Drinking mate regularly may worsen an individual's risk of developing cancer in the mouth and oropharynx.
Mate is a popular beverage in Latin America. This meta-analysis determined the role high dietary exposure to mate plays in the development of cancer of the mouth and oropharynx. Researchers evaluated results from 4 studies and over 2,000 participants.
Researchers observed that high consumers of mate were more prone to develop oral and oropharyngeal cancer than rare or non-consumers of this beverage. A 16% increase in the risk of oral and oropharyngeal cancer was associated with regular drinking of mate in this study. The data from this study show that mate consumption may be a contributing factor to the high prevalence of cancer of the mouth and oropharynx in Latin America.