Study shows new links between high fat diets and colon cancer

MedicalXPress / Arizona State University ^ | Jun 09, 2021 | Miyeko D. Mana et al,

[ConservativeMind]

For decades, physicians and dieticians have urged people to limit their intake of high fat foods, citing links to poor health outcomes and some of the leading causes of death in the U.S., such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

But out of all the risk factors that elevate colon cancer risk, diet is the one environmental and lifestyle factor that might be the easiest to control—simply by changing people's behavior and eating habits—if we know the exact connections.

As foods are broken down and make their way through the gut, they interact with intestinal stem cells (ISC) that lie along the inside surfaces of the gut. These ISCs reside in a series of regularly folded valleys of the gut, called crypts.

ISCs are thought to be the gateway that coordinates intestinal tumor formation when they adapt to high-fat diets, and elevate cancer risk. Within the ISCs are high-fat sensor molecules that sense and react to high-fat diets levels in the cells.

"We were following up on mechanisms that might be required for stem cells to adapt to the high fat diet—and that's where we came across the PPARs," said Mana. These peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (or PPARs) trigger a cellular program that elevates cancer risk, but the mechanisms were unclear because there are multiple types of PPARs, and complexities in teasing out roles.

"When you think about this therapeutically, if you are incorporating a lot of fat into your diet and you want to reduce your risk of colon cancer, targeting two different factors is more challenging then if you are targeting just one."

Their first big clue came from the metabolic analysis. The high fat diet found in the ISC crypt cells they isolated increased the metabolism of fats, while at the same time, decreasing the breakdown of sugars.

[nagant]

Yes. High fat high sugar diets cause health problems. High sugar low fat diets cause health problems. But you never see one of these “studies” which compares high fat low sugar diet outcomes to the outcomes of the other two diets.

There’s a reason for that. It would show that sugar is the problem, not fat.

[Pelham]

I follow a cross of the DASH diet with the Mediterranean diet. It lowers the risk of me suffering a relapse of nephrotic syndrome.

Very low sodium, low fat, no processed meats, heavy on vegetables and fruit. It’s more for health than weight loss but if you increase the green stuff and restrict starches and sugars you can probably accomplish both. It ought to be as good for cardiovascular patients as it is for kidney patients.

[itsahoot]

while compromising their ability to work with sugars.

Which is why people on the Keto (High Fat) diet avoid sugar and their counterpart carbs. In fact it is the only way I can keep blood sugar under 200.

[itsahoot]

(it’s not the sugars/carbs)

Not if you don't mind blood sugar above 200 it isn't.

[caww]

Well, I eat what I like ....so far so good. But I’m not an over eater either. About the same weight throughout my life give or take 5 lbs. So I don’t count anything.