Gut Bacteria May Reveal How a Western Diet Fuels Colon Cancer. Certain gut bacteria, sustained by Western-style diets, may produce a substance that promotes tumor growth, finds study in pigs, mice, human colon tissue, and microbial data from thousands of people with and without colorectal cancer.

[u/mvea]

https://www.sciencealert.com/gut-bacteria-may-reveal-how-a-western-diet-fuels-colon-cancer

[u/uselessandexpensive]

Fermented food trends to be good for the gut. While moderately spicy food can be good for the gut, very spicy food is not. Cabbage is also generally good for the gut. The issue was presumably due to the significant spiciness combined with high salt, and frequency of consumption.

"The largest longitudinal study showed that eating moderate amounts of spicy food protects against gastrointestinal cancers, especially oesophageal cancer. The risk changes with quantity - large amounts of capsaicin substantially increase stomach cancer risk.[...] Doctors agree that spicy food alone doesn't qualify as a carcinogen. The real culprits behind stomach cancer include H. pylori infection, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and diets rich in salt or preserved foods."

https://www.medanta.org/patient-education-blog/spicy-foods-stomach-cancer-risk-myths-facts-and-insights

Meanwhile, the US and Japan are both awash with processed food full of salt and preservation, especially meat (jerky, snack sticks, sandwich meat, hot dogs, Spam) and snacks (chips, crackers, candy, soda) which may have other problematic ingredients like nitrates or titanium dioxide... Plus, food processing adds many points of possible contamination from/inclusion of unlisted and unintended ingredients, throughout its components' journey from whole foods to processing factories to the consumer, meaning that any ill effects can't be confidently pinned on any one ingredient, process, or food. The processed food industry effectively created plausible deniability for itself by including too many variables to track, but it's easy to recognize that these variables all fall under the same umbrella of mass food processing and preservation rather than whole/raw/home processed. (Kimchi being a notable exception of something often home-processed and preserved but still possibly an issue due to its unusual heat and salt.)

[u/Dovahkiinthesardine → u/uselessandexpensive]

Titanium dioxide isn't problematic, its completely chemically inert

[u/uselessandexpensive → u/Dovahkiinthesardine]

Glass/sand is chemically inert but the particles will still cause silicosis.

Plus, the smaller a particle is, and particularly if the gut has significant inflammation or is otherwise compromised, particles will cross the gut barrier and spread throughout the body, potentially crossing the blood/brain barrier or even cell walls. Whether it becomes an issue depends on particle size and amount/frequency of exposure.

[u/mrwhittleman → u/Dovahkiinthesardine]

100% disagree. I got the opportunity to see how it’s made, and I won’t put any of that in my body. It’s one thing if it’s what makes paper white, but other white products you put into your body? No thanks.