THE DISCUSSION ESSAY
Essay writing
Sri wiji lestari
K2-2013
The Controversy of Petai Consumption
Petai is one of tropic plants that
grows in west Indonesia. It also grows in South Asia, for instance Malaysia, Brunei, and Thailand.
In science, it is called parkia speciosa.
The characteristic of petai is that
grow up to 20 meter and has many branches, and it is also a kind of bean. In addition, It is a seasonal
plant; it usually bears fruit during December-January. When petai was bearing fruit, many Indonesian
people like to consume it. They cook petai
to become many kind of food such as petai fried rice, semur petai, ‘sambalado tanak’ and other kind
of foods. On the other hand, some of whom do not like it because they have their
opinion themselves that petai just
make a bad smell, and not appropriate to kidney. However, the others argued
about it; besides, it also gives many advantages for our health, primarily for
our kidney. In short, petai has many advantages and disadvantages that we need
to pay attention before consumpting it.
People who do not
like to consume petai, of course they only know
that it only produces unpleasant odors without knowing the myriad of the benefits of petai. One of its benefits is it can reduce stress. As research conducted by Institute of Psychology, Austria, found, “Pressure at work will leads people to consume the comfort food, like
chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital
patients, researchers found, in
general, people are becoming obese
due to high-pressure jobs.” You do not be worry to this problem because it can be
avoided by eating petai.
The research also proved
that two servings of petai are able to provide
enough energy for a strenuous
90 minutes. Therefore, petai is a source of potential energy to support the various
activities. The content of phosphorus on petai is also quite good, which is 115
mg per 100
g of seeds. Phosphorus
is
the second minerals after calcium. Approximately one percent of our body
weight consists of phosphorus. DNA and
RNA in our body is
made up of phosphorus in the form of phosphate, as well as the cell membrane that helps maintain
cell permeability.
According to my causin who
likes petai, Nurul, said “Petai is a bean that has many advantages.
I know it because I have read about the advantages of petai on a magazine. For
example, petai has antioxidant so
that it can ward free radicals around our environment that we often find in our
life such as in food products, especially the spicy and grill food, and it can
also calm the nerves, so we can relax after eating it.” Besides, from the
article that I have from this site, www.cakrakhasiatmanfaat.com, explained, “the advantages of Petai is for improving mood, overcoming the syndrome pramenstrual, preventing anemia, reducing the risk of blood pressure, enhancing the ability of
the brain, overcoming constipation, coping with worms, and it suitable for consumption by people who suffer from
mag because it is smooth and can neutralize the excess acid, and it also decreases irritation to
the stomach lining gives.” As a result, there are still many more benefits of
petai that we do not know yet.
Then, if we
look from another side, petai also
has disadvantages. Like my sister’s opinion, Tina, she said “The general
disadvatages resulting of petai is
the bad ordor, It is the same with “Jengkol”, so I do not like it very much.” And
also my friends opinion, Putri Permana, she said, “Petai is not delicious, it is bitter, and produce the bad ordor.” Moreover,
in my sources, http://dhammacitta.org , it explains what the disadvantages of petai and why it
can not be consumed by certain people, primarily for patient with kidney
desease. It explained :
“Petai does provide some disadvatages.
First, consumpting petai can affect
the bad ordor so that your urine smells so foul; besides, it also makes your farts smell bad because amino acids are
rich
in sulfur and nitrogen that
will not be
converted into ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Another is the result of the amino acid
content is too high in the body that can cause
kidney damage. Furthermore, petai also contains jengkolik acid, that
was found
in jengkol. It can block the tubule
urine and cause
pain, haematuria and even death, if you consumed in excess.”
In conclusion, petai has two sides. These are the advantages
and disadvantages. Indeed, I stand on with people who are like petai because so
many advantages of it. On the other hand, the disadvatages can be minimize by
eating some food that can decrease the bad smell. You should eat it at home,
and you can brush your teeth after eating it. As a result, for you who want to eat petai should consider the two sides are caused by Petai. I hope it can
be a consideration for you in consuming petai.
