Does eating pickled vegetables cause cancer?

Answer:

Pickled vegetables have a reputation for causing cancer and impacting health. Many believe that pickled vegetables contain solanine, a cancer-causing substance, so it is advised not to eat newly pickled vegetables.

In fact, such health consequences are caused only in cases of incorrect pickling, as solanine can dissolve in brine, so it is eliminated when vegetables are pickled.

Pickled vegetables, popular side dishes for meals for thousands of years, have become a part of many countries’ culinary cultures. Illustration photo by Freepik

Another thing to note is that pickled vegetables are usually very salty, so they may not be suitable for people with high blood pressure or kidney diseases.

In addition, in a daily diet, a healthy person should consume no more than 5 grams of salt per day, so the recommended pickled vegetables consumption is between 50-100 grams per day. Porcelain or ceramic utensils should be used during the pickling process instead of plastic containers.

To conclude, if pickled properly and consumed correctly, these dishes do not negatively impact health.

Dr. Nguyen Duy Thinh

Hanoi University of Science and Technology’s Institute of Food Technology and Biotechnology