One of the most common words I hear from my mother is:
Eat while it is hot, don’t wait for the food to get cold!
I think there are many people who, like me, listen to my mother honestly and have to eat seriously [while hot] for so many years.
However, eating food regularly [while hot] may induce esophageal cancer!
For the Chinese, esophageal cancer is not far away. China is a country with high incidence of esophageal cancer. Every year, more than 400,000 new cases of esophageal cancer occur in the world, about 63% of which occur in China.
Every year, about 150,000 people in our country die of esophageal cancer, accounting for almost a quarter of the deaths from malignant tumors in the country.
With the popularization of public health knowledge in recent years, many people gradually understand that eating hot food is not good for the esophagus.
So people often ask me: Does scalding really lead to esophageal cancer? Can it be prevented without eating hot food?
So today, Dr. Clove and you will talk about this topic.
Esophagus: Fragile than You Think
Because the esophagus is not sensitive to temperature, it is often mistaken for [very strong].
At ordinary times, when we eat hot pot, our mouth is too hot, so we swallow it quickly and let our esophagus and stomach bear all this silently.
However, this is wrong. Esophageal mucosa, like oral mucosa, cannot withstand the torture of scalding.
Some tests have proved that things over 70 ℃ will burn the esophageal mucosa. If you burn the esophagus continuously for many years, you will cause chronic trauma and inflammation of the esophageal mucosa, which may eventually lead to the occurrence of esophageal cancer.
Hot drinking and eating are indeed an important factor affecting esophageal cancer. This is not only the case in Asians, but also in European and American populations. In other words, this is a finding [1] that is universally applicable.
Hot food: not the only culprit,
Although scalding food is guilty, it cannot bear all the blame.
Although we are not yet completely sure whether what caused esophageal cancer, doctors have confirmed that there are many factors related to the occurrence of esophageal cancer, and [carcinogenic ability] is not weaker than scalding.
Step 1: Diet
Besides scalding, pickled food also has an important impact on esophageal cancer.
In animal experiments, nitrite, the main carcinogenic component in kimchi, can cause esophageal cancer in rats.
The survey of the population also confirmed that people who eat kimchi for a long time are indeed more likely to develop esophageal cancer than people who do not eat kimchi very much.
In addition to kimchi, eating too fast and liking dry, hard and rough food will increase the risk of esophageal cancer.
Step 2: Smoking
Smoking can not only hurt the lungs, but also hurt the esophagus! Smoking has an obvious effect on esophageal cancer. Many carcinogens in tobacco can enter the esophagus with saliva or food, thus attacking esophageal mucosa, damaging cells and causing esophageal cancer.
Step 3 Drink
Some carcinogenic things are easier to dissolve in wine, which promotes the canceration of cells.
Many studies have shown that drinking alcohol is related to esophageal cancer, especially in Japan.
4. Familial
This influence includes two factors: heredity and eating habits.
In our country, the distribution of esophageal cancer shows obvious [familial aggregation], that is to say, if someone in the family has esophageal cancer, the possibility of getting esophageal cancer is higher than that of normal people.
The most famous examples are Linzhou City in Henan Province and Chaozhou City in Guangdong Province. The incidence rate of esophageal cancer is much higher than that in the surrounding areas.
5. The importance you attach to your health
Because the symptoms of early esophageal cancer are not very obvious, it may be that some dry and hard things cannot be swallowed at first, so many people do not pay attention to it until people are obviously thin and cannot even eat noodles and porridge before seeing a doctor.
Therefore, we need to pay enough attention to our own body and find out the discomfort earlier.
Prevention of Esophageal Cancer: Changes Are Effective
To reduce the risk of esophageal cancer, compared with the above [do the opposite], such as not eating hot food, pickled food, chewing slowly, not smoking or drinking, is there any effect?
The answer is: of course there is!
Various studies at home and abroad have shown that the improvement of lifestyle has a significant effect on reducing the incidence of esophageal cancer.
The ancients said: Wise people eat well. In daily life, if we can change the bad eating habits that are easy to eat carcinogens, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of cancer. In addition to avoiding hot food, pickled food and dry, hard and coarse food, eating more fresh vegetables and fruits and eating a balanced diet are also proven [protective factors] that can reduce the incidence of esophageal cancer.