You have no doubt been advised to use an unsaturated cooking oil such as canola oil for heart health, but did you know the switch may also protect you from getting colon cancer? A new study from the South Dakota State University finds that canola oil reduces the size and incidence of colon tumors in laboratory animals.
Canola oil is made by crushing the seeds of a hybrid plant developed in Canada in the early 1970’s involving black mustard, leaf mustard, and turnip rapeseed. Interestingly, the name canola comes from the term “Canadian oil, low acid.”
Distinguished professor Chandradhar Dwivedi, head of SDSU’s Department of Pharmaceutical
Sciences, and colleagues compared the effects of canola oil and corn oil in laboratory Fischer rats. Canola oil was found to inhibit the average number of tumors per rate by 58% compared to corn oil, and inhibited the size of the tumors that did occur by 90%.
The study, “Chemopreventive Effects of Dietary Canola Oil on Colon Cancer Development”, is published in the February 2011 issue of the journal Nutrition and Cancer.
According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, colon cancer causes more deaths than any other form of cancer in men and women in the United States. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that simple lifestyle changes alone could reduce the number of deaths due to colon cancer by nearly one-fourth.
Canola oil is higher in omega-3 fatty acids than many other cooking oils. These nutrients protect against cancer by inhibiting an enzyme called cyclooxygenase and reducing the syntheses of arachidonic acid, both which are associated with inflammation. Omega 3’s may also protect against cancer by increasing HDL (good) cholesterol. A separate study published in the journal GUT in March 2011 found that when people have higher levels of HDL cholesterol, they had a lower risk of developing cancer over about four years.
Flaxseed oil is actually higher than canola oil in omega 3’s, but is heat sensitive and not suitable for cooking. “The advantage of canola is it can be used for day to day cooking, frying and anything else, in contrast to the flax,” Dwivedi said. “You could not use flax oil for frying. If people start using canola oil, replacing other oils with canola oil, it gives them the advantage of including Omega-3s in their diet.”
In addition to including more omega 3’s in your diet, you can lower your risk of developing colon cancer by getting regular aerobic exercise (30 minutes a day), quitting smoking, eating a low fat, high fiber diet, and maintaining an ideal body weight.
Comments