Eating too much soy sauce can cause cancer? Doctor: Instead of worrying about cancer, worry about this risk!

In the home kitchen, one of the most common condiments is "soy sauce" , which can not only add color to the food, but also add a different flavor to the food.

　　Therefore, soy sauce can not only be used to make soup, but also an indispensable substance for stir-frying and stewing. However, there are many controversies about soy sauce in life, and there are even rumors that soy sauce may be carcinogenic.

　　So the question is, soy sauce really contains carcinogens, will eating too much cause cancer?

　　First of all, the reason why all kinds of soy sauce that you buy in daily life are black and dark red is because it also adds a kind of caramel coloring in the process of fermentation .

To maintain the stability of caramel color, a special substance called ammonium nitrite　　is added during the production process . However, ammonium nitrite can cause some side reactions, such as 4-methylimidazole .

　　As early as 2007, clinical animal experiments were conducted on this substance, that is, mouse experiments. The results of the investigation showed that after the test mice ingested large doses of 4-methylimidazole, cancerous changes appeared in their bodies .

　　However, this is just an animal experiment, and the final result is that 4-methylimidazole may be carcinogenic to animals . As for whether it has the possibility of carcinogenicity to the human body, there is no scientific research experiment that can clearly confirm it. For this reason , 4-methylimidazole is listed by WHO as a Category 2b carcinogen.

　　In this case, is it because to reduce the risk of cancer, humans can't eat soy sauce?

　　As mentioned above, 4-methylimidazole has only been tested on laboratory mice . For humans, unless a person ingests a large amount of 4-methylimidazole for a long time , there is a risk of cancer . And 4-methylimidazole is a by-product of caramel color, although it is unavoidable in soy sauce.

　　However, in China, China has strict food safety and hygiene laws and regulations, and the soy sauce currently available on the market is actually a qualified product.

　　The content of 4-methylimidazole in soy sauce is extremely low. And soy sauce is only a kind of condiment, adding a small amount when cooking can adjust the color of food and increase the flavor. Therefore, the cancer risk of soy sauce itself is actually very low, or even negligible , and there is absolutely no need for us to panic.

　　Of course, this does not mean that everyone can add soy sauce recklessly. You know, soy sauce, a fermented product, also contains a certain amount of sodium salt.

　　If too much soy sauce is added, it will not only change the color of the dish and affect the appetite, but also change the taste of the food . More importantly, it may cause excessive sodium intake.

　　The risk behind excessive sodium intake is the increasing burden of renal metabolism, water and sodium retention, and increased blood volume, which in turn increases the risk of hypertension.

　　Therefore, in daily life, everyone should pay attention to keeping the original taste of food as much as possible. If you want to add soy sauce, you should reduce the addition of salt on the basis to avoid the occurrence of high blood pressure.