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Cancer's Favorite Food -
Found in Everything You Eat?
Posted By Dr. Mercola | August
27 2010
Restricting Fructose Consumption is a Crucial Part
of a Comprehensive Cancer Treatment
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Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate,
according to a study that challenges the notion that all sugars are the same.
Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways. This could explain why other
studies have previously linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.
According to MSNBC:
"Americans take in large amounts of fructose,
mainly in high fructose corn syrup, a mix of fructose and glucose that is used in soft drinks, bread and a range
of other foods. Politicians, regulators, health experts and the industry have debated whether high fructose corn
syrup and other ingredients have been helping make Americans fatter and less healthy."
Are all sugars equal in terms of the health effects they produce?
Sooner or later, science will put this debate to rest once and for all. It's
already been conclusively shown that fructose, most commonly consumed in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS),
is FAR more hazardous to your health than regular sugar,
but the corn industry still vehemently denies such claims.
Through successful PR campaigns, industry has managed to pull the wool over your eyes for some time now, but eventually
even they will have to surrender to the scientific evidence...
Until then, propaganda machines like the Corn
Refiners Association's site, SweetSurprise.com, will continue telling you that "research confirms that high fructose corn syrup is safe and no different from other common
sweeteners like table sugar and honey. All three sweeteners are nutritionally the same,"
and that "though the individual sugars are metabolized by different pathways, this is of little consequence
since the body sees the same mix of sugars from caloric sweeteners, regardless of source."
But are these metabolic differences of little consequence?
Far from it!
Fructose Speeds Up Cancer
Growth
Research just published in the journal Cancer Research shows
that the way the different sugars are metabolized (using different metabolic pathways) is of MAJOR consequence
when it comes to feeding cancer and making it proliferate.
According to the authors:
" Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different... These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation."
In this case, the cancer cells used were pancreatic cancer, which is typically regarded as the most deadly and
universally rapid-killing form of cancer.
The study confirms the old adage
that sugar feeds cancer because they found that tumor cells do thrive on sugar (glucose). However, the cells used fructose for cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer.
If this difference isn't of major consequence, then I don't know what is.
Whether you're simply interested in preventing cancer, or have cancer and want to live longer, you ignore these
facts and listen to industry propaganda at your own risk.
How Does Sugar Feed Cancer?
Controlling your blood-glucose and insulin levels through
diet, exercise and emotional stress relief can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program.
These factors are also crucial in order to prevent cancer in the first place.
It may surprise you, but the theory that sugar
feeds cancer was born nearly 80 years ago.
Even more shocking, most conventional
cancer programs STILL do not adequately address diet and the need to avoid sugars.
In 1931 the Nobel Prize was awarded to German
researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, who first discovered
that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells.
Malignant tumors tend to use a process where
glucose is used as a fuel by the cancer cells,
creating lactic acid as a byproduct.[i] The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose
from cancer cells is then transported to your liver. This conversion of glucose to lactic acid generates a lower,
more acidic pH in cancerous tissues as well as overall physical fatigue from lactic acid buildup.[ii] [iii]
This is a very inefficient pathway for energy metabolism, which extracts only about 5 percent of the available
energy in your food supply. In simplistic terms, the cancer is "wasting" energy, which leads you to become
both tired and undernourished, and as the vicious cycle continues, will lead to the body wasting so many cancer
patients experience.
Additionally, carbohydrates from glucose and sucrose significantly decreases the capacity of neutrophils to do
their job. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that help cells to envelop and destroy invaders, such as
cancer.
In a nutshell, ALL forms of sugar
are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer,
but in slightly different ways, and to a different extent. Fructose, however, clearly seems to be one of the overall
most harmful.
Connecting the Dots:
Fructose—Uric Acid—Cancer and Chronic Disease Risk
One particularly interesting tidbit I noticed in this latest
study is the mention of how fructose
metabolism leads to increased uric acid production along with cancer cell proliferation.
In my first interview with Dr. Johnson, he explained just how detrimental the impact of fructose is on your uric
acid level. Interestingly, ONLY fructose, NOT glucose, drives up uric acid as part of its normal metabolic pathways
And, the connection between fructose, uric
acid, hypertension, insulin resistance/diabetes and kidney disease is so clear that your uric acid level can actually
be used as a marker for toxicity from fructose
-- meaning that if your levels are high, you're at increased risk of all the health hazards associated with fructose
consumption and you really need to reduce your fructose intake.
So are Fruits Good or Bad for
You?
This recommendation has created much controversy among many
who regularly consume fruit and believe this recommendation does not apply to them.
Many who eat large amounts of fruit have no symptoms, just as those with high blood pressure may not have any symptoms.
However lack of symptoms is no assurance you
are not exposing yourself to some danger.
Please remember that over three-quarters of the population has insulin resistance.
How do you know if you have insulin resistance?
If you have any of the following conditions it is a safe bet you have it:
•Diabetes
•High blood pressure
•Overweight
•High Cholesterol
•Cancer |
If you have insulin resistance it would be strongly recommended to limit your total grams of fructose from fruit
to below 15 grams per day (see the table below).
If you believe you are very healthy and are an exception to this recommendation, then you can easily confirm if
this is true for you by measuring your uric acid level.
If your uric acid level is greater than 5.5, then you have a risk factor and should limit your fructose consumption.
The higher over 5.5, the stronger the risk
factor is.
Keep in mind that fruits also
contain fructose, although an ameliorating
factor is that whole fruits also contain vitamins and other antioxidants that reduce the hazardous effects of fructose.
Juices, on the other hand, are nearly as detrimental as soda, because a glass of juice is loaded with fructose, and a lot of the antioxidants are lost.
It is important to remember that fructose alone isn't evil as fruits are certainly beneficial. But when you consume high levels of fructose it will absolutely
devastate your biochemistry and physiology.
Remember the AVERAGE fructose dose is 70 grams per day which exceeds the recommend limit by 300 percent.
So please BE CAREFUL with your fruit consumption. You
simply MUST understand that because HFCS is so darn cheap, it is added to virtually every processed food. So even if you consumed no soda or fruit, it is very easy to exceed 25 grams of hidden fructose in
your diet if you are consuming anything processed.
If you are a raw food advocate, have a pristine diet, and exercise regularly, then you could be the exception that
could exceed this limit and stay healthy. But in my experience that is certainly the exception and not the norm.
So please, carefully add up your fruits
based on the table below
to keep the total fructose from fruit below 15 grams per day.
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