Diet and Cancer
- New research linking palm oil to the spread of cancer is gaining traction, but our experts say there's no need to discard palm oil products.
- The study, which was conducted with mice, found that palm oil could be playing a harmful role inside our bodies allowing certain kinds of cancer to spread, or metastasize, easily, specially mouth and skin cancers.
- If this study is alarming to you and you're tempted to throw away all your palm oil products, don't, as it could have an effect on your diet. And cancer patients need as much nutrition as possible.
"Would I throw out everything in the pantry with palmitic acid? No," Dr. Andrea Tufano-Sugarman, a physician and hematology and oncology fellow at NYU Langone Health, tells SurvivorNet.
Read MorePalm Oil Study
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine conducted the research, which was published in Nature, and found that palm oil could be playing a harmful role inside our bodies allowing certain kinds of cancer to spread, or metastasize, easily, especially mouth and skin cancers.We can see how this research might catch the attention of most people, considering palm oil is in all our favorite foods. In fact, more than half of all packaged products that people in the United States consume contain palm oil. So why do our experts think this isn't something you need to worry about? Well, the study was conducted on mice.
In a statement released about the study, Dr. Salvador Aznar-Benitah, a Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) researcher at IRB Barcelona, details that in 2017, they released a study indicating that palm oil correlates with increased risk of metastasis, "but we didn't know the mechanism responsible for this."
"In this study, we detail the process and reveal the involvement of a metastatic capacity 'memory' factor and we point to a therapeutic approach to reverse it. This is promising," he adds.
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However, our experts disagree.
"This is alarming information … for mice!" says Dr. Tufano-Sugarman, who is also a medical fellow at SurvivorNet. "These types of things do not always translate into human studies. I have a hard time imagining how they would design a similar study in human patients."
Diet and Cancer
If this study is alarming to you and you're tempted to throw away all your palm oil products, don't, as it could have an effect on your diet. And cancer patients need as much nutrition as possible.
"I imagine that many patients with metastatic cancer would be interested in adopting a strict diet if they thought it would help their cancer," Dr. Tufano-Sugarman says. "Unfortunately, cancer is a metabolically-active process that burns calories, and many patients with metastatic disease have decreased appetite, gastrointestinal issues, fluid accumulation causing early satiety, and other reasons for unintentional weight loss," she continues.
"I fear that this type of information would cause some patients to adopt stringent diets when they need calories and nutrition the most."
Sugar, the Western Diet and Cancer Prevention
What do we know about the relationship of diet to cancer? We don't want a person with cancer to feel guilty about what they eat, and suspect their diet history is what landed them with a diagnosis. Because of this, it's important to note that what scientists call "the totality of the evidence" does not support the conclusion that one food or one way of eating caused anyone's cancer.
However, there is some evidence relating diet to cancer risk. Heavy alcohol consumption is known to increase the risk of a number of cancers. Maintaining a healthy weight is also important to keep in mind. Obesity has been linked to several cancers, as well.
"That said, limiting processed foods and high sugar foods is always a good idea," Dr. Tufano-Sugarman says. There are a number of studies showing a protective effect of (the) Mediterranean diet, and some data on diets heavy in red meat being associated with increased cancer."
"So for those reasons, my family and I try to focus on meals with fresh ingredients such as vegetables and lean meats as much as possible, and keep the other items to a minimum."
And since our Western diet has led to our current obesity epidemic, it's a good idea to maintain a diet that incorporates more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins, and less sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar.
Contributing: SurvivorNet staff
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