Dear Alice,
Are there any health hazards associated with Chinese food? Of course a lot
of Chinese foods are high in fat and cholesterol, but what I am worried
about is the cooking methods. Generally, they heat the oil to a very high
temperature and then throw in the meat or vegetable and make a big sound,
sometimes the food even catches fire. As far as I know, I think oil
heated to a high temperature, to the point where it begins to emit smoke,
may contain cancer-causing substances. Is that true?
I guess I am kind of obsessed about cancer because my grandfather died
of stomach cancer two years ago and I was with him for several months
before he died. What are the major causes of
cancer? How can we avoid them? If we eat some cancer-causing substance,
are we more likely to get stomach or intestinal cancer because that's
where the food passes through, or are we equally likely to get other
cancers? I mean, do a person's digestive organs have a particularly high
susceptibility to cancer compared to other parts of the body because they
are exposed to the food, which is where almost all the carcinogens come
from?
-- Worries about cancer and diet
Dear Worries about cancer and diet,
Cancer is not one disease, but is actually a group of diseases caused
by the unrestrained growth of cells in one of the body's organs or
tissues. Who gets cancer, when do they get it, and which organs it
affects are questions still difficult to answer. One factor that increases
a person's risk of contracting cancer is genetic makeup. Environmental
triggers (i.e., food choices, sunlight, alcohol, viruses, tar in tobacco
smoke, pollutants in the air) also play a part in cancerous formations.
Although it is difficult to estimate which of these triggers cause cancer
in susceptible individuals, estimates have been made. These are:
- Natural constituents of food -- 35%
- Tobacco -- 30%
- Sexual and reproductive history -- 7%
- Occupational hazards -- 4%
- Alcohol -- 3%
- Food additives -- 1%
- Unknown -- 20%
From: Clayman, Charles B.
The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine
New York: Random House, 1989.
Two of every five Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some
point in their life. Cancer risk increases with age, with half of all
cancer diagnoses being made in people over sixty-seven. Four cancer sites
-- lung, colon, breast, and prostate -- account for more than half of
cancer deaths in the United States, with lung cancer alone accounting for
25 percent.
Worldwide, stomach cancer is second only to lung cancer in number of
deaths. People at increased risk for stomach cancer include smokers, men,
African-Americans, people with a family history of stomach cancer, those
who eat few fruits and vegetables, and those whose stomachs are infected
with Helicobacter pylori bacteria, which usually causes peptic
ulcer disease. High intakes of pickled, cured,
or smoked foods may also increase risk, but it has not been proven in
humans to date. In terms of Chinese cooking methods, the brevity of a
single person's exposure to hot, smoking oil would only minimally increase
one's risk for stomach cancer.
One third of colon/rectal cancers are found when the cancer is still
localized, which means the patient's chances of five-year survival are
90 percent. Those who are at highest risk are people whose diets are high
in fat, heavy in red meats, and low in fruits and vegetables. Also, anyone
with a family history of colon or rectal cancer, polyps, or inflammatory
bowel disease is at risk. Research on vitamin supplements, including
beta carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C, did not demonstrate a
decrease in risk of potentially precancerous polyps. To reduce your
risk, you simply need to eat a variety of whole grains, fruits, and
vegetables regularly.
Below are lifestyle recommendations followed by the names of the
cancers they may help prevent:
Cancer Prevention Strategies
- Don't smoke or use smokeless tobacco (lung, pancreas, stomach,
bladder, esophagus, mouth & throat)
- Limit alcoholic beverages to less than one a day for women, or two a
day for men (breast, liver, esophagus, mouth & throat)
- Eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day (lung,
colon, pancreas, stomach, bladder, esophagus, mouth & throat)
- Cut back on fats, especially saturated fats and red meats (colon,
breast, prostate, pancreas, ovary)
- Eat whole grains and legumes (beans and peas) whenever possible
(colon)
- Include at least thirty minutes of moderate activity in your daily
routine (colon, breast)
- Limit cured or smoked foods, like bacon, ham, smoked salmon, and hot
dogs. If you choose to eat these foods, have them with a glass of orange
juice or another rich source of vitamin C (stomach)
- Limit sodium to 2400 mg a day or less (stomach)
- Maintain a healthy weight [breast, endometrium (uterine wall)]
- Manage your stress.
Adapted from the American Cancer Society's Guidelines on Diet,
Nutrition, and Cancer Prevention
Much thanks for this information to the Nutrition Action
Healthletter, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest
(CSPI). For more information on cancer, contact the National Cancer Institute (NCI)
at (800)-4-CANCER / -422-6237 or the American Cancer Society (ACS) at
(800)-ACS-2345 / -227-2345.
- Alice
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