Overeating warm-hot natured food can easily induce cancer.

by 60888888 on 2010-02-25 10:26:37

Cancer is the leading cause of death among human diseases. Although the occurrence of cancer is the result of multiple factors, including heredity, emotions, and environment, all of which are correlated with the development of cancer, experts have pointed out that dietary factors also play an important role in the onset of cancer, accounting for 35% of the causes of cancer, while 50% of cancers are related to diet.

Today, we will discuss warm-natured foods. One refers to food that is too hot or scalding in temperature; the other refers to foods classified as warm-natured in traditional Chinese medicine. Because these foods are overly spicy and hot, they can easily damage the epithelial cells of the digestive tract mucosa. Therefore, this type of food is most likely to induce digestive system cancers.

Eating excessively hot food is one of the significant reasons for esophageal cancer and other digestive tract cancers. Hot food can injure and irritate the esophageal mucosal epithelium, and long-term irritation may lead to malignant transformation of tissues. The incidence of digestive tract cancers in Chinese people is significantly higher than in Westerners, partly due to the preference of Chinese people for hot food, who enjoy hot soups like vegetable soup or porridge with every meal. In contrast, Westerners have a simpler diet, rarely drink hot soup, and prefer cold drinks such as fruit juice or cola.

Alcohol has a spicy and hot nature, and long-term drinking is one of the most common factors in the development of digestive system cancers. The southwestern region of Shandong Province is a high-incidence area for esophageal cancer, which is related to the local preference for hot and alcoholic foods. In fact, as early as 1964, the World Health Organization believed that excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages was associated with oral, laryngeal, and esophageal cancers. A survey conducted in Tongxing Township, where liver cancer was relatively more prevalent, and Xining Township, where it was relatively less prevalent, in Qidong County, Jiangsu Province, found that the mortality rate of liver cancer in the former was 2.5 times that of the latter. The two townships were only separated by a road, had basically the same natural environment, and similar smoking rates. The difference was that people in the high-incidence area liked to drink alcohol, while those in the low-incidence area preferred tea.

Fried, smoked, and grilled foods also belong to the category of hot-natured foods in Traditional Chinese Medicine. These foods become hot-natured after being fried at high temperatures or roasted. Studies have shown that long-term consumption of such foods can easily lead to stomach cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, etc.

Just as Chinese people love tea, Westerners tend to prefer coffee. After five years of epidemiological investigation, American scholars believe that caffeine has a certain impact on the formation of pancreatic cancer and bladder cancer. People who regularly drink coffee are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop these two types of cancer compared to those who do not drink coffee. At least half of pancreatic cancer patients developed the disease due to excessive coffee consumption.