - voila -cabbage is de-wormed. Now if you want to collect the supernatant (now that's a chemistry word for the water left after boiling) you add some noodles & can make "wormy noodle soup" - delicious - just add some soy sauce, oyster flavour sauce and you are good to go crawling.

Cheers

Nattusbs

Nick-H

But, hey!

If even a lizard walking accross the kitchen ceiling over my food can make me ill, surely a worm walking on my leaf must be at least, err, fatal?

machadinha

? Can't say I read through all of the posts above.

Eat cabbages all the time.

Could be some local Indian thing; seems otherwise unlikely to me.

Never heard of it till now.

But then it is just possible I'm more wacky than I'd like to be.

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machadinha

<emptied>

Indizen

Neurocysticercosis is not just a local Indian thing. The infection was long thought of as being transmitted in meat, all over the world. Earlier it was actually thought to be rare in India till they discovered it was also passed on through improperly cleaned or cooked vegetables - cabbage only because of the structure of its leaves : more likely to hide the larvae.

cityMONK

Yes by avoiding pork, perhaps misconception, we thought we were safe from this. but now safe vegetables are transmitting neurocysticerosis is really scary situation.

and is cooking not killing worms ,larve, viruses.

federica

Improperly cooked: here's the problem. We were actually talking about properly cooked cabbage. And the preparation methods for vegetables in India leave hardly anything improperly cooked.(compared to China, for example).

Wanderer22

This thread got my attention as I grow a lot of cabbage in my garden. While I dislike worms in cabbage, have never considered them dangerous to humans. My technique for growing worm free cabbage is to cover the plants with a fine net that keeps out the white butter flies so they can't lay their eggs on the leaves.

Neurocysticercosis is something else entirely. It's caused by the cysts of the tapeworm... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysticercosis .... http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=11763 37
Neurocysticercosis is acquired through consumption of food contaminated with feces of a T. solium tapeworm carrier (i.e., through fecal–oral contract)... Humans and pigs are the carriers so the problem may result from using night soil or pig manure as fertilizer on the cabbages. Well cooked cabbage should be OK, but raw cabbage could be unsafe if contaminated.

W22

wat

Indizen, Thats my experience with not one but dozens of doctors. I know for a fact at least half a dozen doctors who advice that diabetics should not eat things that grow below earth (carrots etc.) and many such silly advicces

Nick-H

So, some people's "worms" could be the larvae of a butterfly, whilst others may be talking about the possible effect of tapeworm cysts on the brain?

Doesn't seem very scientific to me.

Haylo

Whatever this "worm" is, whether it is a caterpillar, an earthworm, or tapeworm eggs, cooking at high temperatures is definitely going to kill it. Period. Who are these doctors?

I say this with certainty as all life forms I've ever heard of (at least those which live exist in the same conditions as humans) can be destroyed by high temperatures. I cannot possibly imagine a virus or a prion particle being referred to as a "worm".

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ashwinnaagar

Totally agree with you. Honestly speaking indian doctors aren't too much into food and nutrition and all of that. I have never consulted a allopathic doctor for my diet. Ayurvedic or traditional medicine doctors are much better in this regard.

cinch

This "worm" thing in cabbage and cauliflower is getting mysterious... Actually, one of my far cousin was admitted to hospital (in bangalore) because of severe head ache and the doctor said she had worms in her brain caused due to cauliflower. Though she is discharged now, she is still under medication. I could not believe this and started googling and thats how I found this thread.

I am not able to believe this because, in school we were taught that the acidic solution in the stomach kills everything except virus and bacteria. So even if we consume the worm along with cabbage or cauliflower due to lack of hygiene, the worm wont be alive once it enters stomach... how can it reach the blood stream and enter brain

Nick-H

Does it kill everything? It doesn't kill tapeworm, etc.

cityMONK

I myself was confused when I came to know of such two cases and reason given by doctors. Both the persons are pure vegetarians.