Health
Severe burns reported in children making TikTok-trendy ‘glass fruit’ in microwave
A TikTok trend could pose a potential hazard to children.
“Glass fruit,” otherwise known as Tanghulu — which involves hardening sugar over various fruits to give it a crunchy topping — has become a growing food trend on social media.
Making Tanghulu requires microwaving a sugar and water mixture at 30-second intervals for about five minutes until it’s boiling, according to TikToker Jasmine and Tea, who posted a tutorial in April.
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The food-focused content creator warned in the video, which now has nearly 20 million views, that the mixture will get “really hot” and that people should not touch it with bare hands.
The skewered fruit of choice is dipped into the liquid mixture while it’s still hot and placed on the side to harden.
The sugar and water mixture must reach a liquefied boiling point to cover the fruit. (iStock)
The viral trend has resulted in trips to the hospital for some children testing out the recipe at home.
Shriners Children’s Hospital in Boston released a notice in August about an uptick in cases of children with severe burn injuries due to spilling sugar.
Shriners surgeon Colleen Ryan, MD, reported that she has treated two patients within two weeks who were injured during the activity.
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“When sugar is melted in the microwave like this, it has a high heat capacity, meaning it stores the heat energy,” she said in a statement.
“If spilled, it can create a severe scald burn, much like spilling hot soup, but it can cause a much deeper burn because of sugar’s properties. Kids or teens can quickly grab the pot or bowl, and the hot fluid splashes, spills or splatters over them.”
Tanghulu is a traditional northern Chinese snack of candied fruit on a skewer. (iStock)
The result is “one or several small but very deep burns, often in critical areas such as the hand or the face,” Ryan noted.
“Parents should make sure their children have learned proper cooking safety and take preventive measures.”
The surgeon said that her colleagues, both in the U.S. and internationally, have also reported an increase in these injuries related to the cooking trend.
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She encouraged parents to be aware that their children might come across this trend on social media.
“It can seem like a fun, harmless activity for kids to try making the treat themselves,” she said. “There is an opportunity to prevent this injury if everyone is aware of this danger.”
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“Parents should be careful and make sure their children have learned proper cooking safety and take preventive measures.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Fox News Digital that melted sugar is “dangerous,” and warned of how “contagious” these types of viral trends can be among kids.
“Parents should be careful and make sure their children have learned proper cooking safety and take preventive measures,” warned Shriners Children’s Hospital in Boston. (iStock)
If a child gets burned, the doctor advises parents to remove their clothes from the affected area and wash with cool water.
Shriners says not to apply ice to the burn and to seek medical attention if necessary.
“Blistering is a second-degree burn and may respond to burn creams, but leathery (black, brown or white in color) may be third-degree and needs to be seen right away,” Siegel added.
Fox News Digital reached out to Shriner’s Children’s Hospital for comment.
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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