8 "Cancer-Inviting" Dietary Habits: Do You Have Them?
Diet is closely related to the development of cancer, but what kind of eating habits can easily lead to cancer? Let's take a look together and see if we have any unhealthy habits in our daily lives that could potentially cause cancer.
1. Liking to Eat Scalding Hot Food
In clinical practice, doctors have found that many patients with digestive system cancers, especially esophageal and stomach cancer, share a common trait: they enjoy eating very hot food, preferring to eat things straight from the pot at every meal. When consulting a patient diagnosed with esophageal cancer about their diet, it was found that not only did they enjoy scalding-hot meals daily, but they also loved drinking hot tea. It was precisely these unhealthy eating habits that led to the onset of cancer in middle age.
In recent years, reports from both domestic and international sources have continuously confirmed that drinking hot tea can damage the "mucosal barrier" of the esophagus. According to epidemiological surveys in high-incidence areas of esophageal cancer in China, a large proportion of esophageal cancer patients have a preference for hot drinks, hard food, fast eating, or alcohol consumption.
Animal experiments have also proven that drinking alcohol, eating very hot food, and wolfing down meals can cause certain burns and corrosive effects on the esophageal mucosa. When mucosal cells develop proliferative lesions, there is a possibility of further carcinogenesis.
2. Eating Too Quickly
Eating quickly seems to have become a common ailment for office workers in this era. The pressure of work and life leaves office workers in a highly tense state, and eating seems to be just a simple physical necessity, so they eat very fast. In reality, this is very detrimental to health.
Eating fast means food is not chewed thoroughly, which can easily damage the digestive tract mucosa and cause chronic inflammation. Additionally, when eating fast, the food bolus is large, which can cause strong mechanical stimulation on the esophagus and cardia, and over time, it can lead to damage or even cancer in the digestive tract.
3. Overeating
Our ancestors recognized long ago that overeating is harmful to the body. The "Huangdi Neijing" (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon) contains a very classic saying: "When food intake is doubled, the stomach and intestines are injured." This indicates that eating a large amount at once primarily damages our own digestive system.
>The ancient Chinese medical book "Jisheng Fang" also points out: "Overindulging in the five flavors—fish, seafood, dairy, and cheese—and forcing oneself to eat raw, cold fruits and vegetables that accumulate in the stomach... over time, this will accumulate and form masses and tumors." From the perspective of ancient experience, excessive eating disrupts the function of the digestive system, and over a long period, illness and cancer become inevitable.4. Frequently Eating Out
In today's era of rapid economic development, the rapid improvement of living standards has also changed people's good habit of eating at home. Many people, due to work reasons, have to socialize and eat out frequently. In fact, this way of eating is very detrimental to health.
On one hand, eating out often leads to irregular meal times, which will inevitably damage one's own spleen and stomach function over time, putting the body into a "cancer-prone state." On the other hand, food sold outside, in pursuit of color, aroma, and taste, is often cooked using high-temperature frying methods or contains a large amount of seasonings. Compared to home-cooked meals, they contain more carcinogenic substances.
At the same time, people tend to drink heavily during gatherings, which undoubtedly adds to the burden on the gastrointestinal tract and creates conditions for the development of cancer.
5. Frequently Drinking Excessively
From a health perspective, moderate drinking can excite the nerves, produce a pleasant feeling, and have physiological functions such as refreshing the mind, relaxing muscles and activating blood circulation. It can relax blood vessels, improve blood circulation, enhance the body's immunity, increase appetite, and be beneficial for sleep. Recently, a research analysis abroad showed that drinking less than 20 grams per day can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 20%, and the same results were seen in patients with diabetes, hypertension, and old myocardial infarction.
Moderate drinking is beneficial to the human body, related to alcohol's ability to increase high-density lipoprotein (which can prevent and treat atherosclerosis), resist platelet thrombosis, and improve the body's sensitivity to insulin, having certain effects on preventing and treating coronary heart disease and diabetes.
However, everything should be done in moderation. Excessive drinking is harmful to health without any benefits. The main component of alcohol, ethanol, is a toxic substance that damages various tissue cells in the body and can harm all bodily systems.
Research shows that directly drinking strong liquor, or drinking more than 4 liang (200g) of baijiu a day, or chugging beer are all drinking habits that can easily lead to cancer.
It is worth noting that one should avoid drinking on an empty stomach. When drinking on an empty stomach, because there is no food in the stomach, alcohol is quickly absorbed through the gastric mucosa, leading to a sharp increase in blood alcohol concentration, which is more harmful to the body. Therefore, one should eat something before drinking, preferably carbohydrates, because the energy produced during their digestion can be used by the liver to "burn" the alcohol.
In addition, you can choose appropriate side dishes for drinking, such as fresh vegetables, fresh fish, lean meat, beans, eggs, etc., to supplement the enzymes and vitamins needed by the liver to metabolize alcohol.
6. Eating Vegetables and Fruits Only Occasionally
A balanced diet is essential, and vegetables and fruits are important components of our daily diet. Therefore, if you only love meat and dislike vegetables and fruits, you increase your risk of cancer.
Research shows that long-term, high intake of red meat and processed meat products increases the risk of colon cancer by 29% and 50%, respectively. A clinician told of a pair of twin brothers who shared a common eating habit: they ate meat and drank alcohol but never ate vegetables or fruits. Unfortunately, the younger brother developed colon cancer, and a year later, the older brother was also diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer.
Vegetables and fruits are the best sources of vitamin C and dietary fiber and have always been considered to have good anti-cancer effects. Research shows that carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, radishes, and citrus fruits have strong anti-cancer effects, especially for tumors in the mouth, esophagus, stomach, colon, and lungs. Therefore, it is recommended that everyone pay more attention to eating vegetables and fruits in their daily lives.
7. Irregular Meal Times
Eating at irregular times seems to have become a common problem for modern people, but in fact, this is very harmful to the body. Research shows that irregular eating habits can lead to obesity and stomach cancer.
In clinical practice, when asking cancer patients, many have this problem: either skipping breakfast, eating lunch very late, or snacking in the middle of the night.
>Traditional Chinese medicine believes that eating on time is beneficial for the normal function of the spleen and stomach, ensuring the replenishment and coordination of the body's qi and blood, avoiding dysfunction of the five organs, and preventing the occurrence of cancer. From another perspective, eating promotes saliva secretion, and the regular secretion of saliva has a dissolving effect on carcinogens.8. Unpleasant Dining Environment
Modern research believes that negative emotional changes are "activators" of cancer. A scholar who has collected data for nearly 50 years found that negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, disappointment, and sadness are often the prelude to cancer. This emotional latency can often lead to disease within just 1-2 years. A survey of 500 cancer patients by American experts showed that all had a history of significant psychological trauma.
This is completely understandable. If you dine in an unpleasant environment, it will directly affect the function of the spleen and stomach, causing the spleen and stomach's transportation and transformation to become disordered and the liver qi to become stagnant. Over time, this will lead to qi stagnation and blood stasis, creating conditions for the development of cancer. How can modern people be healthy when they work while eating, holding a lunchbox in one hand and a phone in the other?