37,000 people are diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer every year. That’s more than 100 people per day. Only an estimated half of those diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer will be alive in five years.
Guess how many people die from oral cancer every single day. 24 (Source: American Cancer Foundation.)
Guess how many of those 24 people could have saved their lives by eating better and exercising. 8.
That’s nearly 3,000 people every year who could have lived longer had they only made a few simple dietary and lifestyle changes.
This article from the American Cancer Society’s Journal states, “Evidence suggests that one third of the more than 500,000 cancer deaths that occur in the United States each year can be attributed to diet and physical activity habits, with another third due to cigarette smoking. Although genetic inheritance influences the risk of cancer, and cancer arises from genetic mutations in cells, most of the variation in cancer risk across populations and among individuals is due to factors that are not inherited. Behavioral factors such as smoking cigarettes, consuming foods along certain patterns of diet, and staying active across the lifespan can substantially affect one’s risk of developing cancer.”
Dietary Recommendations for the Prevention of Oral Cancer
Last week I was doing an externship at a rural dental clinic. During some down time, I picked up a copy of the February 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association. The article Diet and Prevention of Oral Cancer really caught my eye. My dad passed away from cancer when I was 17. I’ve always been worried that someday I would end up with cancer too, so the prevention of cancer is something that interests me.
The authors concluded that swapping your regular American diet for a plant-based diet with more whole foods can go a long way in lowering your risk for oral cancer. They state the following:
Evidence supports a recommendation of a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables as part of a whole-foods, plant-based diet, with limited consumption of meat, particularly processed meat. However, use of dietary supplements (including vitamins, minerals and other bioactive compounds) in the absence of deficiencies has not been shown to confer the same benefits as those of fruits and vegetables, and patients should not use them as a substitute for fruit and vegetable consumption.
The 2011 Cancer Prevention & Early Detection PDF Booklet from the American Cancer Society contains the following recommendations on page 17 that seem to echo the findings above. The booklet includes these suggestions:
- Consume a healthy diet, with an emphasis on plant sources.
- Choose foods and beverages in amounts that help achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
- Eat 5 or more servings of a variety of vegetables and fruits each day.
- Choose whole grains in preference to processed (refined) grains.
- Limit consumption of processed and red meats.
- Limit consumption of alcoholic beverages, if you drink them. (Have no more than 1 drink per day for women and 2 per day for men.)
In 2002, researchers looked at many of the different studies relating diet and oral cancer. They published their results in this paper. Here’s an excerpt of their findings:
On the basis of the findings from the listed studies, there is enough evidence to point to a preventive role of vegetable intake, including green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, and yellow vegetables, total fruit intake, and citrus fruit intake in oral, pharyngeal, and esophageal cancer development. Yellow fruits are likely to be protective. Carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E are protective, most likely in combination with each other and other micronutrients. The role of vitamin A is not clear because of conflicting findings in the studies reviewed.
These three sources all seem to agree that foods from plant sources have a preventive effect on the development of oral cancer. However, there are some foods that can increase your risk of developing oral cancer.
What Foods Increase the Risk of Oral Cancer?
Here’s another quote from the article Diet and Prevention of Oral Cancer that I referenced above:
Researchers have found that consumption of salted meat, processed meat and animal fat increases the risk of developing oral cancer. The results of a study conducted by Peters and colleagues showed that high consumption of dairy products is a risk factor for head and neck squamous cell cancers.
Based on the study above, the following foods increase your risk of developing oral cancer:
- Salted Meat
- Processed Meat
- Animal Fat
- Dairy Products at a High Consumption Rate
Conclusion
In essence, foods that originate from plant sources help decrease your risk of oral cancer, and foods from animal sources increase your risk for developing oral cancer.
If your diet looks similar to foods below, you’re probably doing a good job of lowering your risk for developing oral cancer.
If oral cancer can be prevented so easily, isn’t it worth it to make some subtle changes to your diet?
Do you have any questions, comments, or concerns about how your diet can affect your risk of developing oral cancer? I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
Chewing gum can be good and bad for your teeth depending on what type of gum you chew.
When you chew gum sweetened with sugar, there are basically two phases. In the first phase, which can last for 10 minutes or more, you are releasing sugar from the gum into your mouth. The 
If you like to savor your acidic vinaigrette salad dressing or enjoy swishing your soda around in your mouth before swallowing, the acid will do more damage to your teeth because it stays in contact with your teeth a lot longer.
Xylitol is a natural sugar alcohol. That means that on a molecular level it looks just like 
Let’s say you go out to the 
No, you don’t need to eat dessert before your regular meal and there are reasons not to, such as the possibility of spoiling your dinner. If you don’t want to eat dessert first, you might try drinking some water or anything non-sugary to get that 
1 – Drink soda pop through a straw. By drinking the soda pop through a straw, you will minimize the soda pop’s contact with your teeth and quickly whisk it away down your throat.
About 15 years ago, dressed as a gangster, I walked up to a dimly lit house and opened my pillow case and said “Trick or Treat!” I received neither a trick nor a treat. I stared in disbelief as the elderly gentleman dropped a toothbrush into my pillowcase.
On the surface, it seems like a great idea: free candy for the soldiers, money for the kids, and possibly less cavities for the kids.
There’s just one small problem: after they’re done eating, they need to use the restroom. Since there’s no toilet in your mouth, they just go on your teeth. All of this acidic waste can start to dissolve your teeth. Luckily, our 
Now that the days are getting colder and shorter here in the northern hemisphere, it’s a good time to talk about how the common cold can affect your oral health.
1 – We tend to drink acidic beverages when we’re sick. Water doesn’t sound very good when you’re sick. Many people drink lots of orange juice and soda pop (such as ginger ale) when they’re sick.
5 – Cold medicine isn’t very friendly to your teeth. Cough syrups such as 
Many cold medicines, such as 
To dispel these myths, I have created a tag on this blog called 
it states the following about the effect fibrous foods have on teeth:
1 – Whole Wheat Bread – The rise of processed starchy foods over the past few decades has no doubt caused many cavities. White bread with added sugar seems to now be a staple in many homes. Rather than reaching for something with lots of added sugar to get your carbohydrates, try some whole wheat bread – your teeth and your body will thank you. My wife makes this 
3 – Fresh Fruit – Yes, fruit does have sugar, but it also provides valuable nutrients for the body. Fresh fruit is a great choice because it is also fibrous, which makes it takes longer to chew, which releases more saliva which helps your teeth. This makes it a good match for a healthy mouth in spite of the sugars it contains. Canned fruit is also good, just make sure that it’s not soaking in a sugary syrup. If it has added sugar, it might be doing more harm than good.
6 – Cheese – Cheese is great for your teeth since it contains calcium, and phosphates. It also neutralizes 
8 – Nuts -Nuts are a great source of nutrition that won’t harm your teeth. Peanuts are a great choice. Watch out for peanut butter, as it can contain a lot of added sugar. Just make sure that you 
13 – Seeds like pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Make your own when you carve pumpkins this Halloween or buy some at the store. If you buy seeds pre-packaged, just check out the ingredients first to ensure that they aren’t sugar-laden.
It might seem counter intuitive to think that a food with lots of sugar is good for your teeth, but fresh fruit is good for your teeth when consumed as part of a balanced diet. In 
Today, it’s not that easy. Food manufacturers are cleverly renaming sweeteners. Because of this, it’s hard to know exactly what is in the food you eat..
Food manufacturers will undoubtedly come up with new names in the future for sugar. The best way to see how much sugar is in something is by looking at the nutrition facts label on the back or side of the food item. You can usually find this information under the Carbohydrates section (on U.S. food labels) and it will usually even say the word Sugars, followed by a certain number of grams. No matter the exact sugar used, the overall number of grams is the key to finding out how much sugar is hiding in your food.
Dental researchers fed mentally handicapped people lots of sugar for the purpose of studying tooth decay. Unfortunately, many of these patients ended up losing their teeth to cavities.
When you give your child syrupy medicine, the sugary syrup clings to your child’s teeth. Because the medicine is so thick, it can stay around in your child’s mouth for a lot longer than 
I wasn’t familiar with alkaline water, so I decided to read up on it. As I browsed several websites, I noticed a trend. Nearly all of the supporters of alkaline water are selling something, and those who oppose it seem to agree that its supporters are only supporting it to make money.
Carbohydrates are sugars and starches. They are a major source of energy for humans. When we something with sugar or starch, like white bread, the residues can stick around in our mouth. These carbohydrates are then 
Since I’ve recently written a lot about how the 
I listed a small number of acidic candy that it would be wise to consume in limited amounts. The major problem with that list is that it’s not complete. If I were to list every single acidic food, it just might break the internet.
That was part of the blissful innocence of childhood. If I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have spent my money creating cavities. Maybe I would’ve bought a new toothbrush, or some floss. Okay, maybe not; but candy might not have been so appealing if I’d known what I was doing to my teeth!
1. Sucrose – Sucrose is probably the best-known sugar since it is the sugar that most people use in their house, common table sugar. It is a sugar made up of glucose and fructose. Sucrose is the main sugar found in most candy. It is also the sweetest sugar. Sucrose comes from sugar cane, sugar beets, and maple trees.
4. Lactose – Lactose is more commonly known as milk sugar. It is a sugar formed by the two simple sugars galactose and glucose. It is found in many dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt. Although lactose doesn’t even taste sweet, it can still be broken down by the bacteria on your teeth to produce acid.
The acidity of substances is measured using the pH scale. The lower the pH a drink has, the more acidic the it is. Many common beverages have a low pH, which means that they contain a lot of acid.
