What Are The Preventive Diet For Oral Cancer?
The preventive diet for oral cancer emphasizes adopting healthy habits and opting for natural and seasonal foods (vegetables, fruits, legumes, and fish).
Food by itself does not prevent cancer but favors a reduction in the risk of developing it. Fruits and vegetables are important to a healthy and balanced diet, a source of essential nutrients such as antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, and an excellent protector against oral or mouth tumors. Something as simple as eating five pieces of fruit and vegetables a day helps prevent the appearance of this type of carcinoma.
What Is Oral Cancer?
Oral cancer fundamentally affects the tongue and, contrary to popular belief, can appear even before age 40. Tobacco use, alcohol consumption, human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, oral hygiene, and neglecting diet are the main risk factors that increase the developing possibilities of oral cancer.
Early diagnosis is essential to win the battle against this type of tumor, hence the essence of caring for our mouth with perfect hygiene and maintaining good eating habits. We should note that mouth cancer is a problem that affects young people and women to a greater extent.
Foods To Prevent Mouth Cancer
There are foods that, due to their properties, and as different studies have found, act as protectors of the body to decrease the chances of suffering from cancer. To adopt a preventive diet for oral cancer, the most beneficial foods are:
- Red fruits (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries).
- Citrus (oranges, tangerines, lemons).
- Vegetables are rich in carotenoids.
- Virgin olive oil.
- Bluefish (rich in omega 3 fatty acids).
- Flax seeds.
- Foods that are rich in A, C, and E vitamins.
- Foods are rich in flavonoids (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, cereals).
For their part, these are the foods to avoid:
- Red meat and sausages.
- Very hot food.
- Fried or grilled foods directly on charcoal or firewood.
- Very hot condiments, such as chili.
- The total fat in the diet has not exceeded 30% of the daily energy-consuming. Saturated fats (of animal origin) have not exceeded 10% of the total.
Recommendations To Prevent Mouth Cancer
- Make a plan to visit the dentist regularly every six months because it is a pathology that can be found and treated relatively easily in its early stages of it but can be fatal when not intervened in time.
- Extreme oral hygiene.
- Use lip balm.
- Carrying out self-examinations to observe the possible presence of wounds in the form of plaques -white or red- or ulcers that, if they do not improve in a short space of time, should motivate a specialist consultation.
