A recent British study recommended that a distinction should be made when talking about the relationship between processed meat and cancer, between products containing “nitrite” salts, and those that do not contain it. The World Health Organization previously classified processed meat in 2015.
As carcinogens within the category of the first group, but this British study challenges this comprehensive classification,
after it has been proven that processed meats containing “nitrite” may cause cancer, while the same effect does not extend to processed meats that do not contain this substance.
Products
Nitrite salts are used in some processed meat products for more than one reason, including giving the meat a pink color. It is also used as an anti-oxidant in fats, as a preservative of bacteria, and finally to preserve the taste of meat.
During the study, published in the journal “Nutrients”, researchers from the Institute of Global Food Security at Queen’s University in Belfast,
UK, reviewed recent studies on the links between consuming processed meats and colorectal
and intestinal cancers
, and found that only about half of the studies concluded that there was evidence of relevance Between processed meats and colorectal cancer,
but this proportion jumped to nearly two-thirds (65%) when they restricted their analysis to studies that involved only testing the effects of processed meats that contained “nitrite”.
“When we looked at processed meats containing nitrite in isolation from the rest of the products, the results were more clear, as we found nearly two-thirds of studies correlated with the presence of nitrite,” said William Crowe,
the first researcher for the study in a report published by the “Medical News Today” recently. And getting cancer. ”
Revision
He added: “This result needs a new review of the comprehensive classification released by the World Health Organization
after it was found that the carcinogenic effect varies depending on whether the meat contains nitrite or not.” The danger of nitrite salts, as previous food studies indicate
, is that they combine with parts of the amino acids and form a “nitrosamine” that may lead to cancer, according to studies conducted in experimental animals.
