A recent research discovered that excessive consumption of certain food preservatives may significantly increase the chances of cancer.
According to the study published in The BMJ, researchers from Université Sorbonne Paris Nord in France assessed data from a prospective cohort of 105,260 participants aged 15 and elderly individuals who had no cancer at the start of the study.
Nearly most of whom participants were women, who completed two detailed 24-hour dietary records to analyse to assess preservative consumption. They were followed for an average of 7.6 years.
During the follow-up period, 4,226 participants were diagnosed with cancer. The analysis discovered that increased consumption of most commonly used preservatives was linked to higher incidence of cancer.
These included non-antioxidant preservatives, sorbates, including sorbates such as potassium sorbate, sulfites, nitrites, acetates, and sodium erythorbate.
Increased consumption of some additives was associated specifically with breast cancer, with sodium nitrate being linked to increased risk of prostate cancer.
For example, individuals who often consumes non-antioxidant preservatives had a 16% increased risk of overall cancer and a 22% increased risk of breast cancer compared with low or non-consumers.
However, no link with cancer was found for 11 of the 17 preservatives studied.
