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What we eat is the leading cause of cancer risk, above tobacco consumption and infections, warned Magda Carvajal Moreno, researcher at the Institute of Biology (IB) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which has been studying for a few years aflatoxins, carcinogens that we eat daily in food.
The specialist explained that aflatoxins are secondary metabolites of the fungus Aspergillus flavus, which are found in various foods such as corn, rice, peanuts, nuts, pistachios, peppers, chicken, eggs, milk, sausages and also beer.
Aflatoxins are produced and consumed with contaminated food in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and generate various harmful effects, such as cancer and mutations.
In a lecture on the subject, at the Permanent Seminar on Agriculture icultura, Food and Nutrition (SPAAN) of the University Food Program (Pual), Carvajal Moreno said that what we eat is the main cause of risk of cancer, with 36% chance, even before smoking, which accounts for 31% and who has been warned of its harmful effects on health several times, while infections occupy only third place, with 11% .
In a previous study, the researcher found that cases of people with liver tumors, 65% had aflatoxins; colon, 54%; rectum, 57%; pancreas, 46%; chest, 40%, and uterine cervix, 60%: "In the latter case, there is a 6.1% higher risk of suffering [cáncer] if DNA-aflatoxin adducts are present", he said. . According to those mentioned by the researcher, one of the main ingredients of Mexican food is among foods that are contaminated with aflatoxins: corn
Alert that, for example, tortillas and their derivatives made with the Dough-like totopos, sopes and tamales, quesadillas, among other typical Mexican dishes-are highly contaminated, since according to a recent study that she developed in Mexico City, 95% white corn and 60% yellow corn contain
He warned that aflatoxins generated by the mold of Aspergillus flavus, which breed easily in poorly stored grains, "are not seen, have no taste or smell, are resistant to heat [soportan entre 260 y 320 grados sin descomponerse] and processes such as cooking, ultrapasteurisation, nixtamalization and fermentation ". In addition, they are insoluble in water and in organic solvents such as methanol, ethanol, benzene and chloroform.
Carvajal Moreno explains that these metabolites are associated with cancer of the liver, pancreas, lung, uterine cervix and cervix of the uterus. are the most potent biological carcinogens known. We are all born with latent proto-oncogenes, and aflatoxins, by a chemical mechanism of oxidation, transform them into oncogenes [cancerígenos] that accumulate for years in DNA and mutate, mainly in individuals with a genetic predisposition ". In the first phase, aflatoxins are always removed by the body through the urine, but the danger increases when they are ingested daily. For example, if a person consumes contaminated food for 40 years, the substance is gradually fixed in the DNA, which damages it.
The specialist reported that there was an error in the repair, replication and integration. that the process of mutation is irreversible and that the cancer process begins, the cell is transformed and the primary malignant tumor comes, in which the doctors must already intervene to counteract it with a treatment, which can include radiation and operations. He recommended eating probiotic foods such as blackberries, green and red peppers, spinach, broccoli, beets, cherries, green beans, tomato and carrot.
He concluded that it is difficult to change eating habits, but it is possible to provide healthy products with adequate storage, in dry and cold tanks.
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