Weekly First-aid Topic: Healthy eating during BBQ season
From:Beijing Municipal Health Commission
Date:06/02/2022

Summer is the peak season for barbecues. While enjoying delicious food, citizens should also pay attention to healthy eating. It is recommended to choose lean meat with less fat, such as chicken breast, squid or oysters, etc. It is suggested to use less barbecue sauce, so as not to intake too much salt. Drinking cold beer while eating meat may harm the stomach due to alternatively eating hot and cold food. In addition, in high temperature weather in summer, barbecued food is easily infected with bacteria due to the influence of temperature, which can easily lead to bacterial food poisoning. Its symptoms are characterized by vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and other manifestations within a short time after eating, which may be accompanied by fever, general malaise, etc. The duration of those symptoms is usually short and the degree is mild. The shortest onset time is about half an hour after eating, and the general time is 1-3 hours after eating. If symptoms occur, you should immediately stop eating the food that causes poisoning, and pay attention to keeping specimens of suspicious food for laboratory tests to find out the pathogenic microorganisms. Within 1-2 hours of eating, the patient could induce vomiting. After more than 2 hours after eating, it is advised to take cathartic drugs if the patient is conscious. Patient with symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, could take oral glucose saline, and seek medical treatment timely.