Fish is the protagonist of many bites of our cuisine, from pilpil cod and fried fish to ribereña salmon and tuna with onions. Perhaps its only drawback, because it has no shortage of health benefits, are the thorns, which have surely given more than one scare.

To avoid choking on fish bones, it is best to prevent. Before cooking, they can be removed with tongs. It is important that we take them out in the same direction that they are placed, and not in the opposite direction, this way we will not damage the meat. In this sense, it is also key that as we remove them we leave them in a bowl, this way we will not contaminate the work area and it will be more difficult for them to sneak onto the plate.

If we still miss some and it sticks in our throat, we have to know how to act quickly. One way to get rid of the thorn is to cough forcefully, but if this doesn’t work, we can try eating other foods that push it into the stomach. These can help you:

In addition to thorns, there are other foods that can cause choking. These are popcorn, ham, jelly beans, marshmallows, grapes, cherries, olives and nuts.

When any of these last foods block the airways and coughing cannot expel them, it is best to perform the Heimlich maneuver.

As pediatrician Matilde Zornoza explained in this report, it consists of “standing behind the person and surrounding their waist with your arms. Next, you close your hand and hold it with the other like a fist in the area of ??the pit of the stomach (between the navel and the thorax). Finally, strong pressure is applied inwards and upwards, like a spoon.