08-10-2026, 09:29 PM
Have you ever heard of melanoma?
Melanoma is a serious type of skin cancer. It develops in the cells that produce melanin, the pigment that gives your skin its color. It can spread to other parts of the body if not detected early.
Now here's something that caught my attention.
In the United States in 1935, the estimated lifetime risk of developing melanoma was about 1 in 1,500.
Today, the American Cancer Society estimates the lifetime risk at about 1 in 33 for White Americans.
That's a huge change.
Sources:
Rigel et al., Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8632084/
American Cancer Society
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/mela...stics.html
We know that UV radiation from sunlight is a major risk factor, especially intense exposure and sunburn.
But there's an interesting part of the story.
You might think that the more time someone spends outdoors, the higher their melanoma risk must be. Yet some studies have found outdoor workers had similar, or sometimes even lower, risk than indoor workers.
That doesn't mean sunlight is harmless.
It suggests that how the body and skin respond to sunlight may matter too.
And this is where diet gets interesting.
During roughly the same period, the type of fat stored in Americans' bodies changed significantly.
Linoleic acid, an omega-6 fat found in soybean, corn, sunflower and similar oils, increased from about 9.1% of body-fat fatty acids in 1959 to 21.5% in 2008.
That's roughly a 136% increase.
Source:
Guyenet & Carlson, Advances in Nutrition (2015)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4642429/
Does this prove that seed oils caused the increase in melanoma?
No.
But researchers have found that dietary fats can affect how skin responds to UV radiation.
Human studies have found that omega-3 fats from fish oil can increase resistance to UV-induced redness and affect some inflammatory responses. Animal studies have also found that different dietary fats can change the skin's response to UV damage.
Source:
Experimental Dermatology
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full...11.01294.x
So we have an interesting question:
Could the fats we eat influence how our skin responds to sunlight?
That's very different from claiming that seed oils caused melanoma.
Melanoma has many known and possible risk factors, including UV exposure, sunburn, tanning beds, aging, travel, clothing, screening and changes in diagnosis.
The evidence does not currently prove that seed oils caused the melanoma increase.
But the possibility that diet can influence the skin's response to UV radiation is worth studying.
Instead of arguing about it, researchers could test it directly by comparing different dietary fat patterns under controlled UV exposure and measuring sunburn, inflammation, oxidative stress, DNA damage and precancerous changes.
We've spent decades asking what we should put on our skin.
Maybe it's time to also ask what we're putting into the body that builds it.
Melanoma is a serious type of skin cancer. It develops in the cells that produce melanin, the pigment that gives your skin its color. It can spread to other parts of the body if not detected early.
Now here's something that caught my attention.
In the United States in 1935, the estimated lifetime risk of developing melanoma was about 1 in 1,500.
Today, the American Cancer Society estimates the lifetime risk at about 1 in 33 for White Americans.
That's a huge change.
Sources:
Rigel et al., Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8632084/
American Cancer Society
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/mela...stics.html
We know that UV radiation from sunlight is a major risk factor, especially intense exposure and sunburn.
But there's an interesting part of the story.
You might think that the more time someone spends outdoors, the higher their melanoma risk must be. Yet some studies have found outdoor workers had similar, or sometimes even lower, risk than indoor workers.
That doesn't mean sunlight is harmless.
It suggests that how the body and skin respond to sunlight may matter too.
And this is where diet gets interesting.
During roughly the same period, the type of fat stored in Americans' bodies changed significantly.
Linoleic acid, an omega-6 fat found in soybean, corn, sunflower and similar oils, increased from about 9.1% of body-fat fatty acids in 1959 to 21.5% in 2008.
That's roughly a 136% increase.
Source:
Guyenet & Carlson, Advances in Nutrition (2015)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4642429/
Does this prove that seed oils caused the increase in melanoma?
No.
But researchers have found that dietary fats can affect how skin responds to UV radiation.
Human studies have found that omega-3 fats from fish oil can increase resistance to UV-induced redness and affect some inflammatory responses. Animal studies have also found that different dietary fats can change the skin's response to UV damage.
Source:
Experimental Dermatology
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full...11.01294.x
So we have an interesting question:
Could the fats we eat influence how our skin responds to sunlight?
That's very different from claiming that seed oils caused melanoma.
Melanoma has many known and possible risk factors, including UV exposure, sunburn, tanning beds, aging, travel, clothing, screening and changes in diagnosis.
The evidence does not currently prove that seed oils caused the melanoma increase.
But the possibility that diet can influence the skin's response to UV radiation is worth studying.
Instead of arguing about it, researchers could test it directly by comparing different dietary fat patterns under controlled UV exposure and measuring sunburn, inflammation, oxidative stress, DNA damage and precancerous changes.
We've spent decades asking what we should put on our skin.
Maybe it's time to also ask what we're putting into the body that builds it.