There is an increase in stomach cancer among young adults. Those statistics shown are taken from National Cancer Institute on U.S populations. In fact cancer can be caused by many factors, this could include our environment, the air we breathe, lifestyle and so on. The only thing we can’t control is the air we breathe, our environment, haze, but there is one thing we can control, the food we consume. Perhaps we can point our fingers to those western unhealthy diet such as fast food consumption which lead to these cancer. But what about our local food, eg satay or nasi lemak.
Alright let’s us move on out of burnt meat to preservatives, our main concern here. Before we proceed on to the affect of long term preservatives to our health, let us look at the statistics by Malaysia’s National Cancer Institute Makna on cancer cases reported in Malaysia in the year between 2003 – 2005 – 2008.
You may be wondering why i did not include the latest cancer statistics, reason is “I can’t find the latest statistics via the web”. Where is the latest Cancer Statistics in Malaysia for 2009 or 2010?
According to Malaysia’s MAKNA – National Cancer Institute,
Nearly 70,000 new cases reported over two years; breast cancer remains the biggest threat
Why use preservatives?
To make food more durable and long lasting
Kill or inhibit the growth of specific microbes and may inhibit germination of microbial spores, which resulted in inhibition of nutrient transport to the cell’s life and inhibit microbial enzymes work in cells.
Different types of preservatives
Borax – a material containing heavy metal boron, or formalin is often used as the noodles, meatballs, which widely used preservative for dead bodies.
Sulfite – a preservative commonly used for frying potato slices or frozen shrimp
Nitrite – commonly used to preserve a lot of processed meats such as sausages and corned beef in cans as well as to preserve the cheese.
Benzoate – is used to provide a sense of well-preserved in soft drinks, sauces, ketchup, fruit juice and other foods.
Propionic – used as a preservative for bread and processed cheese.
Sulphur – in wines is used as an anti-oxidant and sterilising agent. It stops oxygen reacting with the wine and turning it into vinegar and kills off any organisms alive in the wine (including yeast in high enough concentrations).
Long term affect from preservative consumption
Preservative materials can accumulate on the human body and are carcinogenic, which in the long run lead to diseases such as cancer and tumors in human organs. If a person is often consume foods that contain preservatives, in the long term can cause cancer.
Cancer suffered vary, depending on the type of preservatives and food into the body. Cancer that could suffer as skin cancer, breast cancer, and others. While the short term when a person experienced eating foods that are exposed to preservatives, is able to cause infection or poisoning that can cause skin irritation, sore throat, diarrhea, troubled breathing, headaches or dizziness.