Pickled Vegetable and Salted Fish Intake and the Risk of Gastric Cancer: Two Prospective Cohort Studies and a Meta-Analysis
An increased risk of gastric cancer for pickled vegetable and salted fish intake has been suggested, yet the lack of a dose-response association warrants a quantitative analysis. We conducted a meta-analysis, combining results from our analysis of two large Korean cohort studies and those from previous prospective cohort studies. We investigated the association of pickled vegetable and salted fish intake with gastric cancer in the Korean Genome Epidemiology Study and the Korean Multi-center Cancer Cohort Study using Cox proportional hazard models. We then searched for observational studies published until November 2019 and conducted both dose-response and categorical meta-analyses. The pooled relative risk (RR) of gastric cancer incidence was 1.15 (95% Confidence Interval (CI), 1.07–1.23) for 40 g/day increment in pickled vegetable intake in a dose-response manner (P for nonlinearity = 0.11). As for salted fish intake, the pooled risk of gastric cancer incidence was 1.17 (95% CI, 0.99–1.38) times higher, comparing the highest to the lowest intake. Our findings supported the evidence that high intake of pickled vegetable and salted fish is associated with elevated risk of gastric cancer incidence.
what about cucumbers in just vinegar? does that count?
I bought A LOT of giandierna lately and I feel I dont want to eat them for a while now
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We considered kimchi, and jangajji (non-fermented pickled vegetables) as pickled vegetables
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My understanding is that the sodium content of pickled foods is really the culprit re: gastric cancer risk. I don’t think vegetables in only vinegar (no/low salt) would pose a health risk (other than maybe dental problems if you overconsumed them or didn’t rinse with water after eating them regularly).
I think it’s way more than just the sodium content - otherwise we would see the same effect from vegetables prepared throgh other methods… (eg salad with dressing, or prepared the Asian way…)
From the discussion section of the paper you linked, " Pickled vegetables and salted fish are exogenous sources of sodium nitrates and nitrites, which react with amino acids in the stomach and form N -nitro compounds, known as chemical gastric carcinogens [49]. Epithelial damage induced by dietary salt intake is proposed as another possible mechanism of gastric carcinogenesis. High concentrations of sodium chloride induce mucosal damage, followed by cell proliferation as part of the repair process, sequentially increasing susceptibility to mutagenesis or carcinogenesis [9,50,51]. Previous animal studies have suggested that salt ingestion induces gastritis as well as intensification of gastric carcinogens [5,52,53]"
and
" the high consumption of pickled vegetables in the Korean cohort studies was attributable to kimchi , a major Korean pickled vegetable dish prepared by salting and fermenting Napa cabbage"
If anything this seems to further corroborate that salting is the culprit (and the n-nitroso compounds that are formed as a result of fermenting in salty brine, there needs to be salt for them to form iirc). There are plenty of observational cohort studies with similar findings in both asian and non-asian populations (that is, as salt intake increases, gastric cancer risk increase).
That being said, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen store bought pickled vegetables that didn’t have a ton of salt. I can’t find any evidence that vinegar itself would increase gastric cancer risk.
There are people who argue that Apple Cider Vinegar has health benefits. Acetate itself can be helpful, but personally I would avoid the hydrogen ions in anything other than small quantities.
Because if the body gets too acidic that is harmful to health. In particular when cells become acidic the cells deacetylate the histone in order to revert to a pH of around 7.4.
When I am not drinking alcohol my urinary pH tends to be around 9 which is unusually high, but I am happy with this.
Hence given the choice between triacetin, sodium acetate and acetic acid as a source of acetate my last choice would be acetic acid because of the H+ ions.
But if you dilute vinegar in a glass of water, the overall pH of the formulation is like a tomato which doesnt seem that bad. Is it a problem of quantity?
My glucose and triglycerides are perfect thanks to this method.