Money doesn’t grow on trees, that is why most of us invest on a frugal type of living. It’s a good thing if we are doing the “right” way, but if not, we’re just trapping our own self from danger. A good example of it is our leftovers. Do you know that eating overnight dishes can cause harm to our body? You think its economic, but it ISN’T!

What is an “overnight dish”?

When we say “overnight dish”, it doesn’t mean something that you store in your refrigerator at night. When you place a food for more than 8-10 hours on a fridge, that is considered as an “overnight dish”. This can cause toxic increase and secondary contamination of foreign bacteria. Most of us think that once we reheat the food, those toxins will die, as a matter of fact, they won’t. The chemicals in food produce carcinogens such as nitrate that can’t be removed even on the heat.

When we cook fried vegetables we add oil and salt, right? When you store it in a refrigerator at night, the vitamins will be oxidized leading to a significant increase in nitrate. Though nitrate is not a carcinogenic substance, it is still harmful to our health. When nitrates enter our body, they will be converted into nitrites which can cause illness such as gastric cancer. During hot weather, overnight food are more prone to bacteria that can cause food poisoning!

Dangers of overnight dishes

1. Overnight vegetables produce deadly nitrites

Green leafy vegetables are good for our body unless they produce pathogenic nitrates. The nitrates on vegetables increase rapidly when stored in cold places. Also, some high protein and high in fat leftovers can be contaminated by bacteria that can produce harmful substances such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and phenol that shouldn’t be ingested!

2. Food poisoning

Storing leftovers in the refrigerator for a long time can be contaminated by Salmonella, halophilic bacteria, pathogenic Escherichia coli and other pathogens or Staphylococcus aureus toxins. Once you consume these contaminated leftovers without heating, it can cause food poisoning, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe dehydration, acidosis or shock!

3. Leftovers can cause malnutrition

Reheating meals can decrease vitamins on food such as vitamins C and B. When these vitamins and other minerals decline, that’s when malnutrition occurs.

4. Increase cancer

The number of nitrates on leftovers increase rapidly when stored in cold places when you ingest these nitrates they will be converted into nitrites causing gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer and other cancer-related illness on our digestive system.

5. It can cause obesity

There are times we consume food more than our body needs because of fear of waste. This can result in excessive consumption leading to obesity! Obese people are susceptible to high blood pressure, hyperlipoproteinemia, coronary heart disease, diabetes, cholelithiasis, cancer and other diseases that will affect your quality of living and shorten someone’s lifespan!

6 kinds of overnight dishes that should not be eaten

1. Starch food are prone to cause gastrointestinal diseases

Vegetables are healthy, but not when it is store overnight with salted ingredients. It contains nitrates and when heated the toxic increases! So to avoid getting sick, it is best to consume veggies, rice cakes, and other starch foods right away or you can store them for only about 4 hours.

2. Soup stored in metal utensils

It’s been a hobby (a bad hobby) that when we cook soup, we left it on metal containers to be consumed soon (because we think it will be more delicious), if you also do this, you’re also inviting diseases to precipitate your body! Aluminum containers and metal pots contain harmful substances, the best way to save our precious soup, consume it on the day you cooked it or do not put salt and other seasonings. Also, you can use a wooden spoon when cooking and store it on tile or fresh box containers in the refrigerator.

3. Overnight seafood can damage your liver and kidney

Seafood like fish, crabs, and shrimps when store overnight can cause protein degradation damaging the function of our kidney and liver. In case you really need to buy plenty of seafood, you can put them on fresh bags or boxes and froze it on the fridge.

4. Green leafy vegetables are the most hazardous meal to keep overnight

If you’re going to buy green leafy veggies, eat the green one first, like cabbage and spinach. As much as possible, try to finish it because green leafy vegetables contain high nitrates.

5. Storing eggs for a long time could be dangerous

Most of us love to eat eggs when they’re half cooked, which is, in fact, prone to bacteria when left long. Make sure to sealed eggs properly before storing them in the fridge.

6. Beware of Tremella mushrooms

This type of mushrooms is also prone to nitrates. If you store it for a long time, it is better to just throw them away.

Living economically is a good idea especially if you know how to do it correctly. If you really want to save money, just prepare enough food to consume for the day. Because sometimes the things we thought are “wise” may tend to be the opposite.