I doubt if there is any home where food is not reheated. Obviously, you do not want to throw away food after you invested your time in preparing it and money in buying it. Reheating some food items can be dangerous for health, here are a few of them.
Chicken
Reheating chicken can cause harm to the health for the simple reason that the proteins in it change. When the proteins change in composition, it’s not just the taste that changes, it can give you serious digestive issues. If you have to reheat it anyhow, do it on low heat so that not much of the protein composition changes.
Spinach
Spinach is a known good source of iron and other nutrients. When you reheat spinach, the high levels of nitrates in it change it to entirely nitrites. This makes it very harmful for the body. In fact, reheating spinach makes it carcinogenic.
Eggs
It’s boiled and scrambled eggs that should not be reheated. It becomes difficult for the body to digest it. These can even cause digestive disorders due to turning toxic. Usually the egg leftovers aren’t in large quantity and throwing them away will be a good idea.
Potatoes
We eat them almost every day, in meals or snacks. Potatoes are rich in iron, potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, and fiber. You probably might not be knowing that unpeeled potatoes contain more potassium than bananas. However, reheating cooked potatoes is not good for health. As they turn toxic and in some cases could result in food poisoning.
Celery
This green leafy vegetable is just like spinach, when we consider the nitrates in it. Reheating makes them cancer causing as the nitrates change in to nitrites. If you are trying to reheat soup with celery, simply remove the celery from it.
Rice
It’s not exactly rice, that is harmful when reheated. Rather it is a common mistake that we make and the rice becomes harmful when reheated. We tend to keep rice at room temperature for relatively long periods and that is the time when bacteria grows on it. This may result in diarrhea and leave the stomach upset.
Generally protein based leftovers may be reheated on low heat. You probably will not want to take a risk with the foods high in nitrates. Try to consume the freshly prepared food completely, so that there are no leftovers.