Recent research connects the Western diet to higher risks of colorectal cancer via chronic inflammation, proposing a shift to natural, anti-inflammatory foods for better health outcomes.
Ultra-processed foods may be driving colorectal cancer, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute uncovered a potential link between the Western diet – dominated by ultra-processed foods and unhealthy oils – and the chronic inflammation that fuels tumor growth.
Funded by a five-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the researchers have already made significant progress in understanding colorectal cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. The project’s first study, recently published in the journal Gut, examines how processed foods may impair the body’s natural healing processes.
The Role of Inflammation in Colorectal Cancer
“It is well known that patients with unhealthy diets have increased inflammation in their bodies,” said Dr. Timothy Yeatman, a renowned physician-scientist and professor of surgery in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and associate center director for Translational Research and Innovation at the TGH Cancer Institute. “We now see this inflammation in the colon tumors themselves, and cancer is like a chronic wound that won’t heal – if your body is living off of daily ultra-processed foods, its ability to heal that wound decreases due to the inflammation and suppression of the immune system that ultimately allows the cancer to grow.”
Impact of the Western Diet
According to Yeatman, the findings emphasize the urgent need to reevaluate the components of the Western diet, which typically consists of excessive consumption of added sugars, saturated fats, ultra-processed foods, chemicals, and inflammatory seed oils. In previous studies, the USF Health Heart Institute found an imbalanced diet not only impacts colorectal cancer but also plays a role in other diseases, including Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions.
Bioactive Lipids and Inflammation
“Our bodies are designed to actively resolve inflammation through bioactive lipid compounds derived from the healthy fats, like avocados, that we consume,” said Ganesh Halade, associate professor in the USF Health Heart Institute and a member of the Cancer Biology Program at TGH Cancer Institute. “Bioactive lipids are very small molecules derived from the foods that we eat and, if the molecules are coming from processed food products, they directly imbalance the immune system and drive chronic inflammation.”
Analyzing Tumor Lipids for Cancer Research
While the molecules are difficult to detect, Halade used a highly sensitive analytical technique to identify trace amounts of lipids in 162 tumor samples from patients at Tampa General Hospital. The tumors were frozen within 30 minutes of removal and transported to his lab via USF and TGH Cancer Institute’s Biobank, in collaboration with USF Health Colorectal Surgery and the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at TGH Cancer Institute.
Toward a Natural Healing Approach: Resolution Medicine
Inside the tumors, the team observed an excess number of molecules that promote inflammation and a shortage of those that help resolve it and promote healing. These findings pave the way for a new, natural approach — resolution medicine — which focuses on restoring balance in the patient’s diet to treat colorectal cancer more effectively.
“A human’s immune system can be extremely powerful and drastically impact the tumor microenvironment, which is great if harnessed correctly for health and wellness,” Yeatman said. “But not if it’s suppressed by inflammatory lipids from processed foods.”
Resolution medicine would focus on reversing inflammation using healthy, unprocessed foods rich with omega-3 fatty acids and derivatives of fish oil called “specialized pro-resolving mediators” to restore the body’s healing mechanisms along with balanced sleep and exercise.
“This has the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment, moving beyond drugs to harness natural healing processes,” Yeatman said. “It’s a vital step toward addressing chronic inflammation and preventing diseases before they start.”
Early trials using specialized derivatives of fish oil have shown promise in addressing inflammation at its root cause. The trials are underway at TGH Cancer Institute, and the team will continue studying resolution medicine and its impact on patient treatment and disease prevention.
Examples of Foods to Include and Avoid
Examples of healthy, unprocessed foods: crab, salmon, halibut, spinach, brussels sprouts, seaweed, algae and grass-fed, pasture-raised meats, etc.
Examples of ultra-processed foods: ice cream, sausages, chips, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, doughnuts, carbonated drinks, instant soups, some alcoholic drinks, etc.
This research was performed in collaboration with national and international partners at Moffitt Cancer Center, Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Merck Research Laboratories in Boston, Florida Digestive Health Specialists in Bradenton and Hokkaido University in Japan.
Reference: “Integration of lipidomics with targeted, single cell, and spatial transcriptomics defines an unresolved pro-inflammatory state in colon cancer” by Ramani Soundararajan, Michelle M Maurin, Jetsen Rodriguez-Silva, Gunjan Upadhyay, Ashley J Alden, Siddabasave Gowda B Gowda, Michael J Schell, Mingli Yang, Noah Jhad Levine, Divyavani Gowda, Punith M Sundaraswamy, Shu-Ping Hui, Lance Pflieger, Heiman Wang, Jorge Marcet, Carolina Martinez, Robert David Bennett, Allen Chudzinski, Andreas Karachristos, Timothy M Nywening, Paul M Cavallaro, Matthew Linley Anderson, Robert J Coffey, Michael V Nebozhyn, Andrey Loboda, Domenico Coppola, Warren Jackson Pledger, Ganesh Halade and Timothy J Yeatman, 10 December 2024, Gut.
DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2024-332535
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2 Comments
How can a study on the gut not include bacterial analysis of the gut microbiome, which is certainly affecting the lipid balance in the colon? Lots of new research is showing the intimate and powerful association of the microbiome of the intestines and overall health. No study on human nutrition or gastroenterology should exclude an analysis, or at least discussion, of the effect of the microbiome.
See my article, Why Nutrition Research is Unreliable. https://www.academia.edu/126067247/Why_Nutrition_Research_is_Unreliable
In principle I agree with the article. Ultraprocessed food is indeed bad for us.
That being said, I’d remove spinach from the “healthy” list. It’s high in oxalates and it stores in the organs in the form of oxalate crystals which can cause all kinds of tissue damage and pain. Or something like that. You might wanna check it for correct info. But in any case it’s bad for you.