Does Sugar Feed Cancer? Your Burning Question Answered!

Does sugar feed cancer? That is the burning question many cancer patients ask themselves. Can you still eat carrots and not worsen your condition? Discover why sugars from whole foods like starch, fruits, and vegetables do not cause cancer. Find out why animal products and processed food is the real cause of disease, not sugar.

Does sugar feed cancer?

Does sugar cause cancer

Otto Heinrich Warburg was a German physiologist, medical doctor, and Nobel laureate. Warburg discovered that cancer ferments glucose instead of oxygen.

In his own words:

“Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. Summarized in a few words, the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar.”

Warburg's discovery that cancer cells ferment sugar make many cancer patients fear it. They believe that they should avoid all sugars even vegetables like carrots.

Some low-carb promoters, like Robert Lustig, see sugar as the root of all dietary evils. He recommends attacking cancer by starving it of sugars. The problem with this approach is that all cells need sugar. So starving cancer requires depriving the whole body.

Also, when people have to eliminate sugar and carbs, they turn to meat. Therefore they increase cancer-causing chemicals. Not good for curing cancer.

A lack of oxygen is not the prime cause of cancer, toxins are. Cancer cells revert to fermenting sugars because of toxins.

Fermentation of sugar is the effect of cancer, not the cause. When you remove the toxins, cancer cells stop using glucose and instead use oxygen.

Let me explain why sugar is our primary source of energy.

Sugar is humans primary source of energy

Your brain’s primary source of energy is glucose. To avoid all sugars is a mistake.

Sugar (glucose) is the human body’s primary source of cellular energy. Glucose is healthy for you when delivered in its natural forms, such as starches, vegetables, and fruits.

Scientists have never shown that carbohydrates from whole foods cause cancer.

The taste buds that dominate the tip of the tongue are for carbs (sweet) and salt. This is the reason why we seek these essential nutrients.

We perceive bitter and sour sensitivities as unpleasant, sharp, or disagreeable. The receptors are at the back of the tongue and serve to identify dangerous items.

We also have a fifth taste “umami.” Umami is unpalatable by itself. But when mixed with other foods, it becomes a flavor enhancer.

Humans need three main macronutrients: fat, protein, and carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates are the body’s most efficient way to get everything it needs. It consists of compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen called sugars or saccharides. Simple sugars can attach to make long branching chains called complex carbohydrates. They are also known as starch.

When eaten, enzymes disassemble these chains back into the simple sugars. These single sugars then pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. They then distribute energy to all the cells in your body. Metabolic processes change these simple sugars into energy.

Dietary fibers are even longer chains of complex carbohydrates. Your body can't digest fiber. Most fibers end up in the colon and form the bulk of your stool. Dietary fibers are present in all plant tissues. Even peeled potatoes, for example, contain lots of fiber.

Although fiber does not provide calories, it is still essential for proper bowel movement and general health. Fiber is found in all unprocessed plant foods but never in animal foods.

Carbs from starches lead to longevity. Discover how starches are the secret weapon in healthy living populations.  

Why all long-living populations live on starch

All successful and long-living people have based their intake on starch and carbs. Dan Buettner wrote the book The Blue Zones. In this book, he explored the longest living people on the planet. So what did he find out? The longest-living people on earth base a majority of their caloric intake on starch.  

The longest-living get 95% of their calories from plants and only 5% from animal products. Contrary to what the Paleo or Atkins diet says, these folks eat a high carb diet. About 65% of their food is whole grains, beans, and starchy tubers.  

In the Blue Zone of Costa Rica, they eat a combination of corn, beans, and squash. In Okinawa, sweet potatoes are their staple food. And in Sardinia, they eat a lot of sourdough bread.

The longest-living people in the Blue Zones share the same characteristics; they eat a ton of starch.

Okinawans, born before 1942, have the longest survival rate in Japan.

Their degrees of heart disease and cancer are much lower than Americans and other Japanese people.

Overall, the Okinawans derived 85% of calories from carbohydrate, 9% from protein, and 6% from fat.

They eat a low-fat diet with little animal protein.

All vegetables convert to glucose which is the body’s main energy supply.

When people talk about sugars, they mean white table sugar and processed sugars. But it is a mistake to vilify all carbs based on table sugar. Sucrose(white sugar) is not the same thing as sugar present in vegetables in its whole form.

Learn why processed carbs and sugar are bad and not the same thing as whole food.

Why processed carbs and sugar is bad for you

Table sugar is often extracted and refined from either sugar cane or sugar beet. Modern industrial sugar refinement processes bleach the sugar. The end product is a sweet white, odorless, powder devoid of vitamins and minerals.

White sugar plays a central role as an additive in food production and food consumption all over the world. Table sugar delivers intense stimulation to the user as cocaine and opium do.

Eating sugar causes immediate changes in the brain’s chemistry. It is similar to those seen after the use of narcotics.

Pure sugars have no nutrients, except for the simple carbohydrate. That is the reason we call them empty calories.

When ingredients are missing from food, your body must borrow it from another source. In this sense, sugar robs your body of vitamins and minerals.  

Foods are abundant in nutrients. Disease follows when we eat significant quantities of nutrient-poor food.

When you consume massive amounts of unhealthy foods for a long time, your body starts to feel distressed.

The effect is an elevation of blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and insulin. 

When people bash carbs, they also mention white bread, french fries, cookies, and potato chips.

But these food use unhealthy oils or butter. Potatoes are a healthy food if you boil them. But if you drench them in oils they turn to junk food.

All processed food is not real food and something you should avoid.

The refining of plant foods results in elevations of insulin levels. When you ground whole grains into whole flours, you don't add or remove anything. The properties of the food have changed either way. 

Your insulin levels rise more compared to the whole grain. White flour causes an even greater rise in insulin than the unrefined flour.

Manufacturers remove the chaff, thereby eliminating dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

Refined products are arousing to the palate such as when you polish brown rice into white rice. It is in our nature to enjoy carbohydrates. However, the refining processes also result in less satisfaction of the hunger drive.

Processed sugar and carbs are not good for you.

There are several common misconceptions dieters have about sugar. So let me address these misunderstandings once and for all.

Common misconceptions about sugar that are false

Sugar makes you fat

A popular mantra among dieters is that: starches turn into sugars and then fat which makes you fat. If this is true, then obesity would be rampant among rice-eating Japanese people.

But the opposite is the case. Worldwide, populations with the highest consumption of carbohydrate are the trimmest and fittest.

Asians that migrate to Western countries become bigger as they eat the Western diet. As they eat less rice (starch) and more meat they become fatter and sicker.

It is hard to become obese even on table sugar. Turning sugars into fats is a process called de novo lipogenesis. Pigs and cows use this process to convert carbohydrates into calorie-dense fats.

We, humans, are inefficient at converting glucose to fat under normal conditions. The cost for this conversion is 30% of the calories consumed.

Fat is very concentrated in calories (9 per gram vs. 4 for pure sugar). Your body can store fat as fat without effort. Thus, replacing fat in the diet with sugar will cause weight loss. Low-carbohydrate dieters high intake of fat results in a higher calorie intake and risk of obesity.

Sugar causes diabetes

You might believe that all dietary sugar cause blood sugars to rise and lead to diabetes.

That’s what many lay people think. But this collective thinking is incorrect. Studies show that people on high sugar diets are less likely to get diabetes. There is, however, a strong relationship between red meat consumption and diabetes.

Populations who consume the most carbohydrate have the lowest rates of diabetes in the world.

Type-2 diabetes is almost unknown in rural Asia, Africa, Mexico, and Peru. When these people change to a diet rich in fats and low in carbohydrates, diabetes often follows.

If sugar causes diabetes then how could Dr. Kempner cure diabetes patients with the Rice Diet? The treatment was a simple therapy of white rice, fruit, juice, and sugar.

Dr. Kempner tracked the patient's cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and body weight. His records showed that 93% of patients with an elevated cholesterol reduced it from 273 mg/dl to 177 mg/dl.

The Rice Diet far exceeded drugs or surgery in treating chronic conditions.

Fat increases insulin resistance, not sugar.

Watch this video by Dr. Greger to further understand the process of insulin.

Food high on the glycemic index is bad for your health

Many cancer patients feel guilty when they crave starches and carbs.
They then try to restrict their intake of starches and other healthy foods. But what is left when you remove carbs? Fat and protein from unhealthy oils and meat.

The low-carb movement says insulin causes our health problems. They tell you that you should avoid food that raises your blood sugar. But let me explain why you shouldn't trust this model.

You might have heard about the glycemic index (GI), which measures the rise in blood sugar over 2 to 3 hours after we eat.

Your blood sugar should rise after you eat. It’s a good thing, not the sign of a problem. The public associate this increase with diabetes.

As a result, many assume that foods with a higher GI, such as potatoes and rice are harmful. People then shun healthy carbohydrates because of their GI ratings. And then replace them with unhealthy low-GI foods like oils, meats, and cheeses.

Rising blood sugar triggers satiety, telling you it’s time to stop eating. Rather than causing you to overeat and gain weight, high-GI foods help you to feel satisfied.

Choosing food based upon GI leads to some unfounded and dangerous conclusions.

In the table below I have presented different foods with both low and high GI.

So in this example what do think is healthier the chocolate cake and M&Ms? Or the carrots or potatoes? You won’t have any trouble picking the carrots and potatoes. Which has the lower GI? The M&Ms and cake.

So if you base how good food is only on how much it raises the blood sugar, then we all should eat M&Ms and cakes.

Focusing on a low glycemic index food means eating more protein and fat like meat and cheese. This makes no sense. If animal products lead to more cancer, diabetes and heart disease, shouldn't we eat less of it?

Populations who eat high GI potatoes (Peruvians) and rice (Asians) are trim and healthy.

Compare this to obese people living in the Western world who feast on fats, meats, and cheeses.

But what about fruits? Is it okay for cancer patients to eat fruits or should they avoid it?

Are fruits good for cancer patients?

Fruits contain fructose which makes them sweet. Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a simple sugar found in many plants. It is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose.

Industrial, not fruit fructose intake lead to declining liver function and high blood pressure. Fructose from added sugars lead to hypertension; fructose from natural fruits is not.

You should eat fruits in its most natural form.

In 1977 a study demonstrated the effect of processing foods.

In this experiment ten subjects consumed either apple, applesauce, and apple juice.

When you blend apples into applesauce, you remove nothing. But you disrupt the natural fibers of the apple. To make juice, you filter off the fiber and discard it.

So what was the result? The subjects absorbed the juice 11 times faster than the whole apples. And they also ingested the juice four times quicker than the applesauce.

Juice was less satisfying than the applesauce. And the applesauce was less satisfying than the whole apples.

Blood sugar levels rose alike after all three meals. But, the juice had a striking fall in blood sugar levels compared to the applesauce and whole apple.

Serum insulin levels rose much more after the juice and applesauce than the whole apples.

John McDougall, an expert in nutrition, says that you should limit your fruit intake to 3 servings per day. Fruits are tasty and easy to over-consume. The fructose in fruits can cause triglycerides and cholesterol to rise. People with these concerns should limit fruits even more.

Mcdougall recommends that you should center your diet around starch. Starches consist of complex carbohydrates which release glucose throughout the day.

This keeps you satiated and full and energized during the day. Fruits give you a short burst of energy. Hours later you feel hungry again, and this can lead you to seek junk food or sugary foods.

You should see fruits as a simple treat not the foundation of your diet. Fruits are only available a short time during the year. Starches, on the other hand, store well and is more available.

Eat fruits in its whole form rather in juices or smoothies.

You should avoid fruit juices as they are pure sugar and will not sustain you.

So what about sweeteners? Can you use them if you have cancer?

As I mentioned earlier table sugar is unhealthy and something you should avoid. But what if you want to sweeten your food is it okay to use sweeteners instead?

There are many different sweeteners on the market. Are they better than white sugar?

Artificial sweeteners do not deliver the same hunger-satisfying capacity as table sugar does. Therefore they can increase the appetite. As a result, you may eat more food to fill you up.

In his video, Gregor looked at the nutritional content of several sweeteners including white sugar. Date sugar was the most nutrient dense sweetener. Molasses was in second place.

Date sugar is not a real sugar; it’s whole dried dates, pulverized into powder. It was the only whole food in the experiment. Sweeteners such as Agave syrup and honey didn’t have more nutrient content than table sugar. Click the video to learn more.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in some foods and beverages. It is approximately 200 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar).

While the sweetener remains popular, it’s also faced controversy in recent years. Many opponents have claimed that aspartame is bad for your health.

Aspartame may cause neurological and behavioral disturbances in sensitive individuals. Side effects include headaches, insomnia, and seizures. Excessive Aspartame ingestion might even lead to the development of certain mental disorders.  

Xylitol is a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener.

You can find it in low concentrations in the fibers of many fruits and vegetables.

Industrial production extracts it from hardwoods or corncobs.

Xylitol contains zero fructose and has negligible effects on blood sugar and insulin levels. Therefore, none of the harmful effects of sugar apply to Xylitol. The glycemic index is only 7, compared to regular sugar, which has a glycemic index of 60-70.

Xylitol has no known toxicity in humans. Like most sugar alcohols, Xylitol might have a laxative effect if you consume too much of it. However, the effect varies from person to person.

You can buy it in health stores or Amazon. It is quite expensive. I have used it several times without any problems.

Stevia is an another natural sweetener for people who want to avoid refined sugar. It is 200 to 300 times sweeter than table sugar. Stevia comes from the leaves of a perennial shrub found in Paraguay and Brazil.

This stable sweetener is almost calorie-free and non-toxic. South Americans and Asians have used it for centuries.

You can buy Stevia at natural food stores and some supermarkets.

Remember that you shouldn’t overconsume sweeteners even if they are not dangerous to you. Use them only to sweeten your oatmeal or other meals.

Get your sugar from whole foods like vegetables and unrefined starches and fruits. Your body should feed on sugar in its natural form, not in its processed form.

At this point, you should know that healthy carbs is good for your health and protect you from cancer. Many cancer patients believe that sugar is what you need to fear.

But you should fear animals products more than sugar. Learn why animal products are worse than sugar and why you should avoid it first.

Why animal products is a real cause of cancer and not sugar

Many blame sugar for our epidemics and obesity. But we forget that sugar is not the reason for cancer growth or sickness in the world. Sugar is a scapegoat created by the dairy and animal industry to remove the blame from them. Animal products are the real cause of our health problems, not sugar.

Meat and dairy are behind many diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Our bodies are not built to eat meat.

Insulin-like Growth Factor One(IGF1) is a cancer-promoting growth hormone. It is present in every stage of cancer growth.

IGF1 increases when we consume animal protein.

Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are chemicals formed in meat or animal protein during cooking. They develop when you prepare meat at a high temperature or over an open flame.

If you scrape off the grill marks of meat and send it to a lab, technicians will find HCA.

HCAs are part in many cancers. Animal protein by itself or the way we cook the meat may contribute to cancer development.

Sugar makes animal products taste better. Chocolate milk contains a lot of sugar to disguise the bland taste.

Remember that cakes sweetened with sugar are also full of butter, margarine or oils. These things are causing obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Our bodies are not good at breaking down animal products or oils. Meat and dairy will break havoc in our bodies and make cancer worse. The real enemy is not sugar but animal products.

Uncontrollable cravings in the Western diet’s is because of the lack of healthy sugars. People eat meat without becoming satisfied. At the end of the meal, they find a sugar and fat-filled dessert or cake to eliminate their cravings. Sugar acts as a fix for the deprived drug addict.

By consuming starch-based meals, you will feel satisfied and won't crave desserts.

Fighting your inborn love for sugar is as senseless as fighting your hunger drive. You want sugar because that is your natural food.

Eat the natural sugars in starches, vegetables, and fruits.

If there something you should have learned in this blog-post is that sugar found in whole food is good for you. You shouldn't become afraid of carbs. As long as you don't eat processed sugar, you shouldn't have any problems.

Summary

Steps to take

Actions steps

How to end your sugar addiction

Cancer patients crave table sugar because cancer cells use glucose to get energy.

When you starve your body from nutrients, your body starts to crave sugar like cakes and chocolates.  

This is the reason why so many cancer patients have problems staying of junk food.

The solution to breaking the addictions to junk food is to eat sugar in its whole form. This includes food such as starches, vegetables, and fruits.

And at the same time, you need to avoid animal products such as meat and dairy products. Animal products will cause havoc in your body and make you feel sluggish. If you give your body what it needs, it will get more energy and work better.

So the solution to end all cravings is to remove all processed and animal products and eat healthy carbs. It might seem illogical to defeat cancer with sugar when you know that cancer feed on sugar. Your body starts to work better when you give it what it needs.  As a result, it no longer needs to create cancer cells anymore.

Cancer is always part of an unhealthy and toxic body. When you eat healthy carbs, you stop feeding your body poisons, and it will heal.

Join our 12-day vegan cancer challenge if you want to learn how to eat a healthy cancer diet. In this email course, you’ll learn how to eat a healthy whole-food plant based diet for cancer. For 7 days you receive 7 emails that explain what to eat and what to avoid. After you have read the emails, you will get a link to a free recipe book with x anti-cancer recipes.

When you eat this healthy diet, staying of unhealthy junk food becomes effortless. Why? Because when you feed your body nutrients, it doesn't need to crave it anymore. You only want junk food when the food you eat doesn't contain enough nutrients.


Infobox

Infobox -
Forms of Carbohydrate

Simple sugars include white table sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup. It is the main ingredients in sweet-tasting honey, molasses, agave, and maple syrup. All of these concentrated simple sugars contain 2.5 to 4 calories per gram of mostly “empty calories.” The lactose in mother’s milk is also simple sugar swimming with essential nutrients.


* Glycogen is another form of complex sugar. Synthesized by people and other animals. Your body stores it in the muscles and liver to provide energy for future activities.

/Infobox