High-fat diet can cause normal liver cells to become cancerous?

High-fat diet can cause normal liver cells to become cancerous? An animal experiment in the Journal of Cancer Research showed that normal non-cancerous liver cells will adopt a metabolic method similar to that of cancer cells after being exposed to a large amount of fat, and long-term high-fat diets are likely to cause hepatocellular cancer to become cancerous.

Professor Sarah-Maria Fendt from the Cancer Biology Center of the University of Leuven in Belgium introduced that the global obesity rate and the incidence of liver cancer are increasing year by year. A high-fat diet can lead to obesity and fatty liver. We need to further confirm its connection with liver cancer and develop prevention Or treatment plan.

The researchers fed a high-fat diet to healthy mice and obese mice with advanced liver cancer to test the metabolic changes in liver tissue. Tumor cells can consume a lot of glucose, which is also known as the “Warburg effect”, and a similar reaction occurs in healthy liver cells. Before healthy mice show any signs of cancer, liver cells metabolize glucose in the same way as tumor cells. Compared with mice on a normal diet in the control group, mice on a high-fat diet eventually had more cancerous cells.

Fendt said that in mice with liver cancer, the researchers also used a glucose sensitivity test. Healthy organisms can quickly metabolize and store excess glucose, and these obese mice with liver cancer are also accompanied by diabetes. Diabetes is supposed to cause glucose metabolism disorders, but these liver cancer mice also smoothly reduced blood glucose levels. Glucose tracing technology proves that whether it is a high-fat diet or a normal diet, tumor cells can quickly break down the ingested glucose.

Molecular biology studies have shown that when liver cells are in contact with a high-fat diet, they will take the alternative approach of peroxisome intracellular lipolysis to metabolize these excess fats to produce energy or store them; on the other hand, liver cancer cells The peroxisome metabolic pathway is also adopted to increase cellular stress and glucose uptake capacity. It can be seen that after normal liver cells are exposed to a large amount of fat, they adopt a metabolic method similar to that of tumor cells in order to increase the ability of glucose metabolism. In the end, this alternative pathway in turn leads to cell cancer. Therefore, high-fat diet and fat accumulation are related to the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Controlling a high-fat diet helps to lose weight, lower blood lipids and protect heart health, as well as prevent cancer. So, which foods are rich in fat? Verywell made a list of high-saturated fat foods, including well-known meats, cheeses, and some daily foods that you did not realize.

First, animal foods are rich in saturated fats, including bacon, beef, butter, breakfast sausages, hot dogs, lamb, pork, as well as processed meats and cold cuts. Therefore, reduce the above meat intake, or choose some lean meat (fat content less than 4.5 g per 100 g) or ultra-lean meat products (fat content less than 2 g per 100 g), or through beans Soy products, soy products, fish, nuts, poultry and other foods replace the above-mentioned meat intake to reduce the fat burden on the liver.

Some dairy products are also rich in saturated fats, including cheese, cream, ice cream, and whole milk. Therefore, we need to be wary of additional dairy products added to food or beverages, such as coffee creamer, butter bread, etc. Therefore, when choosing dairy products, choose “low-fat”, “skimmed” or “partially skimmed” products.

Oils are rich in saturated fats. We don’t drink oil directly, but a lot of salad dressing is added to salads or certain dishes. Others include butter foods, mayonnaise, fried foods, and baked goods that contain a lot of oil. Therefore, when we eat these “healthy foods”, we also unknowingly consume a lot of saturated fat. Changing the way food is made, using less oil-rich sauces, changing frying to baking, and changing frying to steaming can reduce fat intake.

The most vigilant fat is “sugar-free food”, because fat is often used to replace sugar in food; at the same time, general “low-cholesterol” foods are often rich in saturated fat. Therefore, when choosing this kind of healthy-looking processed food, be sure to read its food composition table to see its true fat content.

At present, the American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fat intake to 5% to 6% of total daily caloric intake, which is equivalent to 11 grams to 13 grams of saturated fat. Reducing saturated fat intake requires more effort and restraint, but it is indeed worthwhile in terms of the benefits of preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer.

(source:internet, reference only)

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