| Summary: | THE incidence of carcinoma of the stomach in Iceland is very high compared with rates for England and Wales and the United States (Doll, 1956; Dungal, 1955). The average death rate in Iceland is comparable with rates for Japan and for Finland. This probably depends in part on the extent to which the population is exposed to carcinogenic substances. The average Icelandic diet is rich in animal protein and fat. It consists of meat, fish, milk, large quantities of fat, some bread and potatoes, but little vegetables or fruit. Tinned foods are rarely used. A survey was made by one of us in 1956 to attempt to find a correlation between diet and stomach cancer. At one farm it was found that 4 people had died from carcinoma of the stomach during the past 30 years: father, son, father's brother and an unrelated man. The staple food was milk, salted meat and fish, a little bread and some smoked meat, salmon and trout. Smoking huts were seen on almost all farms and both salmon and meat were smoked. Near Myvatn smoked trout was eaten for 8 months of the year.
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