The meal that gives you liver cancer
A popular dish in northern eastern Thailand called Koi pla is made from finely chopped raw fish, mixed with herbs, a dash of lime juice, and a sprinkling of live red ants. This is enjoyed by many in the Isaan region, and has a warning to go along with it. It has been observed that people of this region have odd high levels of the disease. More than half of all male cases is from this dish.
The fishes in the meal or fluke worms “We have been studying this link in our labs for over 30 years,” Dr. Banchob Sripa from the Tropical Disease Research Laboratory in Khon Kaen University told the BBC. “We found that the liver fluke can make a chemical that stimulates a host immune response—inflammation—and after many years, this becomes chronic inflammation, which then becomes cancer.”
