(NaturalHealth365)  Scroll through social media and you’ll likely find seed oils portrayed in a negative light.  Alternative media on the internet is warning of the dangers of these unhealthy oils for good reason – and now, bombshell scientific evidence is backing up these concerns.

Two groundbreaking new studies – one from UCLA and another from the University of South Florida – have uncovered disturbing connections between common seed oils and cancer growth that should alarm every person who cooks with these products.

Editor’s note: Seed oils can even be found at many health food store products.  For example, organic mayonnaise used in prepared foods at the deli counter contain soybean and/or sunflower oil.

UCLA study: Cancer patients who eliminated seed oils saw tumor growth SLOW dramatically

A new study published in the journal of Clinical Oncology followed 100 men with early-stage prostate cancer for a full year.  Researchers at UCLA School of Medicine, led by Dr. William Aronson, found that patients who removed seed oils from their diets while increasing consumption of omega-3 rich foods like salmon demonstrated measurably slower tumor progression compared to those eating a typical Western diet.

“Our findings suggest that something as simple as adjusting your diet could potentially slow cancer growth and extend the time before more aggressive interventions are needed,” explained Dr. Aronson.  The results were striking: men who reduced their intake of fried foods, chips, and baked goods (all high in seed oils) while increasing consumption of fish showed a 15 percent decrease in signs of tumor aggression.  Meanwhile, the control group saw a 24 percent increase in biomarkers indicating cancer aggressiveness.

USF study reveals exactly how seed oils fuel colon cancer growth

Even more alarming, a separate study published in the prestigious journal Gut by researchers at the University of South Florida has uncovered the exact mechanism behind how seed oils may be driving the puzzling rise in colorectal cancer – especially among younger adults.  The research team, led by Timothy Yeatman, professor of surgery at USF, analyzed 81 human colorectal cancer samples and made a disturbing discovery: cancer tissues showed massive imbalances of inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids (abundant in seed oils) with severe deficiencies of cancer-fighting omega-3 compounds.

“We don’t know the full effects of these ultra-processed foods on our body, but we do know that that’s a major thing that’s changed from 1950 onward,” Yeatman told Scientific American.  “Young people today, particularly rural and impoverished people, are being exposed to more of these processed foods than anybody else because they’re cheap and they’re in all the fast-food restaurants.”

The study revealed that colorectal cancer tumors essentially resemble “poorly healed wounds” – chronically inflamed tissues unable to properly resolve inflammation due to what scientists call “defective lipid class switching” – a problem potentially worsened by the overwhelming presence of omega-6 fatty acids from seed oils.

The dangerous mechanism: How seed oils promote cancer development

Both studies point to a similar mechanism behind seed oils’ potential cancer-promoting effects: their extraordinarily high omega-6 fatty acid content creates an inflammatory environment in the body’s tissues.

This matters enormously because inflammation doesn’t just cause discomfort – it directly damages cellular DNA and creates the precise physiological environment where cancer cells thrive.  The linoleic acid abundant in seed oils appears to trigger inflammatory cascades that essentially fertilize tumors.

“These lipids are believed to be dangerous in two ways – they promote inflammation which helps cancers grow and they prevent the body from fighting the tumors,” explains the research.

The Western diet’s dramatic omega imbalance

Particularly alarming is how drastically American diets have changed over the past century.  The levels of omega-6 fatty acids in human body fat has increased dramatically since the 1950s – precisely tracking with the explosion of seed oil consumption.

“Omega-6 is an essential fatty acid.  You’ve got to have it – but you don’t need it at [a ratio of] 30 times to 1, [compared with omega-3],” Yeatman explained.  “But the problem is we’ve massively overdone the amount of seed oil in foods.”  This dramatic shift correlates with rising cancer rates that have puzzled clinicians.  The human body simply wasn’t designed to process the overwhelming flood of inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids now present in virtually every processed food product.

How these industrial oils infiltrated the American diet

For decades, seed oils have been marketed as healthier alternatives to traditional fats like butter and coconut oil.  The average American now consumes unprecedented quantities of these industrial oils through processed foods, restaurant meals, and home cooking – with potentially devastating consequences for cellular health.

“Seed oils are inexpensive, but the consequence of that is: they’re in almost everything we eat that comes packaged,” notes Yeatman.  “If you go to the store and get bread off the shelf that hasn’t been baked by a local bakery, you’ll find there’s a whole list of ingredients in that bread that are hard to even recognize…, and one of them is generally soybean oil.  It’s in everything: bread, chips, hummus, salad dressing, cookies, cakes, pies.”  Particularly problematic are the most common seed oils found in processed foods:

• Soybean oil (by far the most consumed in America)
• Corn oil
• Sunflower oil
• Canola oil (rapeseed)
• Cottonseed oil
• Safflower oil

Protecting yourself: Strategic steps to reduce seed oil exposure

Eliminating seed oils requires vigilance but offers potentially significant health benefits based on the latest research.  Both the UCLA and USF studies suggest that reducing inflammatory oil intake may help reduce cancer risk and slow progression in those already diagnosed.

Take these practical steps immediately:

• Replace cooking oils with stable, traditional fats like olive oil, avocado oil, grass-fed butter, or ghee
• Read ingredient labels carefully – seed oils hide in virtually all processed foods
• Choose 100% grass-fed beef instead of corn-fed beef, which contains significantly higher omega-6 levels
• Increase consumption of anti-inflammatory omega-3 sources like wild-caught salmon, sardines, and pastured eggs
• Prepare more meals at home where you control the ingredients

As Yeatman concludes:  “Not everybody with seed oil exposure will probably suffer a problem from it.  But I think there’s some link there … Someone needs to prove that seed oils, taken in the excess amounts they’re given to us, are truly safe.  And that hasn’t been proven yet to me, so I think the default should be reduce them until you know.”

Sources for this article include:

Dailymail.co.uk
Scientificamerican.com
Gut.bmj.com