Does Miyeok, a typical Korean soup made from seaweed, prevent breast cancer? No, that's not true: A case study found that there is no corrlelation between Miyeok comsumption and breast cancer.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by @scol99990011 on TikTok, on May 4, 2023, under the title "κ°μ’ #μμ μ’μ 4κ°μ§ μμλ€" "4 Anticancer foods good for different kinds of #Cancer (Translated by Lead Stories Staff)". It opened:
Seaweed Miyeok prevents: Breast cancer
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Jun 22 03:05:54 2023 UTC)
According to the case study by Yoon Jung Yang(2010), Miyeok consumption did not have any significant associations with breast cancer. The researchers conducted a case-control study for 362 women aged 30-65 years old, who were histologically confirmed to have breast cancer.
The video also claims that Shiitake mushrooms can prevent and even cure stomach/intestinal cancer, by breaking down the carcinogen. However, there is not enough evidence that the mushroom itself or the mushroom extract can cure/prevent any kind of cancer. There were several studies claiming Lentinan from Shiitake mushroom extract can be used as medicine but that's all. Moreover, even in those studies, there was no direct correlation between Shiitake mushroom consumption and stomach/intestinal cancer.
In the later part of the video, the author claims that "eel can prevent lung cancer and that the NCI - the U.S. federal government's main agency for cancer research and education - introduced garlic as the best anticancer foods." There are not enough studies on eel consumption and lung cancer, and whether the diet is related to lung cancer risk is academically controversial. As Lead Stories has previously fact checked, NCI did not introduce any best anticancer foods.
