BEIJING (Reuters) — About half the people who die every year from stomach cancer are in China and the main culprit is the nation’s enthusiasm for pickled and smoked food and cigarettes, the official Xinhua news agency said.The disease kills about 300,000 people in China a year and there are 400,000 new cases reported annually, Xinhua said in a report this week.

Only lung and liver cancer kill more people in China, it quoted Jin Maolin, a doctor at Peking University, as saying.

Though men aged over 50 are most at risk, the number of women in rural areas who have contracted stomach cancer has risen 25 percent in the past five years, Jin said.

Chinese people need to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and cut down on salted and pickled food — very popular in China — as well as smoking and drinking to reduce the risks, he added.

The World Health Organisation and Chinese Health Ministry warned earlier this year that a surge in chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes due to changing lifestyles could kill up to 80 million people in China in the next decade.