Al Marsad newspaper: Researchers are increasingly turning their attention to the role that certain food components play in influencing cancer risk. And one of the most surprising links has been drawn between eating pickled vegetables and the risk of stomach cancer.
Pickled vegetables are those products which are prepared by edible acid (added or formed by fermentation) and preservation is due, at least in part, to the presence of this acid.
“An increased risk of stomach cancer has been suggested by eating pickled vegetables and salted fish, however the lack of a dose-response association warrants a quantitative analysis,” researchers wrote in the peer-reviewed journal Cancers. According to the newspaper “Express”
Also, the dose-response relationship is one in which increased levels of exposure are associated with either increased or decreased risk of the outcome. In this case, the result is an increased risk of cancer.
Researchers investigated the association of eating pickled vegetables and salted fish with stomach cancer in the Korean Genome Epidemiology Study and the Korea Multicenter Cancer Study. “In this systematic meta-analysis of prospective studies, we found a significant association between increased risk of stomach cancer and increased intake of pickled vegetables,” they wrote.
The researchers noted that the incidence of stomach cancer was 1.15 times higher compared to an increase of 40 g/day in the intake of pickled vegetables and 1.24 times higher, compared to the highest rate with the lowest intake. The authors conclude, “The result of our dose-response meta-analysis corroborates previous meta-analyses, which showed an increased risk of stomach cancer, comparing the highest and lowest intake of pickled vegetables and salted fish.
Our findings support the evidence that high intake of pickled vegetables and salted fish is associated with a higher risk of stomach cancer.”
