Potatoes reduce risk of stomach cancer

Scientists have found people who eat large amounts of white vegetables were a third less likely to contract stomach cancer.

The study, undertaken by Chinese scientists at Zhejiang University , found eating cauliflower, potatoes and onions reduces the chance of contracting stomach cancer but that beer, spirits, salt and preserved foods increased a person’s risk of the cancer.

Stomach cancer kills around 13 people every day in Britain and has just a 15 per cent 10 year survival rate.

Cabbage, kale and celery were also found to be preventives against the disease.

All of the vegetables are thought to contain vitamin C, commonly found in potatoes, which acts as an antioxidant against cellular stress in the stomach. Eating around 50g of the vitamin every day brought the risk of developing the disease down by eight per cent.

Scientists estimated for every 100g of fruit eaten daily the risk of cancer decreased by an average of five per cent.

The research was drawn from 76 studies, involving 6.3 million people and almost 33,000 deaths from the death.