Cancer patients who eliminate seed oil from their diet can slow down their tumors, according to a new study.
By studying 100 men with early-stage prostate cancer for a year, researchers found that those who ate fewer foods with vegetable oil and more foods like salmon had slower-growing cancer than people who ate a normal Western diet.
Seed oils, including canola oil, corn oil, and cottonseed oil, are high in omega-6 fats, which some studies show can increase inflammation, making it easier for cancer. take over your system.
In contrast, the oils found in fish are high in omega-3 fats, which are believed to protect against inflammation and support the immune system.
Dr. William Aronson, a professor of urology at the UCLA School of Medicine who led the study, said: “Our findings suggest that something as simple as adjusting your diet could potentially slow cancer growth and extend the time before it develops.” need more aggressive interventions.
All major American medical bodies say seed oils are safe and not linked to cancer or other diseases.
But public opinion, partly led by figures such as Robert F Kennedy Jr, has been scrutinizing the popular ingredient, saying the oils are “driving the obesity epidemic”.
The new study comes just days after research from the University of South Florida published earlier this week linked seed oils to increased cases of colon cancer in young people.
A study by Florida researchers suggested that seed oils and other ultra-processed foods could trigger inflammation and lead to an increase in colon cancers.
In that study, researchers suggested that fats found in seed oils may promote inflammation, which can damage tissue, facilitating tumor growth.
These lipids are thought to be dangerous in two ways: they promote inflammation that helps cancers grow and they prevent the body from fighting tumors.
Barely 70 percent of patients Patients are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the early stages of the disease, before surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy is necessary.
About 60 percent of them choose to treat their cancer through follow-up, according to the National Cancer Institute.
That means lifestyle changes that can prevent further tumor growth, such as changing diet, may be key.
He American Cancer Society estimates that 299,010 cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 2024, meaning around 201,000 will have early-stage disease that they may choose to monitor, rather than treat.
In the new study, researchers looked at 100 different men with this stage of prostate cancer.
The report, which was published in the journal Clinical Oncology, focused specifically on the types of fat they consumed.
The Western diet is traditionally high in fats called omega-6, which are found naturally in foods such as corn, sunflower seeds and vegetable oils.
American diets are also traditionally low in fats called omega-3s, which are found in fish, walnuts and flax seeds and are considered healthier.
According to the researchers, previous studies on prostate cancer in animals had found that reducing omega-6 intake and increasing omega-3 intake could slow the cancer’s growth rate and become more aggressive.
So they assigned half of the participants to a low-omega-6, high-omega-3 diet, and left the other half to their normal habits.
This included drastically reducing consumption of fried foods, chips and baked goods and consuming foods such as tuna and salmon. They consumed about the same number of calories, with varying amounts of fat and other nutrients.
After a year, they took a sample of their prostate tumors and analyzed them for chemical signs that would give researchers an idea of how much a cancer has grown and changed.
They compared them to measurements taken at the beginning of the trial and found that people who went on the diet had a 15 percent decrease in signs of tumor aggression. So the diet had actually slowed the progression of prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States and has affected celebrities such as Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro. Stiller was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer in 2014 and De Niro was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003.
In comparison, people not following the diet saw a 24 percent increase in the biomarker that suggests cancer aggressiveness.
Therefore, those who consumed an altered amount of these fats were more likely to stop cancer progression than those who consumed a normal Western diet.
Dr Aronson said: “This significant difference suggests that dietary changes may help slow cancer growth, potentially delaying or even preventing the need for more aggressive treatments.”
Still, the researchers said, more research is needed before this link can be confirmed. Generally speaking, dietitians and doctors recommend focusing on eating a balanced diet rather than eliminating one type of food from your diet.
Future research on the topic could provide better information to the hundreds of thousands of American men who are diagnosed with this condition each year, reducing the chance that they will have to undergo painful and expensive treatments such as surgery.
Dr Aronson said: “This is an important step towards understanding how diet can potentially influence prostate cancer outcomes.”