High Fat Diets and Vitamin C Create Carcinogens

Vitamin C is very high in antioxidants and may offer anti-cancer properties. Most people think that you can simply add vitamin C to your diet via food or supplements to receive anti-cancer benefits, but, according to a recent study, vitamin C mixed with dietary fats can produce carcinogenic compounds in the stomach.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Glasgow, was shared at the annual Society of Experimental Biology in Glasgow. What they found was vitamin C mixed with dietary fat produces carcinogenic N-nitrosamine, while reducing the antioxidant properties of vitamin C.

Basically, if you are eating a high fat, highly processed meat and dairy diet, taking vitamin C will not help add antioxidants to your diet, but will instead add carcinogenic compounds that can lead to stomach cancer. This happens when nitrate combines with stomach acids. Usually vitamin C hinders this process, but when mixed with dietary fats it does not.

The lesson I take from this is keep my fat intake to a healthy minimum, to avoid saturated fat and to get more monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat.