The wanton adoption of western or some refer to it as ‘American fast food’ diets is one of the major contributors to the increase in cancer cases in Zambia.
According to research, Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body and there over a 100 types of cancers.
Many people over the past few years have been diagnosed with cancer in Zambia and also across the world. The numbers have become alarming and the cause for some of the cancers are still not known.
In an exclusive Interview with Zambian Business Times – ZBT, University Teaching Hospital (UTH) Cancer Senior Superintendent Doctor Lewis Banda said that, some of the cancers that Zambians have is caused by bad living habits.
Dr. Banda disclosed that most Zambians now follow the Western diet which has a lot of fat and possess a lot of health risks. He added that, people should instead stick to the African or Zambian diet which is good and has less fats and more vegetables in it.
He explained people don’t exercise enough neither do they eat healthy, thus they end up having cancer. However, he disclosed that the cause for most cancers like breast and prostate are yet not known, but that for cancers like cervical cancer, the reason behind it is known.
Banda said that cervical cancer can be prevented especially in young girls by them staying away from sex as well as staying away from having multiple sexual partners. He urged women to go for screening so as to start early treatment if found with cancer, and that so far, all cancer treatments at UTH are free.
Furthermore, Dr. Banda disclosed that genetically modified organism(GMO) have not been directly proved to cause cancer like most people think, and that no one has ever proved that allegation. He added that, a lot of food in Zambia do not have GMO’S and thus people just have to mind what they eat and should try and avoid eating too much junk food.
