The relationship between esophageal cancer and eating habits

Looking at the high-incidence areas of esophageal cancer in the world, they are generally in poor areas with poor land and poor nutrition, and the diet lacks vitamins, proteins and essential fatty acids. The lack of these ingredients can cause the esophageal mucosa to proliferate and metamorphose, and further cause cancer. In some areas, such as the Kazakhs in Xinjiang, meat is the main food, and fresh vegetables are rarely eaten. Rice and flour grains are eaten very little. The nutritional supply is extremely unbalanced, and vitamins are obviously lacking, especially vitamin C and vitamin B12. After Sweden supplemented vitamin B12 in the food in the high-incidence areas of esophageal cancer, the incidence rate was significantly reduced. The lack of trace elements such as iron, molybdenum, and zinc is also related to the occurrence of esophageal cancer. The lack of molybdenum can increase the nitrate in the soil. The investigation found that the lack of molybdenum in the water and soil of Lin County, Henan Province may be related to the high incidence of esophageal cancer. Literature reports that the serum molybdenum, hair molybdenum, urine molybdenum and molybdenum in esophageal cancer tissues in the high-incidence areas are all lower than normal levels. The anti-cancer effect of molybdenum has been confirmed by scholars in the United States and other places.

Nitrosamine compounds are very strong carcinogens. The Institute of Oncology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found in its research on the carcinogenic effects of nitrosamines in the human body and in the environment outside the body that in addition to dinitrosamines, there are also nitrosamines in the pickled vegetables eaten by residents of Lin County, a high-incidence area for esophageal cancer, and in the residents' gastric juice and urine.

Henan Medical University isolated 261 strains of Alternaria alternata from grains and foods in Lin County. It can cause Escherichia coli to produce a variety of mutagenic metabolites. The toxins it produces can cause chromosome aberrations, mainly acting on the S and Gz phases of cells. The mortality rate of esophageal cancer among Henan immigrants in Zhongxiang County, Hubei Province is five times that of local residents. The detection rate of mold contamination in the staple food of immigrants is significantly higher than that of local residents. The detection rate of aflatoxin in the sauerkraut consumed by immigrants is the highest. It has been experimentally confirmed that feeding Wistar rats with aflatoxin, Alternaria and Fusarium can cause esophageal papilloma and cancer in rats.