Fructose Promotes More Aggressive Cancers

Fructose Promotes More Aggressive Cancers

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Dear Member

Earlier this week, I told you how a new study has shown that cancer cells develop a high degree of sensitivity to insulin and open up more glucose channels to take on board the excess circulating in the blood. In short, this means that sugar feeds the growth and spread of cancers.

But the glucose in your blood stream is just one factor that triggers and feeds the proliferation of cancer cells. Another kind of sugar — fructose, found in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup — also speeds up their growth and spread.

Sucrose, which is what we usually think of as "sugar", is chemically a compound of two simple sugars, glucose and fructose. Sucrose is broken down into these two components in the body. The glucose goes into the bloodstream, where it raises "blood sugar" levels, and is then shunted into body cells. The fructose is transported to the liver, where most of it is converted into fat.

Studies have shown that fructose is the raw material that cancer cells prefer to use to manufacture proteins, and that it encourages the production of other substances that cause cancer cells to proliferate. And fructose also appears to promote more aggressive kinds of cancer, that are more likely to spread to other body organs.1 In a meta-analysis of population-based studies, fructose consumption has been clearly linked with pancreatic cancer in a linear way – the more fructose you eat, the higher your risk of cancer.2

So there you have it. Contrary to Cancer Research UK's bland assurance that "There is no evidence that restricting your sugar intake will stop a tumour growing", there is actually plenty of evidence that both glucose and fructose, the two components of table sugar, make cancers not only more likely to appear, but also more aggressive and faster to spread (the process of metastasis).

Cutting sugar out of your diet could slash your cancer risk. And some compounds in food plants and herbs have powerful anti-cancer properties:

• Curcumin, from the spice turmeric, is able to kill even drug-resistant cancer cells.
  
• Compounds in cabbage and broccoli – sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol – block cancer cell multiplication and metastasis.
  
• Lycopene, a carotenoid compound from tomatoes, can reduce the risk of cancers, particularly prostate cancer.
  
• Mushrooms, especially shiitake and reishi, boost the body's immune defences against cancer.
  
• Apples, blueberries, blackberries and green tea contain flavonoids that cause cancer cells to self-destruct.
  
• The smelly organosulphur compounds in onions and garlic are also potent cancer fighters.
  

As well as feeding cancers, sugar is a major cause of type 2 diabetes, as I recently reported here. And, of course, sugar makes you fat. Now scientists have found that it is the accumulation of fat in the pancreas, the body organ that produces insulin, that drives type 2 diabetes – and losing less than one gram of this fat can dramatically reverse the condition. More on this in my next blog post.

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