Fern is a representative of traditional wild vegetables, is the "king of mountain vegetables", many people also specialize in the mountains to dig fern, that it is green, pollution-free, nutritious, and even anti-cancer, known as "longevity vegetables". The fern root powder is from the wild fern rhizome refining and processing of a starch material, the restaurant to do the hot and sour fern root powder, is a very high click rate of a cold dish food.

Chinese Agricultural University Food Science and Nutritional Engineering Associate Professor Zhu Yi told reporters, like to eat fern is mainly China, Japan, South Korea and other countries, and the fern cancer research, Japan did the most in-depth, the earliest discovery of fern there is a kind of fern called "proto fern glycosides" is carcinogenic, which is also the Japanese people found.

According to Zhu Yi, an epidemiological study conducted in the 1990s showed that eating a lot of fiddleheads at a young age would increase the risk of stomach cancer in adulthood. Such epidemiological studies have been done in Japan, the United Kingdom and other parts of the world, and the results are similar. Even in places where fiddleheads are abundant, milk produced by cows eating fiddlehead grass may contain small amounts of proanthocyanidins. However, the milk all needs to be sterilized at high temperatures, a process that can bring down the level of carcinogens in the ferns dramatically.

And science writer, member of the Scientific Squirrel Society, and Dr. Yun Wuxin, a food engineering doctor, was concerned about fiddlehead ferns causing cancer a few years ago. He pointed out that "fiddleheads cause cancer" is supported by solid scientific evidence, eating fiddleheads can lead to higher rates of esophageal and stomach cancers, and the fiddleheads' "proto-fern glycosides" are the main culprits of these symptoms. As early as a hundred years ago, people have noticed that this plant can cause poisoning and even death in cattle, and animal experiments have also confirmed that fern can indeed cause cancer in animals.

Steaming and water immersion can reduce the amount of carcinogens but will not eliminate them

Zhu Yi said that the original fern glycosides in the fern, which is currently rated as a class 2B carcinogen by the World Cancer Organization, did show carcinogenic ability in animal experiments.

However, people usually eat fiddleheads, fiddleheads will be dealt with, because directly eat fiddleheads raw is not tasty, in most cases have to go through the steaming and then fried, so that the method, are able to let the original fern glycosides to a certain degree, in addition to water immersion, alkaline water or grass ash treatment, can also reduce the original fern glycosides, "but these are only to let the content decline , not elimination."

On the basis of the results of the current epidemiological survey, "fern eating more is still a risk," Zhu Yi suggested, or need to control the frequency of eating fern, as well as the amount of fern eating. As long as the amount of control, occasionally eat less, there is no need to panic too much. Fern is similar to the case of bacon, sausage, barbecue meat, are with cancer risk food, eat a little bit do not have to worry too much, do not eat a lot of long-term.

Science writer Yun Wu Xin also told reporters that fern is not an unavoidable ingredient, there is no need to eat it, it brings the risk of "with the amount of food as well as the frequency of consumption, as with smoking"

I hope that my answer is helpful to you, and remember to adopt it, O(∩_∩)O!

I hope my answer is helpful to you!