Bamasaaba Urged to Avoid Hot and Salted Foods to prevent Throat Cancer.

Steven Masiga

Mbale, Uganda – ] This Monday afternoon, while scanning through today’s Daily Monitor at the Mbale Monitor bureau offices, I stumbled upon a crucial article tucked away in a recessed corner of the newspaper, among the last pages.

I was quite concerned as to why such critical information was placed in a less prominent section, instead of being on the front page. This information should be rated as national news, concerning the number two killer disease in Uganda: cancer of the throat.

The author of the Daily Monitor article enumerated hot porridge and hot tea as a significant cause of this cancer, stating it’s a major killer in Uganda after cervical cancer. The causes of this esophageal type of cancer include hot porridge and hot tea when consumed at sixty-five (65) degrees Celsius, which can eventually burn the esophageal lining, provoking chronic inflammation.

Other leading causes of this type of throat cancer include failure to brush one’s teeth regularly and eating highly salted meat, especially at social events. Failure to brush one’s teeth could be a breeding ground for bacterial infections in one’s mouth. The author also indicated that smoking tobacco was another leading cause.

I have seen many people, including educated men and women, freely eating platefuls of salted meat with little regard for such dangers listed above. Consuming the items listed can end one’s life in a snapshot, and therefore, our people must shun unregulated consumption of such hazardous items.

The good news is that this cancer can be combated, especially when individuals abandon consuming the listed dangerous items, as it takes a reasonable amount of time for one to be infected by the disease.

I know many of my brothers in town, whom I will restrain myself from naming, who are strong patrons of hot porridge, hot tea, and hot malwa consuming points. I don’t want to cause them unnecessary discomfort by mentioning their names here, and I would be uncomfortable with such a disclosure on the consequences of taking hot porridge, hot tea, hot pork, among other things