Does reuse of oil cause cancer?
It's no secret that deep-fried food is dangerous to health. Moreover, the threat is quite real. It is associated with the risk of developing cancer. Most of the concerns are not caused by the products themselves, but by their frying in oil, which has been used many times. Is it really that dangerous?
The latest study in rodents made it possible to establish that heated vegetable oil leads to pathological changes at the cellular level. In mice that eat cooked foods, breast cancer has intensified and began to spread metastases throughout the body. The experiment was carried out by scientists from the University of Illinois. For its implementation, soybean oil was used, which was repeatedly heated. It is used for deep frying in cafes, snack bars and restaurants. The control group consisted of a group of mice that received cold oil. The study lasted 4 months.
Cancer cells were artificially implanted into rodents. The first results were evaluated within 3 weeks.
In mice that received reheated oil, the rate of tumor metastasis increased by 4 times. Moreover, most often, the pathological cells fell into the lungs. Scientists have noticed that they are particularly aggressive [1].
In rodents that received cold oil, metastases were not as widespread and were not overly active.
Experts were interested in the reason for this effect of reheated oil on the body. They came to the conclusion that when the temperature rises, changes in its molecular structure occur. The oil begins to release acrolein. It is a toxic substance that has a carcinogenic effect on the body.
People should remember that all restaurants use oil multiple times. In the best case, the replacement takes place 3-5 times of its application. This is a good reason to skip deep-fried foods. All results were published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
Links to sources
- Thermally Abused Frying Oil Potentiates Metastasis to Lung in a Murine Model of Late-Stage Breast Cancer
