Fruit and veg appear helpful in reducing stomach cancer risk

If you have tuned into the news or opened a newspaper this week, you may have noticed an item reported about the link between salt and stomach cancer. While we might all be aware of the link between smoking and lung cancer, and sun exposure and skin cancer, the contribution of diet to cancer risk is often less well appreciated by the public.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) - a charity dedicated to research and education into the link between lifestyle and cancer risk - has estimated that in the UK alone if we stuck to the recommended limit of 6g of salt daily, 1000 cases of stomach cancer a year could be prevented. Reducing the amount of salt that we use in cooking or at the table is a good start - being more creative with herbs, spices and other seasonings such as black pepper, garlic and lemon juice can help with this. However, as three-quarters of the salt that we eat comes from processed foods - and we don't just mean ready meals, but common staples such as bread, cereals, soups and sauces - it is a good idea to cut down on the salt from these sources. While cooking from scratch remains the best way to do this, it isn't always practical, so try to use food labels to help you select those products with a lower salt content - check per 100g of product and watch out for labels which list salt as "sodium", as this is 2.5 times lower than the actual amount of salt.

The WCRF also highlighted the importance of fruit and veg in the diet to reduce the risk of stomach cancer. A study in 2011 estimated that in the previous year around a third of cases of stomach cancer in the UK, in both men and women, were linked to eating fewer than five portions of fruit and veg daily. This is yet another good reason to make sure you hit the target of 5 A Day. However, as we have just mentioned the link between salt and stomach cancer, if you use canned veg try to choose that in water rather than brine and do not rely too heavily on readymade soups, pasta sauces, curries or ready meals for your veg - all can be made relatively easily, allowing you to control how much salt is added.


Photo by Pam Brophy via Wikimedia Commons