Foods that cause cancer were named
Scientists have found that eating meat treated with nitrite is associated with an increased risk of cancer.Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have called for a ban on nitrite-treated meat after finding it linked to colorectal cancer. The experiment showed that mice fed meat treated with nitrite developed more tumors than animals fed meat without nitrates or no meat at all.
Nitrites and nitrates are key preservatives used in sausage production. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a WHO research organization, classified processed meat as a Group I carcinogen. The agency's experts linked diets high in processed meat to a significantly increased risk of several cancers.
Since then, research has focused specifically on the relationship between nitrites, a chemical that preserves foods, and cancer. The new study, published in Nature NPJ Science of Food, aims to examine the effects of nitrites on mice raised to be susceptible to colorectal cancer.
Unlike some previous studies in which animals were fed unusually large amounts of nitrites, the scientists tested a more moderate diet with added chemicals. The mice were fed sausage with nitrites, sausage or pork without the chemicals for eight weeks.
Only 15 percent of the animals' entire diet consisted of pork, with or without nitrites. The researchers noted that this is still a high consumption of processed meat in the diet compared to what humans consume. However, previous studies have used feeding patterns where there was 50% or more processed meat. This increases the representativeness of the results.
They showed that mice that ate sausage had many more tumors than the control group and animals that if sausage and pork.
Chris Elliott, director of the Institute for Global Food Safety at Queen's University, said the study confirms the link between nitrites and cancer. He argues that the use of nitrites in food should be banned. They can easily be replaced by natural, safer alternatives.
Russians often serve sausage cuts for the New Year's table. In addition, the traditional Olivier salad is dressed with sausage or chicken.