Is chewing betel nut regularly harmful or beneficial? Why can't girls eat it, and why isn't it banned if it causes cancer?

Betel nut is very common in our daily lives, and many people in southern regions like to chew betel nut. It is both a medicinal material and a snack. It has medicinal value, but its harms are greater. Below we bring you the harms and benefits of betel nut, why girls can't eat it, and why it isn't banned even though eating it can cause cancer?

1. Benefits of regularly chewing betel nut

1. After chewing betel nut, the body shows symptoms such as “mental excitement, flushed cheeks, and slight sweating on the body”.

2. Functions: keeping out the cold and eliminating fatigue.

3. It has the effects of “killing parasites, breaking accumulations, directing qi downward and relieving stagnation, and moving water to resolve dampness”,

4. Uses and treatment: “parasitic infections such as tapeworm, hookworm, roundworm, pinworm, and fasciolopsis buski”.

2. Harms of regularly chewing betel nut

1. Long-term chewing of betel nut severely wears down the teeth, can make the teeth turn black, and widens both cheeks, because the juice of betel nut is purplish red.

2. The fibers of betel nut are coarse and hard, stabbing the gums or blocking the gaps between teeth, causing gum inflammation.

3. Betel nut juice causes mucosal lesions, which turn into oral cancer.

4. Betel nut residue is coarse, hard, and rough, irritating the stomach wall and leading to inflammation of the gastric mucosa and symptoms of perforation.

5. Spat-out betel nut residue on the ground affects the environment, because the juice of betel nut is purplish red.

3. Why girls can't eat betel nut

Affects healthy pregnancy

The harm of betel nut to the human body is relatively small. Women eating betel nut will not cause infertility, but it will have a certain impact on the growth and development of the fetus.

Experiments have shown that betel nut has a certain toxicity to mouse embryos and can delay the development of fetal mice, especially unprocessed betel nut, whose effect is even greater. Excessive consumption may lead to conditions such as low fetal weight and incomplete development.

Oral diseases

Eating betel nut requires chewing it in the mouth for a long time. Much of the betel nut residue is sharp and woody, and long-term chewing can cause damage to the oral mucosa. This is one of the main reasons for the increased incidence of oral cancer in recent years.

Tooth damage

The main component of teeth is calcium. Betel nut contains a lot of lime and betel nut juice. During chewing, the lime in betel nut deposits around the teeth and sticks to them, forming tartar and seriously affecting the cleaning of teeth.

4. Why betel nut is not banned even though it causes cancer

Reasons why betel nut causes cancer:

Physical damage: When chewing betel nut, the friction of the betel nut fibers causes local trauma and mucosal damage to the oral mucosa. Long-term chewing of betel nut can cause the damage to persist and not heal, forming local chronic damage, thereby causing chronic inflammation, enhanced oxidation, and cell proliferation. Studies show that the frequency of oral mucosal cell shedding in betel nut chewers increases significantly.

Biological toxicity: Betel nut contains a large amount of polyphenols and various alkaloids, among which arecoline is the main component, accounting for about 1% of the net weight of dried betel nut. Arecoline can significantly promote apoptosis of epithelial cells and interfere with the deposition and degradation processes of extracellular matrix macromolecules (collagen, elastin, etc.). In addition, the betel inflorescence and lime chewed together with betel nut also have certain genotoxicity. This is mainly caused by the combined action of the nitrosamines, clove polyphenols, and active oxidants contained in them.

Jointly promoting cancer with tobacco: Chewing betel nut alone can significantly promote the occurrence of oral cancer, and betel nut lovers who also smoke have an even higher chance of developing oral cancer. Smoking itself is also an independent risk factor for oral cancer. Studies show that when chewing betel nut containing tobacco, the toxic substances in saliva increase significantly, with a clear destructive effect on processes such as cellular DNA synthesis.