The Food Ingredient That May Lead To Cancer

Carl Lowe | Mar 07, 2013 | Comments 0

It’s in your chips. It’s probably in your pizza. It’s in your margarine. And when scientists feed lab animals a diet rich in this ingredient, it increases their risk of pancreatic cancer.

Research at UCLA shows that our meals high in corn oil represent a destructive recipe leading to obesity and cancer.

“Our results showed that in mice, a diet high in fat and calories led to obesity and metabolic disturbances such as insulin resistance that are seen in obese humans. It also greatly enhanced pancreatic inflammation and pancreatic cancer development,” says researcher Guido Eibl, M.D., an associate professor in the department of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The study showed that 90 percent of lab animals fed a diet filled with corn oil became obese. All developed insulin resistance and inflammation in the pancreas. Both of these conditions can stimulate the growth of precancerous cells and cancer. The animals also developed significantly more advanced precancerous lesions than did mice fed a normal diet.