It’s chilling: more and more young adults are being diagnosed with Colorectal cancer — and diet may be a major reason why. A large study found that women under 50 who ate high amounts of ultra-processed food had 45% higher odds of developing precancerous colon polyps compared with those who ate far fewer. Harvard Gazette+1
If you’re reading this, you’re likely building your career, building your future — and the last thing you want is a buried health risk pulling you off track. Here’s the one thing you can begin doing today: ditch the cheap seed-oil heavy fried/processed food habit and cook with better oils.
Why this matters
Ultra-processed foods — think fast-food fries, packaged snacks, fried sauces, breaded stuff — often use seed oils loaded with omega-6 fats. These fats oxidize easily under heat and can fuel chronic inflammation and gut-lining damage. That’s the context of the colon cancer rise.
The danger isn’t just the sugar or the packaging. It’s the oils.
The Omega-6 Problem
Most ultra-processed foods are cooked in or built with high omega-6 seed oils — oils that oxidize fast under heat and stress your gut’s lining.
Common examples:
- Soybean oil
- Corn oil
- Sunflower oil
- Cottonseed oil
- Safflower oil
- Any bottle labeled “vegetable oil”
Omega-6 isn’t evil. You need some.
The issue is dose + heat.
Your body isn’t built for the flood of omega-6 that comes from fried food, fast food, packaged snacks, and restaurant cooking oils. When overheated, these oils form oxidized compounds your gut hates — and inflammation becomes your daily background noise.
Young adults are paying the price.
The Switch That Pays Off Fast
You don’t need a nutrition degree.
You don’t need to go paleo.
You need a new cooking oil strategy.
Use these instead:
- Light/refined olive oil for everyday cooking (cheap, low omega-6, works for most heat levels).
- Avocado oil for high heat (searing, roasting, air-frying).
- Butter or ghee for flavor + stability.
- Coconut oil if you like the taste and want a near-zero-omega-6 option.
What to do
Switch out your oil game:
- Use olive oil for dressings, sautéing, moderate heat — low omega-6, high value.
- For high heat (roasting, searing) use avocado oil — heat stable, lower risk profile.
- Avoid “vegetable oil / seed-oil” blends used in restaurants and cheap processed food.
- Focus more on real food — whole ingredients, less packaging.
The transformation
It should start feeling like a trade-off: cheap fried snack now = hidden risk later, versus a simple, clean home meal = better health stake in your future. You’re not sacrificing taste or convenience; you’re choosing a longer lifetime of good health.
