b'HEALTH BITS & PIECES Meat Preservatives and By Dan Kenner, Ph.D., LAc CancerNitrates and nitrites used as food ad-Neither Health Freedom News nor I are suggestingditives,morespecificallyusedaspreser-that any such medical care or treatmentbe conducted without competent vativesinmeatproducts,arepositively medical advice and supervision. associated with breast and prostate cancer risks. These results support previous data fromastudydemonstratingthatthese additivesmayleadtotheformationof n-nitrosocompounds(NOCs),potentialcarcinogensinhumansandprovencar-cinogensinanumberofanimalspecies.There are actually very few human studieson their carcinogenicity, in particular forbreastandprostate,whicharethemostfrequentcancersinseveralcountries. Intwo studies conducted for breast cancer, apositive association was found between ni-trites from processed meat and post-meno-pausal breast-cancer risk in the NationalInstitutes of Health and American Asso-ciationofRetiredPersons(NIH-AARP)Diet and Health Study. Only one study waspublished for prostate cancer, highlightingthe positive association between nitrite andnitrate intakes from processed meat.In an epidemiological study of 101,056 adultsfromtheFrenchNutriNet-Sant cohort(2009-ongoing,medianfollow-up 6.7years),nitrites/nitratesexposurewas evaluatedusingrepeated24-hourdietary records.Associationswithcancerrisk wereassessedlinkedtoacomprehensive food-productcompositiondatabase.The resultsneedconfirmationinotherlarge-scale studies, but the researchers concluded that, compared with non-consumers, high consumersoffood-additivenitrateshad higher breast-cancer risk, more specifical-Fermented Foodseating, including foods like kombucha,ly, for potassium nitrate. In addition, high for Immunity kefir,yogurt,andkimchi,fromaboutconsumersoffood-additivenitriteshad higher prostate cancer risk, specifically for A diet rich in fermented foods increases0.4 servings to 6.3 servings of food a day.sodium nitrite. microbiome diversity and decreases mark- Thehighfermented-fooddietsteadily ChazelasE,Pierre F,Druesne-Pecollo N, etal., ers of inflammation. In general, diet mod- increased microbiota diversity and de- Nitrites and nitrates from food additives and nat-ulates the gut microbiome, for better orcreasedinflammatorymarkers.Intheural sources and cancer risk: results from the Nu-triNet-Santcohort,InternationalJournalofEp-for worse, which in turn impacts the im- lower fermented-food group, every mea- idemiology,2022,51(4):1106-1119,athttps://doi.mune system. In a 17-week randomized,sure of microbiome diversity increased,org/10.1093/ije/dyac046; Inoue-Choi M, Sinha R, Gi-erach G, Ward M, Red and processed meat, nitrite, prospective study, subjects in one of theand inflammatory biomarkers decreasedandhemeironintakesandpostmenopausalbreast control groups increased their intake ofshowing an overall beneficial modulationcancer risk in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, International Journal of Cancer, 2016, 138(7): 1609-fermented foods from 21.5 g of fiber a dayof immune status. 1618,athttps://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.29901;SinhaR, to 45 g of fiber a day. In another group,Park Y, Graubard B, et al.,Meat and meat-related compounds and risk of prostate cancer in a large pro-the researchers increased the quantity ofWastyk H, et al., Gut-microbiota-targeted diets mod- spective cohort study in the United States,American ulate human immune status, Cell, 2021, 184: 4137-fermentedfoodsthatindividualswere4153, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.019 JournalofEpidemiology,2009,170:1165-1177,at https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwp280.22 H ealtHF reedomN ews /F all2022NHF_40-3_Linda_11-25-2022.indd 22 11/25/22 8:02 AM'