Cancer and spices.

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Anonymous asked: "Do ginger, curry powder and cumin powder help reduce risk of any cancers? "

Disclaimer:  I am a food chemist and any medical comments are those of a food chemist.
 
Will anything prevent cancer?

No, probably not.  Cancer is not one disease but a diverse group of illnesses, all characterised by uncontrolled cell growth.  Cancerous cells are being produced all the time and the body deals with them.  The problems arise when the body can no longer deal with them.  This will be partly why cancers are more prevalent in the elderly; the body’s defences get weak, lazy or ineffective.

I believe that pretty much anything will cause cancer – if the body gets swamped with any chemical, systems can go awry.

But will anything prevent cancer?   I don’t believe so.  At least not any one thing.

Good diet and good health seem to be part of the cancer preventative thing :  be healthy, give your body a chance.  Let your body function as it should, defences work properly, cell reproduction work reliably.

I have little doubt that the individual components of ginger, cumin and curry powder will trigger cancers if taken in excess.  Anything taken at a level that distresses the body increases the likelihood of the body malfunctioning and cancers being the result.

But I really have no knowledge on compounds, natural or synthetic, that may directly work to prevent cancers.  And I think it unwise to pin your hopes on a 'silver bullet'.
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Alcohol & Mouth Cancers.

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A local news outlet ran with a story recently that said research had shown that increased alcohol consumption lead to increased mouth cancers.

The trail to try to find the supporting research lead back to a UK cancer body but a request for a reference went unanswered.

The report (SBS News) said that over the last 30 years alcohol consumption had gone up and so had the incidence of mouth cancers. Ergo, drinking increases your chances of mouth cancer. The stated increase was 25%.

Sounds scary. But what if the chance had gone from 1 in a million to 1.25 in a million.

Not quite so scary.

And what else has changed over the last 30 years with things that go into people's mouths?

The Western diet has dramatically increased its consumption of chilli, a known mouth irritant.
Much more processed food.
Much more junk food.
Many more novel food additives, such as artificial sweeteners.
Vegetable consumption has decreased.
Fruit consumption has decreased.
Oral sex has, anecdotally, increased. (human papilloma virus (HPV), is a known carcinogen.)
Beer consumption down, wine consumption up.
Genetically modified foods introduced.

To mention just a few.

I will take their survey just a little more seriously when they can tell me how they allowed for these other changes.

And who paid for the research. And why.
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Flavoured e-Cigars

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Chairman Bill said "Instead of smoking, I vape in my e-cigar propylene-glycol with nicotine that has flavourings added - banana, vanilla, etc.

Of late I have been 'cutting' the e-liquid with BP glycerine to make it go further, which does tend to dry out the mucous membranes a tad. However, my question is about added flavourings.

Given the e-liquid is vaporised prior to inhalation, what chemicals that commonly appear in food flavourings should I keep well clear of. I believe caramel bungs up the works of the e-cigar due to the sugars, but I'm led to believe that food flavourings can also have some added chemicals that can undergo a transition when vapourised and could be dangerous.

Blowed if I know, Bill.

It's not that a particular flavouring is dangerous. I am assuming that they are not burnt in the normal cigar/cigarette sense. If that is the case, they are all dangerous.

If the vaporisation is not at a particularly high temperature, they should all be OK.
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The case for tougher rats.

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Chairman Bill, in a comment to the last post, deemed hydrogenated fats to be carcinogens.

While I took some issue with the broadness of the statement, I do agree in a broader sense.

At a different level, I believe EVERYTHING causes cancer. You just need more of some things than others.

In a broad sense cancers occur when the body's systems are overwhelmed by a particular compound or radiation. Even shift work is implicated in cancers nowadays. It is a case of the body getting swamped in someway and losing the plot when it comes to cell growth.

Tests in the labs have shown that if you swamp a lab rat's diet with a chemicals it will develop cancers but, in order to speed up the process the labs feed the rats enormous amount of the compound being tested. If you want to see what they went through, make a mix of a food of your choice and include 5% saccharin. Inedible. Now do it all meals for an extended time. Unbearable. No wonder the poor rat developed cancer. But how does swamping a rat's genetic processes translate into the long term effect of low levels of a saccharin on humans?

Bill talked about trans fats in margarines but they are naturally occurring in most fats.

In low levels.

It is generally accepted that smoking causes cancer; this is due to the compounds in the tars. Theoretically these compounds are first cousins of the charring of any plant matter. Smoking marijuana is just as dangerous as tobacco in this sense - different psychoactive substances, same tar.

But burnt plant matter is common in our diet - browned meat, roasted coffee, toast, cakes, biscuits, fries/chips. All theoretically foreign and carcinogens.

I argue that all chemicals, taken in excess for extended time will swamp the system.

I also argue that the system is designed to cope with a multitude of chemicals that are naturally in our food. The analogy would be sand. If I drop a stream of sand on your shoulder, it will bounce off and not be a problem. If I drop a ton of sand on you all at once, it is a big problem.

It is all a matter of recognising and managing risk.
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