A study in the British Journal of Cancer has shown that oral cancer rates are lower in people who eat a Mediterranean diet. They defined a Mediterranean diet as eating lots of fruit and vegetables, cereals, fish and seafood, using olive oil (instead of butter) and eating less dairy and meat products with moderate alcohol consumption. However, this doesn’t come as a huge surprise as cancer rates are generally lower in people who eat “healthy” foods and have a lower body mass index. Nevertheless, it is helpful that a large scale study into this area has finally been conducted and can help raise awareness of a little talked about type of cancer which its incident rate is increasing around the world.
“A Mediterranean diet is considered to be one rich in fruits and vegetables, high in fish (omega 3 fats) and olive oil (mono-unsaturated fats) and lower levels of red meats and processed foods.”
It has been known for a long time that eating a Mediterranean type diet reduces the incidence of other diseases such as heart disease and head and neck cancers. It is also thought that one in ten cancers are diet related so when we look at the causes of oral cancer we cannot forget how important our diet is.
There are several theories as to what may cause a reduction of the incidence of mouth cancer in people who eat a Mediterranean diet; fruits and vegetables contain nutrients including minerals, vitamins and antioxidants which are believed to help reduce cell death and could be attributed to a reduction in the rates of oral cancer.
Mediterranean diets also contain higher levels of olive oil which is high in mono-unsaturated fat and also contains antioxidants similar to fruits and vegetables. Other sources of these healthy fats are nuts and avocados which ideally should replace unhealthy oils and fats that contain higher levels of saturated fats and omega 6 (such as butter, and vegetable oils). Fish and seafood are another common food group consumed in the Mediterranean regions which are high in omega 3 oils.
These antioxidants present in vegetables and mono-unsaturated fats could be reducing the rates of oral cancer through their high levels of carotenoids and flavonoids as they help to reduce cell damage and cell death.
“The commonly cited triggers for oral cancer are smoking, alcohol consumption and the HPV virus.”
This article goes someway to showing how diet is an influencing factor in the development of oral and pharyngeal cancer but realistically we are not able to cure cancer with dietary changes alone. This does not mean that diet should be excluded from medical advice and making simple changes to how you eat could be the difference between developing or not developing the disease.
Changing your diet to accommodate these Mediterranean foods would not be difficult with the wide availability of suitable ingredients in supermarkets. Increasing and varying your intake of fruit and vegetables, swapping butter for olive oil and supplementing red meat for fish are all easy ways to help improve your health.
Prevention is always better than a cure and it is now clear that doctors should provide dietary advice along with advice in relation to smoking and alcohol consumption to reduce cancer risk. Dentists should also be able to provide advice to help reduce a patient’s risk of developing mouth cancer. Whilst they have historically provided dietary advice to minimise the risk of tooth decay they should now be able to offer more comprehensive advice on diet as a whole. The rates of mouth cancer are rising and a more holistic approach to patient care by dentists would definitely be worthwhile.
Written by Dr Daniel Winston BDS MSc, principal dentist at Mossley Dental Care