High consumption of alcohol (more than 60 grams per day) significantly increases the risk of gastric cancer. So concludes a study conducted by the Nutrition, Environment and Cancer research Group of the IDIBELL at the Catalan Institute of Oncology that has been published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition..

The association between alcohol and gastric cancer is only when consumption is high (+ 60 grams of alcohol per day) and it is especially in men, since there are few women who consumed so much alcohol. A glass of beer or a glass of wine contain between 10 and 15 grams of alcohol. When analyzed by type of drink, the effect is observed for consumption of beer, but not for wine or spirits.

The study is part of EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study), a prospective population cohorts consisting of 23 centers in 10 European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK). It is the European study with a larger number of participants: includes 521,457 people between 35 and 70 years who were recruited between 1992 and 1998.

All participants completed a questionnaire about their habits and lifestyles (exercise, snuff consumption, diet, medical history, alcohol consumption …) at the beginning of the study and the project follows their health over the entire life. By making a comparative analysis based on the consumption of alcohol has been found that people with relatively high consumption, more than 60 grams per day have twice the risk of cancer than people with a low consumption or who do not consume.

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