Want To Lower Your Cancer Risk? Oncologists Swear By This After-Dinner Habit

If you believe that getting cancer is left completely up to chance, think again. The same goes for if you believe that if you have a family history of cancer, you are destined to get cancer too. According to the World Health Organization, up to 50% of all cancers are preventable by having healthy diet and strong lifestyle habits in place.

No one sees this more firsthand than oncologists, whose job is to diagnose and treat cancer and stay up-to-date on the latest scientific research. With that in mind, we asked three doctors who treat cancer for an evening habit they recommend everyone adopt to lower their risk of cancer. They all had the exact same answer.

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The After-Dinner Habit That Can Lower Your Risk of Cancer

Dr. Tingting Tan, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist and hematologist at City of Hope in Newport Beach, California, says that one habit she put in place to help lower her cancer risk is going on an evening walk after dinner. “Any amount of regular physical activity provides overall health benefits and walking is one of the easiest ways to log some minutes in your exercise tracker,” she says.

Dr. Mary Chamberlin, MD, a breast oncologist at Dartmouth Health, also recommends taking a walk after dinner. “Walking or exercising after dinner is an easy-to-adopt healthy habit that lowers blood sugar and improves fitness. Reducing blood glucose and insulin is a known benefit that reduces risk of cancer and cancer recurrence for people with a history of cancer,” she says.

Even though she lives in Michigan where the winters can be brutal, internist Dr. Latonya Riddle-Jones, MD, MPH, says she always tries to take a walk after dinner. “I have a dog, so it’s more of a requirement as I need to walk it. I bought him hoping he would get me outside and move more,” she says. In the evenings she can’t get outside for a full walk, Dr. Riddle-Jones says she walks up and down the stairs in her house to get her circulation going.

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How Walking After Dinner Can Lower Your Risk of Cancer

Why do all three doctors recommend this one specific after-dinner habit? “Moving after dinner helps lower the risk of cancer because being sedentary is an independent risk factor with the strongest associations to breast, colon and rectal, endometrial and ovarian cancer incidences. It can lead to being overweight or obese, too, which are risk factors for most cancers,” Dr. Riddle-Jones says.

Scientific research backs this up. In one meta-analysis of 13 different scientific studies, researchers found that living a primarily sedentary lifestyle increased the risk of cancer between 12% and 22%. Another scientific study found that physical exercise is especially beneficial in lowering the risk of breast and colon cancers.

Related: ‘I’m an Oncologist—This Is the Afternoon Snack I Eat Almost Every Day for Cancer Prevention’

All three doctors say that walking after dinner can help with maintaining a healthy weight. This is noteworthy because between 4% and 8% of cancers are caused by obesity, including postmenopausal breast cancer, colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer, kidney cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer and gallbladder cancer.

Dr. Tan adds that taking an after-dinner walk also helps balance blood sugar levels, which is key for people with type 2 diabetes or at risk of developing it. “Having type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of getting cancer of the liver, pancreas, colon and rectum, endometrium, bladder and breast,” she says.

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If you start going on a walk after dinner, you can expect to experience positive changes to your health both in the short term and long term. In the short term, Dr. Tan says that walking can help you digest your dinner more regularly. Dr. Chamberlain says that it can also lead to better sleep. 

As mentioned earlier, walking after dinner can also contribute to weight loss because it burns calories. Dr. Riddle-Jones says that other short-term benefits of walking after dinner include improved mood, better circulation, and decreased muscle stiffness. Long term, besides lowering the risk of cancer, walking after dinner can help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

With all of this in mind, there is certainly a strong case for making walking after dinner a habit. Even if it’s cold out, it’s worth integrating movement into your evening as an actionable way to lower your risk of cancer. You want to be around to enjoy many more years of walks! 

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Sources

• Dr. Tingting Tan, MD, PhD, medical oncologist and hematologist at City of Hope in Newport Beach, California
• Dr. Mary Chamberlin, MD, breast oncologist at Dartmouth Health
• Dr. Latonya Riddle-Jones, MD, MPH, internist, pediatrician and Associate Center Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute