Focus today on a study that claims that the consumption of mate in quantity would increase the risk of cancer.
If you have traveled to South America and more specifically to Argentina or Uruguay, you have most certainly already heard of the maté.
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Perhaps you have even tasted this traditional Native American drink, obtained from the infusion of yerba mate leaves.
This bitter and stimulating beverage, which the footballer Antoine Griezmann (who loves it) helped to make known in France, is renowned for its antioxidant properties, so much so that its regular consumption would be beneficial for health.
Or so we thought! Because some studies once morest the current are interested in the harmful effects that this drink might have and their conclusions come to sow doubt.
Crédit photo : Marcus Z-Pics / Shutterstock
Mate, as dangerous as tobacco?
One of them, published in 2008 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarker and Prevention, states that heavy mate drinkers are 60 times more likely to be diagnosed with cancer of the lungs, respiratory tract or stomach. digestive system.
Conclusions obtained from a study of 1,000 participants in Uruguay.
Other works go even further by asserting that consuming mate would have more harmful effects than tobacco.
Thus, in a article published in 2012 in the journal Environemental Science and Technologyscientists claim that if “ the average consumption is 50 grams of yerba leaves, so drinking a cup of mate in the traditional way would expose the consumer to the equivalent of the contents of 100 cigarettes », i.e. 5 packets.
This might be explained by the high concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found in mate. These molecules, at the origin of the smoky taste, are also present in tobacco smoke.
Crédit photo : Pawel Michalowski / Shutterstock
Furthermore, researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer claim that ” high doses and prolonged consumption of mate are associated with an increased risk of cancer of the prostate, bladder, mouth, esophagus, lungs, head and neck ».
Conclusions certainly alarming but which must be compared with other studies contradicting such remarks.
In 2016, a report of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), demonstrated for example that the carcinogenic risk of mate depended above all on the temperature at which it was consumed.
Beyond 65° for example, the risks of developing esophageal cancer would thus be real.
Everyone will have their own opinion!
