Food Politics

Here in Japan we eat so much salt in the form of soy sauce that stomach cancer is a huge killer. And yet the obesity rate is tiny. So much for that one.

Well, we know from standard biochemistry textbooks that the link between hypertension and obesity is not causal; one does not cause the other. Rather, they are both caused by hyperinsulinemia. The same insulin that ushers excess carbohydrate into the fat cells also instructs the kidneys to retain fluid, driving blood pressure up. Anyone who’s ever tried a low-carb diet for more than 1 day can attest to how getting insulin levels down causes the kidneys to get rid of excess water, and people with high blood pressure who try a low-carb diet often find their blood pressure drops like a rock.

So that makes me wonder if excessive carbohydrate consumption, and the attendant insulin spike, can also cause us to crave salt (to balance out the excess water). This is just a wild guess. But when we see these correlation studies, it’s always useful to try to reverse cause and effect, or even try to think of a third factor that could cause both. Maybe excessive salt consumption doesn’t cause obesity. Maybe obesity causes excessive salt consumption. Or maybe hyperinsulinemia causes both …

Not that there cannot be multiple explanatory variables for the same phenomenon:

I had read that the high incidence of stomach cancer in Japan has been identified as arising from talc-treated rice:

Here is one reference: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/173/4002/1141

Myself, I don’t know and have no opinion, but thought the question was intriguing.

On the other hand, a number of articles on Google, suggest that soy sauce confers protection against stomach cancer.

Here is one reference:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n23_v139/ai_10911015

My Japanese cookbooks have several recipes using what we call “fiddleheads”–which I have seen at high-end grocer’s.

They have been implicated in cancer and are being studied as a new source of insecticides:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracken

Thanks for the red-hot 1971 research citation from a non-Japanese researcher, Fentry, but we wash our rice, until the water runs clear.

There is a lot of epidemiological research on Japanese stomach cancer. Why cite just one study?

Citation of specific studies is the sign of a crank theory. Citation of meta studies and reviews of the literature is the sign of mainstream science.

Fentry: Fiddlehead ferns are part of “yama-no-sachi” cuisine. Japanese eat that maybe once a year or so. I’m glad you can find the ferns in your markets in the U.S., because we can’t easily get them here in Japan.

Fiddleheads are also part of the culinary tradition of Appalachia.

I think my posts have been misunderstood. I am not offering them as proof, only as evidence of the diversity of thought on the subject.

The levels of mercury in seafood might also be a useful hypothesis to test in connection to stomach cancer.

While I don’t have proprietary access to many scientific journals, the studies I cited are in the top 10 Google results for “Japan stomach cancer rice” and “Japanese stomach cancer rice.” In other words, these studies are considered the most relevant to people looking at the topic although they are older and were not done by Japanese people.

From what I understand, it is still useful to keep an open mind as the science on this topic isn’t settled.

Obesity is caused by fluid retention in people who are sensitive to salt. People who are not sensitive to salt do not become obese however many calories they eat. Likewise, overweight adults and children – and overweight pet dogs and cats and rabbits…(o: – all lose weight easily, safely and speedily if they significantly reduce their salt intake. – It is absolutely nothing to do with sugarly drinks or with any other high calorie sources. (Dogs and cats and pet rabbits – and adult humans – don’t usually imbibe a lot of sugary drinks…(o:)

It is important to give up dieting/’slimming’/cutting down on calories. – The weight will be lost by reducing sodium even if more calories are eaten. – Most overweight people eat fewer calories than their heavy bodies require because most of them are dieting/restricting calories most of the time. – The stereotype of fat people as gluttons is inaccurate, untrue and unjust. – I believe most slim people eat more than most fat people because slim people know from experience that they won’t gain weight whatever and however much they eat.

Slim people – i.e. people who are not sensitive to salt – excrete all the excess sodium they eat, along with its associated water, and excrete excess fat via the faeces.

Both fluid retention and fat retention are explained on my website. – Lose weight by eating less salt! – Go on! – Try it!
For further information see my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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