Is maize causing oesophagal cancer in Eastern Cape?

The Eastern Cape has been identified as a hotspot for oesophageal cancer, with the consumption of umqombothi  and a maize-based diet the leading cause.

This emerged in a research study conducted by Walter Sisulu University (WSU).

Though the maize itself is not harmful, it is when it is stored for weeks at a time that carcinogen agents develop, making it harmful to the oesophagus.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, WSU said out of all provinces in the country, the Eastern Cape was a hotspot for people suffering from oesophageal cancer.

Because the Eastern Cape has the highest percentage of people living below the poverty line, especially in the rural outskirts, people have found ways to preserve food by buying it in bulk and storing it to last longer.

The department of human biology senior lecturer, Prof Eugene Ndebia, said: “Maize on its own is not harmful as long as you buy it and use it within a reasonable time period.

“The problem is when you have stored it for a while that it starts to develop carcinogen agents which become harmful to the oesophagus.

“It’s those chemicals that cause cancer, not the maize itself.

“You can buy maize meal and cook it today, that will be fine, but when you cook from the same bag of maize meal after a few weeks, it is no longer the same maize.”

He said there had been many causes of oesophageal cancer in the province over the years, including factories causing soil pollution affecting farm produce.

“The other causes brought forward were tobacco and alcohol, but now the main reason we have found is that people with this type of cancer have a diet of higher levels of carbohydrates — which is maize,” Ndebia said.

Umqombothi is also believed to be one of the causes of oesophageal cancer.

It is a traditional beer made from maize, maize malt, sorghum malt, yeast and water.

“In the making of traditional beer, they are adding a lot of artificial components as ingredients to make it and those components can be carcinogenic, and even the containers they use for beer during the fermentation and storage process have an impact.

“So, the problem is not the maize meal but how you store it, how long you store it and what you add to it when you are cooking,” Ndebia said.

He concluded his hypothesis on how the cancer occurs, saying that if a person’s diet was high in carbohydrates this could increase reflux.

“Heartburn is a warning sign to those people to seek help early and avoid becoming sick.

“Our research has led us to monitor a rare type of reflux, which is not acid, also known as alkaline reflux,” Ndebia said.

He said that, surprisingly, the Eastern Cape had the highest incidence of alkaline reflux in the world, and because it was alkaline, it did not burn the oesophagus and therefore there was no warning sign.

“When you have it, it doesn’t burn you because it’s non-acid.

“Research has shown that alkaline refluxes are very carcinogenic as compared to the traditional acid refluxes,” Ndebia said.

“This may be why oesophageal cancer patients are usually diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease, because nothing warns them to seek help early.”

 The research has also shown that alkaline reflux is higher in people with a higher consumption of maize as a staple diet.