Questionable Claims of "Tom Yum Goong" as a Cancer Inhibitor (Thai Soup)

[Chao Lao Beach]

I must stress that this is "from the internet" and is likely to have absolutely NO credibility, but I would to bring it up to see if anyone knew of the mentioned study.

At least a discussion would make or break the claims that are extremely Thai related.

"South East Asia has a very low rate of cancer. A joint study by Thailand's Kasetsart University and Japan's Kyoto and Kinki Universities put it down to, at least in part, soup. They found Tom yum goong, a shrimp soup, was 100 times more effective at inhibiting the growth of cancerous tumours than other foods."

Published here under the "Order This - soup"

http://www.menshealth.co.uk/food-nutrition/what-to-eat/eat-this-not-that-the-thai-restaurant-54264

Again, please take it with allot of skepticism at this stage, please discuss if you know anything about this.

[jrtmedic]

In specific terms I know nothing about the study you mention.

Perhaps you would care to read a report (-link below) which details the facts about the occurrence of "cancer" in Asia.

http://www.pfizer.com/files/products/cancer_in_asia.pdf

[Sheryl]

Complete nonsense; cancer is the leading cause of death in Thailand.

http://jjco.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/suppl_1/S82.full

www.nci.go.th/en/File.../Cancer%20In%20Thailand%20IV/C-II-01.PDF

Liver cancer in particular has an unusually high prevalence here.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Right!! 100 x 0 = zero, but it is still "100 times something."

Mac

[partington]

There is no conceivable way of testing whether Tom Yum Goong inhibits cancer growth compared to other foods. This is utter utter nonsense, but the kind of trash that journalists make up daily.

This article was a lazy rehashing of a story from 2001(!) where CNN made an equally contrived link between a study of a specific chemical extracted from a plant of the ginger family, and Thai food, to make it sound interesting, and to be able to put in a quote from a chef (perhaps a paid advertising sponsorship as the restaurant was named specifically?) : http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/diet.fitness/01/03/thai.soup/

As far as I can see the actual study was published in 2002, and refers to a chemical extracted from a kind of ginger which is used as a condiment in Thailand, and so may (or may not) be in Tom Yum Goong. http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/5/795.long

This study describes miscellaneous effects of this compound on various cells in culture. This could be mildly interesting, or completely irrelevant, : these kind of studies are literally countless. As the compound was isolated and purified from the root, and put on the cells at a concentration it would be impossible to get by eating soup (even if it were actually in the soup), this study shows no evidence for tumor growth inhibition by the Thai diet, let alone specific dishes from the Thai diet!

The point of studies like this is to ask: could this specific chemical compound ever be useful as a starting point in the development of drugs for cancer treatment, NOT to imply the Thai diet prevents cancer. Most compounds fail unfortunately.

But this is how bad health websites get their copy: untrained people dredge up old stories and make nonsensical claims about them.

Edited August 25, 2013 by partington

[473geo]

The soup does however contain a good content of chillies which are rumoured to assist against some cancers.......well....... it does when I make it

[Soutpeel]

Please dont let TAT get hold of this....Will be the new marketing ploy for more tourist's..... "Come to Thailand and get cured of cancer"....