26-05-2025
Doctor issues cancer warning over popular quick dinner - 'it could increase risk by 55%'
It's a cheap student staple that makes an speedy lunch or tasty snack.
But regularly consuming instant noodles could be wreaking havoc on your health, dramatically raising the risk of deadly stomach cancer, according to top oncology medic, Dr Tim Tiutan.
Processed foods packed with salt have been vilified for decades over their supposed risks, with dozens of studies linking them to type 2 diabetes and other conditions including heart attacks and strokes.
Yet, instant noodles, like many other salt-laden processed foods, could also raise cancer risk by leaving the stomach more prone to the cancer-causing bacteria Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), the internal medicine doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, said.
In an Instagram reel watched more than 88,000 times, Dr Tiutan told his followers: 'High salt diets can increase cancer risk by disrupting your stomach lining and fueling H. pylori infections—a major driver of stomach cancer.
'Excessive salt is associated with increasing stomach cancer risk by 55 per cent and may even double the risk when H. pylori is present.
'So, reduce your salt intake to one teaspoon per day and try to eat high salt foods like these sparingly.
'Bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausages, deli meats, preserved foods, canned soups, instant noodles.'
He added: 'This isn't about fear-mongering. Small diet changes can lower cancer risk. Sodium is essential to life, but too much can be harmful.
'High salt intake leads to hypertension and other chronic medical conditions too.
'Sometimes health providers ask patients to take in more salt for various medical reasons, which people should follow.'
Doctors have for years warned that consuming too much salt can ultimately lead to health conditions including heart attacks and strokes.
The NHS recommends adults should have no more than 6g—around one teaspoon—of salt a day.
But research suggests adults consume up to ten times the amount of sodium—the metallic element in salt—required for their metabolisms every day.
H. pylori, or Helicobacter pylori, is a type of bacteria that 40 per cent of people carry in their stomach.
In between 80 and 90 per cent of cases it doesn't cause symptoms, however it can trigger stomach ulcers, indigestion, bloating or nausea.
H. pylori can be detected with a blood, breath or stool sample test—and treated with antibiotics and other medicines.
It has long been known that excessive salt intake can worsen H. pylori infection—one of the strongest known risk factors for stomach cancer.
Other factors including smoking can also raise the risk of H. pylori leading to cancer, according to Cancer Research UK.
Research published last year assessing salt and stomach cancer risk among more than 470,000 UK adults found regular use at the table could increase the risk by up to 41 per cent compared to those who rarely or never add salt.
Another in the British Journal of Cancer also concluded people who consistently eat highly salted foods may double their risk of stomach cancer.
It comes as scientists last year sounded the alarm over the 'disturbing' rise in young adults with stomach cancer.
Although cases are falling in older people, in the past few years has been an annual two per cent uptick in under 50s being diagnosed, leaving experts baffled.
Worryingly, in half of these cases the cancer is already advanced—meaning it is 'almost a death sentence', with just a four per cent survival rate.
About 6,500 patients in Britain and 30,000 in the US are diagnosed with stomach cancer each year.
The disease kills roughly 4,000 Britons and 11,000 Americans every year.
If caught in its earliest stages, the majority of stomach cancer patients (65 per cent) will survive a decade after their diagnosis according to charity Cancer Research UK.
However, for stage four patients, 10-year survival drops to just one in five.
Common symptoms of the condition include indigestion, lack of appetite, a feeling of fullness, bleeding, blood in the stools, blood clots or sickness.
The UK is the worst in Europe for eating salt-laden ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which make up an estimated 57 per cent of the national diet.
The umbrella term UPFs is used to cover anything edible made with colourings, sweeteners and preservatives that extend shelf life.
They are thought to be a key driver of obesity, which costs the NHS around £6.5billion a year treating weight-related disease like diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Last year, disturbing data also suggested that children who ate lots of UPFs show early signs of poor heart health and diabetes risk factors from as young as three years old.
