Common cooking oils may be causing an increase in colon cancer rates, according to recent research in the United States.
A team of scientists from the University of South Florida and the Cancer Institute at Tampa General Hospital (TGH), in the United States, analyzed 80 people diagnosed with the disease, aged between 30 and 35.
If, until now, the relationship between cooking oil and colon cancer was inconclusive, this new study identified that the seed oils are a possible factor that contributes to the disease.
According to the portal, the research discovered that the tumors showed signs of “increased levels of bioactive lipids“, that is, small oily molecules created by the body when metabolizing seed oils instead of healthier fats.
Experts believe that these bioactive lipids are associated with increased inflammation and harm the body’s natural healing process, in addition to contributing to the growth of tumors.
Unhealthy diets can result in increased inflammation, which in turn can be found in colon tumors themselves. The researchers therefore emphasize that “Cancer is like a chronic wound that doesn’t heal“.
“If the body lives on ultra-processed foods daily, the ability to heal the wound decreases due to inflammation and suppression of the immune system, allowing cancer to grow,” the experts wrote. This does not mean that you urgently need to stop using cooking oil, because the objective of this study, which was published in Gutis to draw attention to a possible consequence of the excessive use.
Interestingly, another complementary study revealed that cancer patients who eliminated seed oil from their diet were able to slow the growth of tumors.
The research, which analyzed 100 men with prostate cancer for a year, concluded that those who reduced their intake of foods with vegetable oil and ate more “healthy” fats showed signs of slower cancer growth, compared to those who ate a “regular” western diet.
Typically, seed oils are rich in omega-6 fats, which some studies have linked to increased inflammation. Omega-3 oils, found in fish, protect against inflammation.
