 Salt is considered a probable cause of stomach cancer, one of the world's leading cancer killers. If their estimate of an 8% increase in risk for every extra gram of salt a day is correct, then in a country like the UK, nearly 1,700 cases of stomach cancer happen every year just because of excess salt intake. And in a country like the US, it would beat thousands more every year. The risk of stomach cancer associated with salt intake appears on par with smoking or heavy alcohol use, but may only be half as bad as opium use or increased total meat consumption based on this study of more than a half million people, which may explain why those eating meatless diets appear to have nearly two-thirds lower risk. We know dietary salt intake is directly associated with the risk of stomach cancer and the higher the intake, the higher the risks, but this meta-analysis went further looking at specific salt-rich foods. Pickled foods, salted fish, processed meat, and miso soup. Habitual consumption of pickled food, salted fish, and processed meat were each associated with about a 25% greater risk of stomach cancer. The pickled foods may explain why Korea appears to have the highest stomach cancer rates in the world, but there was no significant association with the consumption of miso soup. This may be because the carcinogenic effects of the salt are counteracted by the anti-carcinogenic effects of the soy, effectively cancelling out the risk. Even if we made garlicky soup with some scallions thrown in, it may drop our cancer risk even lower. But cancer isn't the primary reason people are told to avoid salt. What about miso soup and high blood pressure? Well, it may be the same kind of thing. The salt in miso is squeezing our blood pressures up, but the soy protein in miso may be relaxing our blood pressures down. So for example, if you compare the effects of soy milk to cow's milk and to make it fairer, compare soy milk to skim milk to avoid the saturated butterfat, soy milk can much more dramatically improve blood pressure among women with hypertension. But would the effect be dramatic enough to counter all the salt in miso? Japanese researchers decided to put it to the test. They followed men and women in their 60s who started out with normal blood pressure and followed them for four years to see who is more likely to be diagnosed with hypertension in that time. Those who had two or more bowls of miso soup a day, or those who had one or less. Two bowls a day would be like adding a half teaspoon of salt to one's daily diet, yet those who ate two bowls or more appeared to have five times the lower risk of becoming hypertensive. So maybe the anti-hypertensive effects of the soy in the miso exceeds the hypertensive effects of the salt.