Common Food Additive Promotes Colon Cancer in Mice.

Common Food Additive Promotes Colon Cancer in Mice. Colon cancer is on the rise in younger people according to New York Times , with a sharp increase in people in their 20s and 30s. What's causing the spike? One finding suggests a super common food additive found in thousands of foods could be a 'new' colon cancer trigger. A popular food additive used in everything from dill pickles to ice cream is now linked to colon cancer.Emulsifiers are added to most processed foods to improve food texture and extend shelf life. But it also throws off healthy levels of intestinal bacteria, triggering chronic, low-level inflammation that promotes colorectal cancer, according to a new study. For this study, researchers focused on two of the most commonly used emulsifiers called polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulose. They fed mice doses comparable to the cumulative amounts people would eat daily in processed foods. Consuming emulsifiers drastically changed the species composition of the gut microbiota in a manner that made it more pro-inflammatory, creating a niche favoring cancer induction and development, researchers pointed out. Alterations in bacterial species resulted in bacteria expressing more flagellin and lipopolysaccharide, which activate pro-inflammatory gene expression by the immune system. more