DDHK.ORG - Who doesn't like to eat hot rice with salted fish as a side dish? Moreover, accompanied by chili paste or raw chili sauce.
But the habit of eating salted fish is said to be one of the triggers for cancer. Is that right?
A specialist in internal medicine consultant hematology-oncology at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) Andhika Rachman explained that consuming food with preservatives, including salted fish, can indeed trigger the risk of cancer. “We are used to eating salted fish in large quantities. Then food with preservatives or dyes. So it's like preservatives, flavoring, then including preservatives in salted fish. So actually it's not only fish, but those that are preserved have the potential to become cancerous," Andhika said, as quoted by CNN Indonesia from detikcom.
Dr Andhika explained, people who often eat salted fish are not always going to get throat cancer (nasopharyngeal). Because to live, cancer requires two things, namely genes and a supportive environment.
However, in foods that contain large amounts of salt preservatives, live a virus called 'Ebstein-barr' or commonly known as EBV. In large amounts of consumption, especially accompanied by other habits such as smoking, EBV causes changes in gene mutations, especially in the respiratory tract.
Based on research conducted on 281 people with nasopharyngeal cancer at the RSCM, 70 percent of these patients regularly consume salted fish. In most of them, it is also accompanied by smoking habits.
“Most of them consume the amount of salted fish, it is influenced by how much and how long they consume salted fish. Most of them consume within 10 years of their life, so it's a long time. Indeed, we really like salted fish,” said Andhika. [DDHKNews]
