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Summary A high intake of polyunsaturated fat in the diet may lead to inflammatory bowel disease.
Experts believe a high intake of linoleic acid, found in foods like “healthy” margarines, may be implicated in a third of ulcerative colitis cases. The researchers base their findings, due to be published in Gut, on food diaries from more than 200,000 people.If the link proves to be causal, some people might want to modify their diet. The researchers also found that a diet rich in another type of fat, omega 3 fatty acid found in oily fish such as salmon and herring, reduced the likelihood of developing ulcerative colitis by 77%.Linoleic acid is a naturally occurring essential fatty acid, present in a variety of foods, including the oils of seeds and nuts, such as sunflower, safflower, soya, corn seeds or walnut oils.The multinational team working on the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study says there is a plausible biological mechanism that could explain why linoleic acid is linked with this bowel condition.
