Posted on 08/03/2025 1:12:17 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Obesity elevates the risk of cancer. But it has long been unclear whether these effects stem from the fat in people or from dietary fats they consume.
Now, Lydia Lynch has provided a compelling answer.
"Our study reveals that the source of dietary fat, not adiposity itself, is the primary factor that influences tumor growth in obese mice," said Lynch. "We found that high-fat diets derived from lard, beef tallow or butter compromise anti-tumor immunity and accelerate tumor growth in several tumor models of obese mice. Diets based on coconut oil, palm oil or olive oil, meanwhile, do not have this effect in equally obese mice."
Lynch and others have previously shown obesity induces changes in the immune system and in the microenvironment of tumors that contribute to tumor progression. It does so by impairing the body's cancer surveillance system, undermining the ability of immune cells—namely cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) and natural killer (NK) cells—to infiltrate tumors and, once there, kill their cancerous quarry.
The researchers identified several metabolic intermediates of dietary fats, especially long-chain acylcarnitine species, potently suppress NK cells and CTLs. These metabolites were especially elevated in obese mice reared on butter, lard and beef tallow diets, but not in obese mice on plant-fat diets. They report that in CTLs, the molecules cause deep metabolic dysfunction in organelles known as mitochondria—the powerhouses of cells. This saps anti-tumor CTLs of their vitality, undermines their production of a factor (IFN-γ) critical to their function and disables their cell-killing machinery.
The palm oil-based diet prevented metabolic paralysis in the NK cells of obese mice, apparently by amplifying the activity of a master regulator of cellular metabolism known as c-Myc. The researchers found that Myc expression was reduced in mice fed animal fat—and also in NK cells from people living with obesity.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Natural killer (NK) cells in obese people do have their own dysfunction that interplays with this, it seems.
It will be major news when laboratory mice do not become ill.
It didn’t say ice cream!
Yeah while I understand the “beef” many health gurus and good folks like RFK Jr. have with seed oils (LoL no pun intended) — I don’t think TALLOW is the solution!
What garbage! PUFAs are the biggest scourge on the planet!
Maybe some of the vegetable fats are not PUFAs, but I don’t know.
The current consensus is that the “saturated fat is bad for you” is not true.
I thank God every day I’m not an obese mouse.
Who paid for this study?
OK folks …. time to stop feeding beef tallow to your mice!
Palm oil and coconut oil are mostly saturated fat.
I think you need to re-read (or read?) the fat sources involved.
“Study finds animal-based fats fuel tumor growth in obese mice, plant fats do not”
If they think fat affects tumors, they should look at the way cancer cells THRIVE off of carbs (which are sugars, by the time they reach cancer cells).
“The current consensus is that the “saturated fat is bad for you” is not true.”
It’s not even a ‘current consensus’ anymore, it WAS a consensus, but even Big Medical admits there was NEVER any evidence that saturated fat is bad for people, or at least bad for people who did not carb-load at the same time.
The problem is that it takes about 50 years to get rid of a ‘consensus’ that’s been beaten, DAILY, into everyone’s brain for the past 60 years...so yes, most people still think saturated fat is bad for them.
They mention 3 plant fats, all from fruits, and only 2 animal fats, beef and pork.
Yet they repeatedly indicate the generalization that plant fats are healthier than animal fats.
Seems a bit disingenuous. There’s nut/seed/grain plant fats and some cause inflammation throughout the whole body. Minimally processed fats from grass-fed, pasture-raised animals like grass-fed butter, lard from pasture-raised pigs, are rich in beneficial compounds like conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K2), and omega-3s. Then we have fats from fish and birds and crustaceans, etc.
Were these animals given mRNA vaccines? Fed glyphosate soaked plants?
Genco Pura Olive Oil Company. Why do you ask?
1) Were the cattle fattened on soy meal before slaughter? Or were they grass fed? (Probably not the latter.)
2) Do mice normally eat animal fats? They probably eat the grains from which the fats are extracted.
Plant fats cause me awful digestive issues, especially soy. Animal fats do not causep problems. I will eat what I want.
Olive oil is not an issue.
I bet 1/4 of a sugar-sweetened drink does the same thing.
ID/DESCRIBE A “PLANT FAT”
My family has been on these shores for almost 400 years now.
We tend to be a pretty long lived bunch.
I can tell you the last elderly family member who died suddenly and peacefully at home was over 50 years ago.
Now we tend to die earlier, and take a while to do it.
What’s changed?
Primarily our diet.
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