Popular Thai dish so dangerous eating it could give you liver cancer
12 September 2023, 22:16
Everyone loves a good Thai dish, but did you know there is one popular dish with the locals that is so dangerous that eating it could give you liver cancer.
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Known as koi pla, it is a salad dish that is eaten by residents in Laos and Isan in Thailand.
It consists of raw meat denatured by acidity, and usually includes chopped raw fish covered in salad dressing.
While it might sound tasty initially, it is also a common source of parasites that can cause severe illness, including liver fluke infection.
This can then cause bile duct cancer, with estimates the dish is responsible for 50 per cent of cancers diagnosed in men in the Lao region.
There are estimates the dish causes as many as 20,000 people a year.
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In an attempt to get people to stop eating the dish, liver surgeon Narong Khuntikeo told Agence France-Presse: "It’s a very big health burden around here.
"But nobody knows about this because they die quietly, like leaves falling from a tree."
