It is best not to eat them. Eating shrimp heads means eating shrimp excrement, semi-digested shrimp food, and drinking shrimp urine. More importantly, in places where the growth environment is not good, shrimp heads will become rich. Collect heavy metals in the environment.

The "shrimp head" we often refer to is the cephalothorax of the shrimp. The boundary between the head and the thorax of the shrimp is not obvious, and they are collectively called the cephalothorax. The cephalothorax has a structure called the pericardial sinus, which includes the stomach, liver, heart, a pair of testes/ovaries, the excretory organ antennal gland (also called green gland because it is green), bladder and excretory pore. The abdomen of the shrimp only has a rectum and anus.

What is this antennal gland used for?

Light microscopy observation shows that the antennal gland is composed of three parts: coelomic sac, labyrinth and pronephric duct. Open sinusoids and small arterial vessels are distributed between the coelomyosac and the labyrinthine canaliculi. Electron microscopy observation studies show:

1. The body cavity cyst wall is composed of podocytes and basement membrane. Podocytes are connected to the basement membrane with foot-like protrusions, and hemolymph in blood sinusoids and small arterial vessels filters in. The coelomic sac forms protouria. Podocytes absorb macromolecular substances in raw urine and perform intracellular digestion and detoxification.

2. The epithelial cells of the labyrinth tubules have free and well-developed microvilli, and the plasma membrane at the base of the cells forms a large number of infoldings. The labyrinth has the function of reabsorbing macromolecular substances, water and inorganic ions in the original urine, excreting metabolic waste from the body, and participating in osmotic pressure regulation.

3. The basal plasma membrane and lateral membrane of the pronephric duct epithelial cells form deeper and more plasma membrane infoldings into the cells. The cells further reabsorb water and inorganic ions in the lumen, and pass through active Inorganic ion metabolism plays an important role in the formation of hypertonic and concentrated urine.

In addition, shrimp heads are also the hardest hit area for heavy metal accumulation:

The heavy metal content varies depending on its size and location. The trend is that the heavy metal content of large-size samples is relatively high. The growth in tilapia and Penaeus vannamei is positively correlated with their body weight; the content of heavy metals in tilapia viscera is significantly higher than that in muscle tissue, and the shrimp head is the main part of the shrimp where heavy metals are enriched.

To sum up, there are still a lot of disgusting things in the shrimp heads. The advice for eating them is to remove them as much as possible. If the shrimps are too small and difficult to handle, try to buy live shrimps and keep them in clear water for a period of time. Do not Feed them, and let’s eat them after they poop clean!

There are many people who like to eat shrimp heads in life. In fact, shrimp heads do contain very delicious ingredients, which are shrimp eggs, which we commonly call "yellow".

When female shrimps mature, they will contain shrimp yellow on the head and neck, so shrimps with shrimp yellow must be female shrimps, but without shrimp yellow, they are not necessarily male shrimps, and female shrimps cannot be seen when they are immature. Shrimp yellow. Most people are familiar with crab roe, but rarely know about shrimp roe. Before the female shrimp is pregnant with eggs, the head and neck of the shrimp contain shrimp roe, which is commonly known as "red-headed baby".

If you want to eat shrimp roe but don’t want to eat anything else, you have to take your time when eating. In fact, if you remove the factor of heavy metals, the harm to the human body is very weak.