Newsletter #642
Lee Euler, Editor
Lee Euler, Editor
25 September 2016
... more than people in any previous culture have ever eaten.
Americans now consume more than 6.5 million tons of table salt (or sodium chloride if you’re using its chemical name). By contrast, in Roman times salt was so valuable it was used instead of money to pay soldiers. You can bet they didn’t use it as lavishly as we do.
Part of the reason salt is so popular is because it’s essential to our survival. Your body requires between three and eight grams of salt daily in order to perform essential metabolic functions. It’s one of the reasons you might find yourself craving a “salty” fix between meals.
Salt plus this makes stomach cancer
six times more likely…
six times more likely…
The problem is, much as our culture craves it, a large daily intake of salt puts you at high risk for stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer. One recent study found that people who ate between 12 and 15 grams of salt a day had about twice the risk of stomach cancer as those who limited their intake.
In fact, any regular diet of highly salted food just about doubles your risk of stomach cancer, according to research published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Sadly, there’s no shortage of stomach cancer in the modern world. It’s currently the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. Beside salt, other factors contribute to this risk, such as age and genetic influences. But while those things can’t be altered, the rest of the risk factors can, including smoking, drinking alcohol, and poor diet—namely, salt.
If you’re infected with the bacteria Heliobacter pylori, which commonly causes ulcers, then you’re in for a double-whammy of risk. Research shows that salt together with this infection can dramatically hike your risk of stomach cancer. And it’s a common combination.
In a study published in the journal Infection and Immunity, researchers found that nearly half the population has H. pylori bacteria growing in the mucus lining of their stomachs—yet they have no symptoms. They seem to manage this microbe quite well.
But in certain cases, this type of bacteria wears down the lining of the stomach, leading to peptic ulcers. Folks with H. pylori in their gut are more likely to produce something called cagA, a bacterial oncoprotein (a protein associated with cancer).
And according to the National Cancer Institute, cagA leads to gastric cancer growth, which is why people with H. pylori are six times more likely to develop stomach cancer.
H. pylori infections are most common in areas where children are poor and grow up in crowded living conditions. It follows that the bacteria are more prevalent in developing parts of the world, which correlates with the fact that stomach cancer is also a growing problem in developing nations.
In the United States, stomach cancer is not even one of the ten most common cancers. Fewer than 27,000 Americans are newly diagnosed with the disease each year, and the five-year survival rate is said to be 65% if the cancer is found early (a big “if”). In the world as a whole stomach is the #5 type of cancer.
Easy ways to reduce your risk
The simple answer is to eat less salt. That means curbing the salt you add to your cooking, as well as breaking the habit of salting your food at the table if you’re guilty of that.
If you commonly eat Asian food with ingredients like soy sauce, duck sauce, and oyster sauce, you don’t have to salt your food at all—each of those flavorings brings plenty of sodium to the dish on its own. And keep in mind that certain ready-made meals, such as Chinese dishes and pizzas, will contain just about all of your daily salt allowance in just a single meal.
Other good health behaviors such as not smoking and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables also helps cut the risk of stomach cancer, particularly for men.
The skeptic in me has a few caveats about all this
Having told you about the findings that link salt to stomach cancer, I have a few bones to pick with the concept of a super-low-salt diet. I don’t think it’s healthy or necessary.
There’s no proven link between salt consumption and high blood pressure. Reducing salt in the diet may help lower the blood pressure of about one hypertensive person out of ten. Before I learned of the new findings on salt and stomach cancer, I would have put salt low on the list of foods you need to worry about.
So go ahead and enjoy the three to eight grams a day that are essential to life (and I’d be willing to bet the high end of that range is fine). Just be aware that eight grams is very little, less than a third of an ounce, so don’t go wild. The British study that linked high salt to stomach cancer was based on consuming 12 to 15 grams a day.
I suspect there may be no direct linkage between salt and cancer. Just a theory, but hear me out: What’s more likely is that when it comes to Americans, the people who consume huge amounts of salt are eating a lot of snack foods, a lot of processed and prepared foods, a lot of foods at chain restaurants like Burger King and McDonalds.
Given the fact that the typical diet is a nutritional disaster, why single out salt as the one and only “cause” out of a riot of possible causes? Correlation is not causation. Readers who have taken a statistics course know what I mean.
Because most Americans are underestimating their salt intake, it’s safest to stick with a whole-foods, plant-based diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, along with organic dairy products, poultry, fish, and raw nuts. Be sure to cut out processed foods such as cheese, chips, bread, biscuits, processed meats (like hot dogs, salami, bacon, and ham), and ready-made meals.
Not only will these eating practices help you cut down on your salt levels, you’ll also add a wealth of nutritious, cancer-preventing nutrients to your diet.
If you’re just starting to learn about healthy food, here’s a simple rule of thumb: If the label has more than five ingredients, don’t eat it. The list of ingredients shouldn’t be so long it runs off the page. And another good rule: if “sugar” or “salt” are among the first two or three ingredients on the list, don’t eat it.
The ingredients are listed in descending order, starting with the one that makes up the largest percentage of the item inside the package. For example, you’ll often find that sugar is the first ingredient in a children’s cereal, meaning there’s more sugar than wheat or anything else in the product. In effect, it’s candy.
http://www.cancerdefeated.com/study-raises-new-concerns-about-salt-and-cancer-risk/3807/
