en public specific orginal article <div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:106%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Background: </span></span></span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:106%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Dietary Acid Load (DAL) is the balance between acid-producing and base-producing food. Previous studies have assessed the association between DAL and the risk of several cancers.&nbsp; However, few studies have investigated the association between DAL and Gastric Cancer (GC) risk. The current study was carried out to evaluate the association between DAL and GC risk in Iran. <b>Methods: </b>The current case-control study was conducted on 184 patients newly diagnosed with GC and 276 healthy controls.&nbsp; A validated diet history questionnaire (DHQ) was applied to assess dietary intake. DAL was calculated by computing amounts of protein intake into potassium contents through net endogenous acid production (NEAP) method. Multi-adjusted logistic regression was used to define the association between DAL and GC risk. <b>Results: </b>The mean age of participants was 56.26 years. Intakes of energy, dietary fiber, zinc, selenium, grain, fruits, and vegetables were significantly lower, and protein intake was significantly higher in the case group compared to the control group. A direct association was observed between DAL and GC risk (OR=4.59; 95% CI:2.61-8.07; <i>P-trend</i><0.001, for T2 versus T3). In the fully adjusted model, DAL was positively associated with the risk of GC (OR=3.55; 95% CI:1.89-6.99; <i>P-trend</i><0.001).<b> Conclusion:&nbsp; </b>Higher DAL scores were directly associated with greater GC odds which supports the current recommendations for decreasing the risk of cancer incidence.</span></span></span></div> Diet, Stomach cancer, Iran, Dietary acid load. 204 214 http://jnfs.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1138-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Farimah Dehghani farimahdehghani1998@gmail.com 0009-0005-3814-8945 No Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Fatemeh Toorang f.toorang@gmail.com 0000-0002-1969-4749 No Departments of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy Bahareh Sasanfar b.sasanfar@yahoo.com 0000-0002-9560-1049 No Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran Saba Narmcheshm sb.narmcheshm@gmail.com 0000-0003-3277-6041 No Cancer Research Center, Cancer Institute, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran Maryam Hadji mrym.hadji@gmail.com 0000-0001-5486-7513 No A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio 70150, Finland Kazem Zendehdel kzendeh@gmail.com 0000-0002-0269-4945 No Cancer Biology Research Center, Cancer Institute, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran Ahmad Esmaillzadeh a.esmaillzadeh@gmail.com 90000-0002-8735-6047 Yes Obesity and Eating Habits Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Molecular-Cellular Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran