A long-term study from MedUni Vienna shows how salt consumption affects cancer statistics in Europe: People who often add spices to their food are about 40 percent more likely to develop stomach cancer than those who do not use the salt shaker at the table.
The data of more than 470,000 adults from the large-scale British cohort study ‘UK-Biobank’ have now been analyzed, the MedUni Vienna reported on Tuesday. The answers to the question: ‘How often do you add salt to your meals?’ were collected between 2006 and 2010, among other things, using a questionnaire. The research team led by Selma Kronsteiner-Gicevic and Tilman Kühn from MedUni’s Center for Public Health compared the results of the study with salt excretion in the urine and with data from national cancer registries.
The risk of cancer increases dramatically due to salts
In the course of this, it was found that over an observation period of about eleven years, people who said they always or often added salt to their food were 39 percent more likely to develop stomach cancer than those who never or rarely added an extra pinch of salt. salt to their food. “Our results also held up when demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors were taken into account and were equally applicable to common comorbidities,” says lead author Kronsteiner-Gicevic of the analysis, which was recently published in the journal “Gastric Cancer.”
Stomach cancer is one of the most common types of cancer
According to MedUni, stomach cancer ranks fifth among the most common cancers worldwide. The risk of this form of cancer increases with age, but recent statistics paint a worrying picture of an increase among adults under 50. Risk factors include tobacco and alcohol use, Helicobacter Pylori infection, overweight and obesity.
The fact that very salty diets increase the risk of stomach cancer has been proven in studies among Asian populations who often eat foods preserved in salt, highly salted fish or extremely salty marinades and sauces.
“Our study shows the link between the frequency of salt intake and stomach cancer, even in Western countries,” said Kronsteiner-Gicevic. “With our research we want to increase awareness of the negative effects of extremely high salt consumption and provide a basis for measures to prevent stomach cancer,” summarizes research leader Tilman Kühn.
Source: Krone
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