Carbs Aren't So Bad: Potatoes Help Reduce Stomach Cancer Risk

Adding potatoes, despite their high carbohydrate content, to one’s daily diet can reduce the likelihood of stomach cancer by one third.

Including cauliflowers and onions as part of a well-balanced meal also has added health benefits for gastric conditions, reported researchers at Zhejiang University in China.

They recently assessed 76 studies on stomach cancer and diet involving approximately six million individuals and 33,000 deaths from gastric cancer and found that eating 100 grams of these vegetables daily was associated with a 5% decrease in the risk of the disease.

According to the researchers, “Both fruit and white vegetables are rich sources of vitamin C, which showed significant protective effect against gastric cancer by our analysis.”

Vitamin C has long been touted to boost immunity — even consuming 50 grams daily is enough to decrease gastric cancer risk by 8%. Potatoes contain a significant amount of vitamin C, which acts as an antioxidant and helps to manage cellular stress in the stomach.

“This study provides comprehensive and strong evidence that there are a number of protective and risk factors of gastric cancer in diet. Our findings may have significant public health implications with regard to prevention of gastric cancer and provide insights into future cohort studies and the design of related clinical trials,” concluded the authors.