"Dad, Mom, we have to eat less sauerkraut in the future, experts on the Internet have said that sauerkraut has a risk of causing cancer!" Xiao Li, a 20-year-old boy from the north, said to his parents who were making sauerkraut and pork dumplings in the kitchen.
"Experts every day, I don't know if it's a real expert or a fake expert, how many years have I eaten this thing handed down by my ancestors, and I don't see any problems. Dad said disapprerovingly.
"It's true! You see that the World Health Organization has issued an announcement, and sauerkraut is a carcinogen!" Xiao Li continued.
"You eat those hamburgers, cola, and milk tea every day, and you don't see how healthy they are, and you spend a lot of money, why haven't you heard that some experts have come forward to say that these are carcinogenic?"
Hearing this, Xiao Li suddenly wilted, thinking to himself why his parents are like this, obviously the World Health Organization has officially issued an announcement, but he still doesn't believe it.
The status of sauerkraut in the hearts of people in the northern part of the mainland can be said to be completely not lost to mustard, one of the world's three major pickles, and the world's three major pickles are also South Korea's pickled cucumbers and Germany's sweet and sour cabbage. Sauerkraut fish, sour soup and other popular dishes on the mainland also have the shadow of sauerkraut in them, just imagine, if Koreans are not allowed to eat kimchi and pickled cucumbers in the future, what will it be? But is the World Health Organization's announcement a lie, the data shows that 4.57 million people in China are diagnosed with cancer a year, and this data is fabricated out of thin air?
First, the truth that sauerkraut is listed as a carcinogen
(1) The truth behind the rumors: The World Health Organization has listed pickled foods such as sauerkraut as carcinogens, which is a real fact, but no official has called on everyone not to eat sauerkraut. The reason for this classification is that sauerkraut is defined as a Group B carcinogen. This means that the evidence for carcinogenicity to humans is not completely conclusive or sufficient, but only sufficient evidence for carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Generally speaking, it is theoretically possible to cause cancer, but there is no evidence for carcinogenicity in the human body.
(2) Real carcinogens: A lot of the shocking news about sauerkraut mainly focuses on a substance called nitrite. Excessive nitrite is oxidizing and will produce a definite carcinogen when combined with protein decomposition products - nitrosamines. Many people have judged sauerkraut to be carcinogens on the grounds that sauerkraut will produce a large amount of nitrite in the pickling process, and called on everyone to eat less or even no sauerkraut.
(3) Sauerkraut with grievances: nitrite is a carcinogen, what does it have to do with my sauerkraut? There has been a professional experimental study, through the selection of fresh cabbage and Shanghai green (two common pickled sauerkraut raw materials), using the usual way of pickling sauerkraut, respectively, to measure the nitrite content in each time period, the results show that: (for the convenience of illustration, we intercept several turning points)
1. Cabbage: The nitrite content of cabbage in the pickling process is about 5.2mg/kg on the first day, and will reach a peak of 29mg/kg on the 7th day, and then it will slowly decline, falling to 2.9mg/kg on the 14th day and 1.4mg/kg on the 20th day.
It can be seen that the nitrite content shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. On the 14th day, the nitrite content was fully edible (<20mg/kg).
2. Shanghai green: the nitrite content of green vegetables also slowly increased at the beginning of the development process, reaching a peak of 420mg/kg on the 7th day, and then showing a slow downward trend, but on the 14th day, there will still be 155mg/kg, and on the 35th day, it will reach the level of 3.5mg/kg.
It can be seen that although nitrite is a carcinogen, it has little to do with sauerkraut, as long as the pickling time is right, the nitrite content contained in sauerkraut can completely meet the edible standard. Moreover, nitrite does not have to be safe to 0mg/kg, because nitrite is actually closely related to our lives, so to speak, where there is salt, there will be nitrite, so it is unrealistic to completely avoid nitrite.
(4) The nutritional value of sauerkraut: sauerkraut is rich in dietary fiber, as well as many vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin K, and many trace elements such as calcium, magnesium, iron, these nutrients are not lost in the pickling process of sauerkraut, but the role of yeast is further strengthened.
2. Truly latent carcinogens
If sauerkraut is "forced" to become a carcinogen, in fact, there are many foods that are really listed as carcinogens or even first-class carcinogens, in our daily life, please be careful!
(1) Salted fish: Salted fish, especially Chinese-style salted fish, is prepared by preserving the meat after exposure to the sun with a salt content that far exceeds that of sauerkraut. In this process, a large amount of nitrite is produced, and this amount does not gradually decrease over time, but gradually increases. These large amounts of nitrite enter the gastrointestinal tract to produce ammonium monosterinate, a primary carcinogen, which greatly increases the risk of cancer. As early as 2012, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) clearly listed Chinese-style salted fish as a first-class carcinogen.
(2) Areca nut: Areca nut is also a major feature in some areas of our country, but on the one hand, the fiber of betel nut is relatively coarse, and lime may be used in processing, and repeated chewing of these coarse fibers in the mouth will lead to repeated destruction and regeneration of the oral mucosa.
On the other hand, betel nut itself also contains carcinogens - arecaine, the combination of the two will cause areca nut in the oral cavity to be easily absorbed by the tiny blood vessels under the oral mucosa, and the content of betel nut in the human body will be greatly increased. Research data show that the incidence Xi of oral cancer and laryngeal cancer in people who are accustomed to chewing betel nut is 120-300 times higher than that of people who do not chew betel nut. As early as 2003, the International Health Organization listed betel nut as a first-class carcinogen.
(3) Bacon, bacon: Different from plant foods such as sauerkraut and mustard, meat has a lot of protein that can be combined with nitrite to form nitroso compounds during the curing process. In the process of ingestion into the human body, it binds to the cells in the human body, greatly increasing the mutation rate of proto-oncogenes and increasing the risk of many cancers such as gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, etc.
(4) Barbecue: If it is said that such as sauerkraut, cured meat, etc. are more insistent on middle-aged and elderly people, then barbecue is the favorite of young people, a group of friends get together, around the barbecue road, chatting about the dream of life is the memory of many people's hearts.
However, in the process of grilling, on the one hand, a large amount of gases such as CO are produced by incomplete combustion of charcoal, and on the other hand, first-class carcinogenic compounds such as benzopyridine may be produced after high-temperature barbecue. Therefore, even if the barbecue tastes good, it should be eaten as little as possible.
epilogue
Although sauerkraut is a gossip, in fact, if it is pickled and matured sauerkraut, the nitrite content itself is within the range specified by the state, and it will not have any impact on health. What we really need to pay attention to is which types of carcinogens must be eaten less.