Eating vegetable-oil fried foods has same effect on cancer risk as chain-smoking 20 cigarettes

  A delicious plate of fried chicken may be something to look forward to when eating out. However, consuming fried foods has the same cancer risk as chain-smoking 20 cigarettes.

The dangers of fried food arise from the type of oil used to fry them, with vegetable oils being the leading culprit. These oils are extracted from grains, seeds and legumes. Some common examples include canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, grape seed oil, peanut oil, rice bran oil, safflower oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil.

Thus, consuming vegetable oils can increase the risk of cancer – with several studies attesting to it. One study published in BMC Cancer back in 2009 found that mice fed with vegetable oils had four times higher cancer metastasis risk than those fed with avocado and olive oils.

Another study published a decade later found that vegetable oils heated in a deep fryer contributed to a higher risk of cancer. The paper published April 2019 in Cancer Prevention Research scrutinized unheated soybean oil and soybean oil used in repeated frying. Both kinds of oil were fed to mice, and the test subjects were then injected with breast cancer cells.

The authors of the April 2019 paper found that after 20 days, mice given heated soybean oil showed a four-fold increase in metastasis compared to those given unheated oil. Moreover, mice given heated soybean oil developed multiple tumors in their bodies.

“We conclude that breast cancer metastasis in this model is at least in part promoted by chemical alterations arising from heating dietary oils to frying temperatures,” the study authors wrote.

A third study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, also from 2019, zoomed in on the practice of reusing vegetable oil for frying. The paper found that large consumption of reheated vegetable oil for cooking “has been associated with a number of malignancies, including lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers.”

One fried meal may not do much, but repeated ones do

Vegetable oils – which are less expensive compared to traditional fats such as coconut oil, olive oil, lard and ghee (clarified butter) – have established themselves in the modern diet.

According to top nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman, the increased consumption of hydrogenated vegetable oils represents the single largest increase in any type of food over the last century. Based on estimates, Americans now consume 100,000 times more vegetable oils than they did in the year 1900.

Vegetable oils contain highly inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. These unsaturated fats in vegetable oils tend to oxidize when exposed to intense heat, such as in frying. These then increase the risk of inflammation in the body.

Hydrogenated oils, also called trans-fats, are extremely problematic. Common examples of these include the partially hydrogenated oils found in margarine and butter substitutes.

As a result of the hydrogenation process, these oils have an altered molecule structure which makes them indigestible and toxic to human cells. According to studies, trans-fats drive up inflammation and increase the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.  

Oils made from genetically modified (GM) crops should likewise be avoided. Foods undergo genetic modification to make them more tolerant to chemical exposure, contaminating them with pesticides and herbicides.

One example of an herbicide is the cancer-causing glyphosate. Many crops used for vegetable oil are often genetically manipulated to tolerate this chemical.

While there are services that list down restaurants using healthy oils in their menu items. However, they can often be unreliable – so the change often starts at home.

Lower-quality vegetable oils should be ditched and replaced with better alternatives such as butter, ghee, olive oil and coconut oil. Animal fats such as lard and tallow can also be used; they can easily be made at home, too.