Hello there and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast.

I'm your host Monica Reinegel and this week we're talking about fermented vegetables

and a possible link to stomach cancer.

Nutrition diva listener Brian wants to know, do the benefits of fermented vegetables

such as sauerkraut and kimchi outweigh the risk of getting stomach cancer.

I understand that Koreans who eat a lot of kimchi also have the highest rates of stomach

cancer.

So I'm wondering whether increasing our consumption of these products in order to help the

beneficial bacteria in our guts is worth the risk.

Brian is right, people in Asian countries where fermented vegetables make up a large part

of the diet do have higher rates of stomach cancer than elsewhere in the world.

Fifty years ago, stomach cancer was one of the most common types of cancer diagnosed

worldwide.

And the good news is that the global incidence of stomach cancer has declined significantly

over the last decades.

This is due in part to precipitous declines in smoking which is a significant risk factor

for stomach cancer.

It's also due to better detection and treatment of H. Pylori.

It's a type of bacteria that commonly infects the digestive tract and can cause stomach

ulcers as well as stomach cancer.

H. Pylori is readily eradicated by antibiotic therapy and now that we know to look for it

and exactly how to get rid of it, ulcers and stomach cancer are far less common.

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