Oil fumes cause lung cancer, cooking oil is crucial!

In China's long history of food cooking, frying, stir-frying, boiling, deep-frying, braising, and a variety of cooking methods have created a fertile soil for food. In the delicious braised pork, squirrel fish, and other well-known recipes, cooking oil has always been an indispensable kitchen item.

Source: Pixabay

The combination of simple ingredients creates an alluring flavor of home, but behind the delicious taste, some Chinese cooking methods produce a lot of fumes, which put people at risk of cancer.

1

Characteristics and risks of lung cancer

Lung cancer originates in the bronchial mucosal epithelium and can spread to the bronchi and adjacent lung tissues, and metastasize through the lymph nodes and blood. In the early stages, there are generally no obvious clinical symptoms, only general respiratory disease symptoms such as cough, low fever, chest tightness, etc.

Source: Good Morning Health-Talkative

In addition to these confusing features, some extrapulmonary manifestations may also be present:

Bone and joints. Lung cancer cells produce certain endocrine hormones, antigens, and enzymes, which act on the bones and joints, causing bone and joint pain and clubbing of the fingertips.

Source: Life Times

Shoulder and back pain. Peripheral lung cancer often develops backward, involving the chest wall and ribs, causing shoulder and back pain. At the same time, these patients rarely have respiratory symptoms.

Hoarseness. Metastatic lesions of lung cancer in the mediastinal lymph nodes compress the laryngeal nerves, thus causing hoarseness.

Source: Shanghai Red Cross Society

Since the 1950s, lung cancer has gradually become the leading cause of death from malignant tumors. According to statistics, there are 36 countries and regions where lung cancer ranks first among malignant tumors. According to statistics, taking Liaoning Province in the north as an example, among urban cancer deaths, 33% of males and 31.2% of females are caused by lung cancer. The survival period of lung cancer is very short. In China, the five-year survival period of lung cancer patients is only about 20%.

2

Causes of lung cancer

After years of epidemiological research, people generally understand several common causes of lung cancer, such as smoking, passive smoking, air pollution, occupational history, residential history (coal stove heating or brazier heating), diet (saturated fat, high-temperature processing of red meat), etc. At the same time, there is another reason that has attracted the attention of many researchers - cooking history.

In China, frying, stir-frying and deep-frying are common cooking methods, so oil smoke is almost unavoidable. Although range hoods have been constantly updated, some range hoods are too loud, or chefs think it is unnecessary to turn on the range hood for some simple dishes. The use of range hoods is not so common, not to mention that most tenants living in lofts now use induction cookers to simply cook food, and do not have range hoods at all.

The research team of Nankai University found through investigation in Nanjing city that kitchen fumes are a common risk factor for squamous cell lung cancer and adenocarcinoma (two major types of lung cancer). Through data comparison, it was found that rapeseed oil and soybean oil heated to 270-280℃ (roughly the oil temperature range for daily cooking) have obvious carcinogenic effects, but peanut oil and lard have no obvious carcinogenic effects.

You must choose the right oil

Source: Internet

3

The risks of kitchen fumes

What specific factors lead to the emergence of carcinogens?

This still has to start with the composition of the oil itself. Oil is composed of a variety of organic compounds, the main component of which is fatty acid glyceride, which accounts for more than 90% of the oil. Ordinary cooking oil undergoes a variety of chemical reactions under high-temperature cooking, which changes the composition and properties of the oil. Studies have found that the fumes produced during cooking can cause lipid peroxidation, leading to damage to human lung function and human immune function, causing chromosome damage, and ultimately increasing the risk of lung cancer.

Source: "Risk Assessment of Volatile Organic Compounds in Restaurant Fumes"

LCR is the lifetime carcinogenic risk, SF is the carcinogenic slope factor of the pollutant, and CDIca is the exposure to carcinogenic pollutants.

Further experiments have shown that there is a greater risk of cancer in humans

Source: "Risk Assessment of Volatile Organic Compounds in Restaurant Fumes"

To be more specific, animal experiments and analyses of four common kitchen fume components showed that 1,3-butadiene poses a greater potential carcinogenic risk and benzene poses a carcinogenic risk.

However, there is good news: studies have found that eating large amounts of fresh vegetables and fruits can effectively reduce the risk of lung cancer, and this protective effect is higher in women than in men.

Therefore, we must not ignore the cancer risks in the family, pay more attention to those family members who cook, buy good range hoods, reduce unhealthy cooking methods, and reduce the harm of this "killer" of oil fumes to us.

Audit expert: Zhang Jianwei

Deputy Chief Physician, Department of Oncology, Seventh Medical Center, PLA General Hospital