It may sound weird but it is true that some people eat lizard as their meal. People are not commonly consume lizard in culinary purpose but more as medicine....
We can easily found lizard in our home or in the garden around the environment. Lizard is one kind of reptile that belong to order Squamata or in the same class to snake.
They different from snake because they got legs and having external ear hole. unlike snake they also have eyelids which can be moved. Lizard can be found everywhere in every continent in this world. Actually lizard has important role in keeping environmental balance by acting in the food chain of an area.
Lizard is commonly predators of certain insects and bug which is harmful for plant and human. They consume pest on the field and also mosquito inside home.
By those activities, they can prevent human from such disease that caused by insect.
Lizard has been consumed as food since long and people in Asia loves to eat it. They usually consider lizard as extreme snack. Even lizard meat doesn’t sound tasty, people in some Asian countries like China, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines have their own recipe to cook and consume lizard.
Even there are special market who sold such exotic meat in those countries that let people to purchase and bring the lizard meat home.
People who are used to eat lizard have their own purpose to get the benefits of lizard. Lizard meat contains some amount of nutrients which believed can cure some disease and keep healthy body.
According to some studies, lizard meat contains high proteins and amino acid. It contains important nutrients such as tyrosine, phenylalanine, trypthopan and histidine in low level while isoleucine in lizard meat found in high level compared to other common meat such as beef and diary product. It is surprising that those nutrients make lizard meat as one kind of meat that surpassed essential nutrients to the body.
Health Benefits of Eating Lizard
Due its nutrition, people has started to consume lizard as medicine and wishing the benefits. Below are the list of benefits that you may get after consuming lizard meat :
1. Provide energy
2. Improve stamina
3. Prevent asthma attack
4. Cure epilepsy
5. Heal skin disease
It is believed that meat of most reptile such as snake, lizard or iguana can cure skin problem. People in Indonesia used to eat lizard meat to heal itchy skin and some other skin disease such as eczema, and psoriasis. They even drain the meat then turned into powder and put in capsule skin.
6. Cure acne
7. Prevent gland disorder
8. Promote flatulence
9. Relieving muscle stiffness
10. Fight cancer
11. Help to cure digestion problem
12. Cure hemorrhoid
13. Prevent from stroke
14. Promote long life
Health Risk of Eating Lizard
Some people still consider that eating lizard meat may give harmful effect to the body. The main cause that makes eating lizard can be harmful is the presence of pathogen bacteria such as Salmonella.
Salmonella is a type of bacteria which can cause many health problem in human body such as thypoid fever and diarrhea. It also contains certain protein that may trigger allergic reaction in the body. People with allergy history should concern about health risk and think twice to try eating lizard.
How to Catch and Cook lizard
Catching fresh lizard will be another challenge. Lizard can be caught by using trap or shot . Nowadays some markets sells exotic meat or which they called extreme food and it can be found in certain area.
If you purchase the meat from market you better make sure the meats are fresh enough and doesn’t contain poisonous bacteria.
After get the lizard meat you should know how to process and cook it. Follow these tips before you eating lizard :
- Before you cook lizard you should cut the head and the gut of lizard. Don’t forget cut the anus as well
- Divide the lizard body and separate the legs and tail by cutting them
- Remember don’t use same cutting board which you use to cut lizard with other kind of food such as vegetable. This may cause cross contamination
- Boil lizard meat for 20 minutes until the skin get loose and it sterile from any kind of bacteria
- Remove the skin from lizard body and then you can cook it just as you wish. You can fry or stir it, its up to you. The taste of lizard meat is just resemble to chicken wings
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