Sugar Feeds Cancer

cancercompass♦ May 16, 2012♦

Cancer feeds on sugar. This is why a radioactive glucose (sugar) dye is injected into your body to perform a PET scan to check for cancer. Cancer cells will utilize the sugars in the glucose and the scan will reveal where the dye has concentrated, thus showing a growth or changes in tumor size.
In his book ‘Anticancer’, David Servan-Schreiber MD, PhD, writes in regards to sugar, “when we eat sugar, or white flour, or foods with a high ‘glycemic index’, the blood levels of glucose rise rapidly. The body immediately releases a dose of insulin to enable the glucose to enter the cells. The secretion of insulin is accompanied by the release of another molecule, called IGF (insulin-like growth factor), whose role it is to stimulate cell growth. He writes that “insulin and IGF not only stimulate the growth of cancer cells, but also their capacity to invade neighboring tissues.” Furthermore, insulin and IGF have another effect: “They promote the factors of inflammation, which also stimulates cell growth, and acts in turn as fertilizer for tumors.”

A recent study makes this point very clear. It involved mice that had been inoculated with breast cancer cells, to show the effects that sugar would have on tumor growth as it compared varying glycemic indices. After two and one half months, 16 of the 24 mice whose blood sugar peaked frequently were dead, compared to only 1 of the 20 of the mice that had been fed a low glycemic diet.

The above experiment clearly demonstrates that tumor growth and sugar consumption goes hand in hand. Unfortunately in the U.S., most cancer patients are sent home with diet plans that encourage them to increase calories with sugar sweetened items like puddings, Jello’s or instant meal replacement shakes. All of these should be considered toxic those with cancer. Take a look at the ingredient listed on meal replacement shakes and you will see that there are several different types of sugar foremost on this list, along with unhealthy fats, do not use them if you have cancer.

Here in American, most of us are consuming too much sugar. If you drink soda, you could be consuming up to 40 grams of sugar in an 8 oz serving. And how many people only drinking 8 oz. Statistics say that Americans are eating a whopping 150lbs of refined sugar/high fructose corn syrup every year and our bodies weren’t designed to deal with that constant barrage of sugar. Sugars found in processed foods include:

• white or brown sugars
• high fructose corn syrup
• glucose
• polydextrose
• maltodextrin
• sucrose
• maltose
• dextrose
• fructose
• sugar cane
• beet sugar
• lactose (dairy sugar)

Try to limit your consumption of these products and the processed foods which contain them. Enriched white flour will have the same effect as white sugar on your body. Eating whole grains instead, along with other complex carbohydrates will help to stabilize your blood sugar. There are other ways to sweeten your foods which will not cause the big spike in the glycemic index that refined sugar will do. They are listed below, but the overall goal is to limit your use of all sweeteners as they will still have an effect on your blood sugar levels.

• Stevia: is an herb in the sunflower family that has been used since the1800s. It is sweeter than sugar and has little effect on blood sugar,making it an excellent option for diabetics and those concerned with spikes in blood sugar. Stevia does not feed cancer cells. By replacing refined dietary sugar with Stevia you will eliminate the very ingredient that cancer cells thrive upon.
• Xylitol: is a carbohydrate found in fibrous fruits and vegetables and is also made in our bodies during healthy metabolism. It has fewer calories than sugar, is slowly absorbed in the body and does not require insulin to process in the body. Commercially, xylitol is derived from birch trees, hardwood trees and other vegetation. The real dangers of this substance are to our furry friends. Even small amounts can cause liver failure, seizures and death in dogs.
• Erythritol: is a natural sugar alcohol that is found in fruit and fermented food. It doesn’t taste quite as sweet as sugar, but has few calories (0.2 calories/gram) and doesn’t affect blood sugar. Unlike other sugar alcohols, erythritol is absorbed before hitting the large intestine and doesn’t cause gastrointestinal side effects.

The following options will still cause blood sugar to rise, the only difference is they are less refined and contain some nutritional value.

• sucanat
• maple syrup
• black strap molasses
• raw honey
• date sugar
• rice syrup
• barley malt

10 minute video on David Servan-Schreiber’s cancer research
60 Minutes report with Sanjay Gupta… Is Sugar Toxic
Chart which shows the glycemic index of common sweeteners
Dr Mercola on sugar feeding cancer
Why Agave is not be the best choice to sweeten your food

High Fructose Corn Syrup-Our bodies were already having trouble tolerating the refined sugars we were loading up on, but now they are totally overwhelmed by this toxic syrup found in most processed foods. Removed from its natural matrix (as there is fructose in all fruits) and mixed with glucose, it can no longer be handled by the insulin that our bodies produce, at least not without damage.
Current consumption of high fructose corn syrup is 63 lbs per person/ year, and it is found in almost every processed food on the market. HFCS is much cheaper than sugar so it is an economically-friendly choice for manufactures to use to sweeten their products, however the health risks related to it’s consumption far outweigh any cost benefits.

According to Dr Robert Lustig, MD, UCSF professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, the liver cannot process the high fructose corn syrup so it gets stored as fat in the body. Your brain doesn’t get the message that the body has received energy with HFCS, so it sends the message of continued consumption even though fat cells are already accumulating. This confusion leads to metabolic syndrome and fatty liver disease, and excess uric acid puts one at risk for gout and high blood pressure. Lustig says that although HFCS is considered a carbohydrate it is processed by the body as a fat. Other names for HFCS are: Inulin, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Iso Glucose, Chicory and Fruit Fructose
Dr Robert Lustig’s lecture on high fructose corn syrup