I am a physician on the front lines of America’s colon cancer crisis. I believe that two ingredients found in “healthy” foods are to blame.
Dr. Maria Abreu, a gastroenterologist at the University of Miami, indicated that preventing colon cancer should start at an early age
Doctor Maria Abreu is on the eve of one of the biggest health problems of the past generation.
Over the past decade, the Miami gastroenterologist has seen increasing numbers of young people diagnosed with colon cancer, a disease once considered a disease for the elderly.
Obesity, sedentary lifestyles and ultra-processed diets have long been blamed for the rise, but Dr. Abreu says she sees people in their 20s and 30s who eat healthy and stay fit still developing the condition.
She is convinced that there is more to the story.
Dr. Abreu, who is also president of the American Gastroenterological Association, told DailyMail.com that she believes two additives that were common in the 1970s but are rarely discussed in light of the colon cancer crisis are to blame for the increase.
The first is high fructose corn syrup, a liquid sweetener found only in the United States and not used in other countries.
It is most commonly associated with unhealthy foods, such as soft drinks and desserts, but it can now also be found in ‘healthier’ foods, such as salad dressings, oatmeal, fruit juices, breakfast cereals and bread.
High fructose corn syrup is widely used in popular foods because a small amount is incredibly sweet, making it cost-effective for food manufacturers.
The graph above shows the increase in colorectal cancer in Americans under 50 over the past two decades
High fructose corn syrup was introduced in the 1970s as an attempt to stabilize food prices. President Richard Nixon authorized subsidies for corn to encourage farmers to grow more of it.
That surplus led to the development of high-fructose corn syrup, which became cheaper to produce than sugar, and so it ended up everywhere.
The other ingredient is emulsifiers. These are used to give foods a creamy texture and can be found in healthy foods such as low-fat yogurt, cottage cheese and peanut butter.
According to Dr. Abreu, these ingredients wreak havoc on the microbiome, a network of healthy bacteria in our intestines.
When this delicate ecosystem is damaged, we are less able to protect the digestive system from pathogens that irritate our cells and cause inflammation.
Over time, this inflammation can cause premalignant cells to form and multiply rapidly. This process is called proliferation.
Chronic inflammation can also lead to inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, which Dr. Abreu says “significantly” increase the risk of colon cancer.
She notes that the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup and emulsifiers in the 1970s and 1980s could be one possible explanation for why so many adults in their 40s are developing colon cancer in record numbers.
Data shows that more than 50,000 Americans are expected to die from colorectal cancer this year. And for young people, the numbers are expected to double between 2010 and 2030.
Also in people under 50, the number of cases has increased by about two percent per year since the early 2000s.
The US has the sixth highest rate of premature cancers (disease in people under 50), with 87 cases per 100,000 people under 50. Colorectal cancer is one of the fastest rising cases.
Researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City recently looked at colorectal cancer rates in people ages 10 to 44 over the past two decades and found that the number of cases had increased across all age groups.
Colorectal cancer rates increased by 500 percent among children aged 10 to 14 and by 333 percent among teenagers aged 15 to 19.
The figures rose by 71 percent among people aged 30 to 34 to seven cases per 100,000 people. Among people aged 35 to 39, the figures rose by 58 percent to 12 cases per 100,000 people.
Dr Abreu said: ‘Chronic inflammation leads to bowel cancer and I suspect this will have a major impact on the new increase in young people getting bowel cancer.’
She noted that similar effects have also been observed with emulsifiers.
Emulsifiers are common additives that give dairy-free, low-fat, and fat-free foods their combined, creamy texture. Ice cream and cream cheese are some of the most common foods that contain these additives.
Common emulsifiers include soy lecithin, sucralose, xanthan gum, carrageenan, maltodextrin, and polysorbate, all of which are listed on the ingredients list.
Joe Faratzis, 34, of Los Angeles, is pictured above in his 20s before his stage four colon cancer was diagnosed (left) and during treatment that began in 2020 (right).
Dr Abreu said: ‘One of the things that has changed dramatically in our food supply is the addition of emulsifiers.’
A 2021 study published in the Journal of Physiology found that six-week-old mice – comparable to a human teenager – fed a diet high in high-fructose corn syrup underwent “profound” changes to their microbiome.
As for emulsifiers, one Study 2022 found that when mice ate a diet high in emulsifiers, their offspring experienced destruction of their intestinal lining, leading to inflammation. The mice in the experiment were three weeks old, the equivalent of a human baby.
According to Dr. Abreu, this could be because children’s microbiomes are not as diverse and stable as adults’, and additives such as emulsifiers and high-fructose corn syrup may therefore have a greater impact on them than on adults.
To limit both additives, she advises parents to avoid eating ready-made products with flavors or sweeteners and instead add sweeteners or flavors themselves at home.
She uses Greek yogurt as an example.
While the breakfast food contains plenty of healthy bacteria, called probiotics, which help regulate the microbiome, flavored varieties may be sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup.
Dr. Abreu said, “I certainly don’t want to bash yogurt as being bad for you. Yogurt is one of the best things you can buy.
‘Greek yogurt, naturally made, can be a delicious snack for people. But when you start eating things that actually have more sugar and milk than yogurt, it changes our gut bacteria.’
Instead, she recommends buying the plain, unsweetened variety and adding your own toppings, like honey, granola, and fruit, to make it more delicious.
“Even if you add granulated sugar to it, it’s still a lot less sugar than what they added for you,” she said.
‘Homemade food is still much tastier.’
However, other experts are not so sure that all of these additives are bad.
Although high fructose corn syrup has no health benefits, some experts argue that it is not harmful to your health as long as the rest of your diet is balanced.
Daniel Feldman, a registered dietitian in New York, said in an interview with gynecologist Dr. Jen Gunter, “If other aspects of your diet are in order (total calories, macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water), then you don’t need to worry about HFCS.
Laurie Koshers, pictured above with two of her children, was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at age 44. Mrs. Koshers was a lifelong vegetarian and an avid runner, so her cancer diagnosis came as a shock
‘That said, since HFCS is a sweetener found in processed foods, and processed foods tend to be lower in nutritional value and higher in calories than whole foods, foods containing HFCS should generally make up a small portion of your diet (especially if your goal is weight loss).
“But there is nothing inherently bad about HFCS.”
And as for emulsifiers, Abbey Sharp, a dietitian and myth-busting TikTok fan with more than 800,000 TikTok followers, said on TikTok that they’re typically only added to foods in small amounts and haven’t been properly tested in humans.
Regarding both additions, Dr. Abreu said: ‘I think it’s good to make it clear to parents that their children should be exposed to these things as little as possible.
“I believe that colon cancer is preventable. Part of that has to start with getting that message out to parents, because we believe that it starts very early.
“It takes a lifetime to make good choices.”