Do You Know That Excess Sugar Is A Fertile Ground For Cancer? And That Fasting Could Be One Solution?

      

Human beings have evolved considerably. We're longer living in the era of hunters and gatherers. There was a time when food could not readily be available. Now, everything is in abundance,though not affordable in some part of the world.

So, are there any repercussions?

There is a constant debate among researchers, whether the cancer was rare in ancient times or not. A report by two egyptologists indicates that there is “a striking rarity of malignancies” in ancient human beings. Others debate its correctness; there was not enough diagnosis for cancers such as breast and prostate. In addition to these debates, one more substance is repeatedly related to cancer: sugar. To understand the link, we first need to understand what sugar is. Sugar comes in many various forms:

1. Fructose (fruits)

2. Lactose ( dairy)

3. Glucose (vegetables)

4. Carbs

Most people are familiar with white sugar called sucrose. It’s the table sugar. Starchy foods like pasta might not taste sweet, but they contain a significant amount of carbohydrate. Sugar is necessary for our survival. It gives us the energy to perform day-to-day activities and also helps to keep our body moving. If there is no carb in the food we eat, our body cells convert protein and fat into glucose. Here comes its link to cancer.

     

A research conducted by Dr. Otto Warburg, who won the Nobel prize, suggested that cancer may use sugar as the primal source of energy. He also indicated that cancer cells process glucose using a strange chemical reaction. He suggested that cancer is caused by generating energy through anaerobic respiration, which is called the Warburg effect.

"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."

— Otto H. Warburg,

In the following years, his hypothesis was like almost forgotten. And, it was widely accepted that cancer is a disease of mutated genes. But soon this hypothesis started to resurface again. James Watson, the father of molecular biology, also said a metabolic approach is more efficient in the understanding of cancer and its treatment.

Insulin is a hormone that helps cells  use glucose from the bloodstream. When a person is insulin resistant, he has a greater spike in blood sugar levels. This spike induces IGF, which allows cancer cells to grow. Other researchers indicate that the main culprit is obesity. Being overw -eight or obese increases the riks of having at least 13 types of cancer. Fat cells release adipokines, which can damage DNA. It can gradually lead to cancer. Obesity means being at a greater risk of cancer. In a way, this is linked to eating more food.

Whereas, there was a study published in 2019, which showed that people who consumed more sugary drinks had an increased risk of cancer. The study was not linked to body weights of the sample population.

So, the question arising is whether cancer and sugar have a more immediate link.

         

A notable expert, Lewis Cantley, Ph.D., thinks that some cancers may start with a high level of sugar. The risk increases with high insulin levels, and he states that many Americans cons -ume more than recommended sugar levels. “Having high levels of insulin is likely to drive cancer. And what drives insulin levels is sugar”, he says.

I eat fruit, but I don’t eat anything that has sugar added to it.

— Dr. Lewis Cantley

“As we learn more and more about cancer metabolism, we understand that individual cancers are related to particular things. In a lot of cancers, it’s insulin — and sugar”, he explains. Peiying Yang, Ph.D., a cancer researcher and associate professor at M.D Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, agrees. “it makes sense to limit added sugar, including high-fructose corn syrup in soft drinks, sweetened teas, sports drinks, and processed foods, along with candy, cookies, ice cream, and sweetened breakfast cereal”, she says.

Fasting the way  out to treat cancer?

Intermittent fasting (IF) is fasting on a schedule. For example, once every month, in a chosen a day. On that day, eat for 9- hour period, and fast for remaining hours. The human body has developed to go for periods without food. We had numerous famines throu - ghout our history.

In countries like India, fasting is a very common practice. There is a festival called Karva Chauth, where wives fast throughout the day, eating and drinking only in the night — on the onset of the moon. According to Ayurvedic physician, Makkar, fasting was traditionally practiced in India after the age of 30 because metabolism slows down. Cancer rates in India are in the increase as people are derailing from traditional practices. Still, cancer rates in India are much lower than in developed countries.

In a study conducted on mice, fasting was believed to reverse the side effects of obesity and type 2 diabetes. And as we have indicated above, obesity is a vital factor in can -cer growth.

Another study on mice indicated that bimonthly fasting could reduce the incidence of cancer. This happens due to a phenomenon called autophagy. Yoshinori Ohsumi, a biologist from Japan, got the 2016 Nobel prize in medicine “for discovering mechanisms of autophagy”. Autophagy is a process where after a long period of depriv -ation of food from outside sources, cells begin using internal sources; Self-eating. The Nobel Prize winner discovered that fasting truly allows the cells to clean waste. Fasting restricts energy inputs of the cell, and in turn, cells use waste to provide energy. Autophagy might even stimulate the generation of new cells.

A 2018 study suggested that patients practicing fasting while undergoing chemo for breast cancer reported a considerable improvement in the quality of life. Patients also reported a higher tolerance to chemotherapy.

In conclusion:It is highly recomm -ended to  limit the intake of sugar. On average, an American,for instance, consumes 130 pounds of sugar per year. It makes sense to cut down on sugar. Also, make a habit to reduce your added sugars and eat fruits. “It’ll help you avoid in many different ways,  many different diseases,” Dr. Cantley says. “And once you do away with  that addiction , it’s  becomes quite easy. After all, I’ve had no tro -uble doing it for 40 years”, He concluded.