Around the world, the risk of developing cancer has been rising for young people. New research provides evidence that diet may play a role in colorectal cancer, one of the cancers becoming more common among young people.
One common ingredient implicated by the research was seed oils. Here’s another preview of risky foods: ice cream, sausages, chips, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, doughnuts, carbonated drinks, instant soups and some alcoholic drinks. Other research has linked fast food consumption with rising cancer rates in young people.
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We’ll also reveal some healthy foods, but first let’s get into why the ones we just listed might be a problem.
“Chronic inflammation, fueled by poor dietary choices, plays a vital role in the growth and progression of colorectal cancer,” said a press release from the University of South Florida. Researchers from the university and Tampa General Hospital – who have been funded with a five-year, $3.1 million National Institutes of Health grant – used “cutting-edge technology,” to reveal how ultra-processed foods and seed oils contribute to chronic inflammation in a study recently published in the Gut journal.
As of this week, colorectal cancer was the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., said USF. This spring, Audacy reported on a rise in young-onset colorectal cancer in all 50 states.
Authors of the study noted that physician Rudolf Virchow proposed more than 100 years ago that cancer “represents a chronically inflamed, poorly healing wound.” They went on to explain that the aim of their work was to see if a failure to resolve inflammation was tied to dysregulation of lipids such as fats, oil and cholesterol in colorectal cancers.
“Bioactive lipids are very small molecules derived from the foods that we eat and, if the molecules are coming from processed food products, they directly imbalances the immune system and drives chronic inflammation,” explained Ganesh Halade, associate professor in the USF Health Heart Institute in the Morsani College of Medicine and member of the Cancer Biology Program at Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute.
To investigate the connection between bioactive lipids and cancerous tumors, Halade used a highly sensitive analytical technique to detect trace amounts in 162 tumor samples from TGH patients. These tumors were frozen within 30 minutes of removal and transported to his lab. Inside of them, the team “observed an excess number of molecules that promote inflammation and a shortage of those that help resolve it and promote healing.”
With these findings, the researchers believe a path towards a new, natural approach to treating colorectal cancers became clearer. It’s called resolution medicine and it focuses on diet as a way to treat colorectal cancer.
“It is well known that patients with unhealthy diets have increased inflammation in their bodies,” said Dr. Timothy Yeatman, professor of surgery in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and associate center director for Translational Research and Innovation at the TGH Cancer Institute. “We now see this inflammation in the colon tumors themselves, and cancer is like a chronic wound that won’t heal – if your body is living off of daily ultra-processed foods, its ability to heal that wound decreases due to the inflammation and suppression of the immune system that ultimately allows the cancer to grow.”
Yeatman said the new study stresses a real need for changes to the Western diet, especially excessive consumption of added sugars, saturated fats, ultra-processed foods, chemicals and inflammatory seed oils. He said that inflammatory lipids could essentially block the body’s own ability to heal itself.
Resolution medicine calls for reversing inflammation associated with an unbalanced diet by adding unprocessed foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Healthy foods include crab, salmon, halibut, spinach, brussels sprouts, seaweed, algae and grass-fed, pasture-raised meats.
According to USF, early trials now underway at the TGH cancer institute “using specialized derivatives of fish oil have shown promise in addressing inflammation at its root cause.”
“Our bodies are designed to actively resolve inflammation through bioactive lipid compounds derived from the healthy fats, like avocados, that we consume,” Halade added. In addition to dietary adjustments, balanced sleep and exercise are recommended. Yeatman said the research “has the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment, moving beyond drugs to harness natural healing processes,” and that it also indicates ways to prevent chronic inflammation.