Just 100 years ago, refined sugar was not an essential part of the daily diet. It was something only very wealthy people could afford.
Today, the picture has changed dramatically, and for most people, a day without a sweet dessert seems bleak and dreary.
At the same time, over the past 100 years, the incidence of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer has skyrocketed per capita.
The harm of sugar to the human body, particularly its link to cancer, was first discussed by scientists back in the distant 1920s. However, at that time, the future Nobel Prize winner went unheard…
From a physiological point of view, our body does NOT need refined sugar. Yes, glucose is a primary source of energy: it is converted into ATP molecules in the body, which are the basic energy source for all cells.
But besides simple carbohydrates, which include sugar and fructose, sources of energy can also be complex carbohydrates, as well as, if necessary, proteins and fats – they can be converted into glucose in the liver through a process called gluconeogenesis (wikipedia).
Therefore, the complete absence of sweets in the diet will not harm, but on the contrary, as will be shown below, can be incredibly beneficial for health (for the sake of simplicity, we will omit the psychological aspects of the health benefits of enjoyment).
Sugar has firmly entered our diet over the last 100 years… during the same time, the number of people suffering from obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases has exponentially increased.
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Sugar – food for cancer cells
In 1926, German biochemist Otto Warburg (wikipedia) observed how cancer cells converted glucose (sugar) into lactic acid and suggested that this process is a fundamental cause of cancer 2.
This provided the basis for the hypothesis that if sugar is excluded from the diet, the growth of cancer tumors can be stopped.
For many decades, the scientific community rejected this hypothesis, which could not have pleased sugar producers.
Biochemist Otto Warburg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1931 for his achievements in researching the mechanism of cancer formation.
His mission was to find a cure for cancer, but his sensational discoveries were ignored by other scientists as they seemed overly simplistic and did not fit into the generally accepted concept of the genetic nature of cancer diseases.
In 2008, scientists from Belgium decided to test Otto Warburg’s hypothesis, which had been forgotten for a whole 80 years…
The result of their research was the confirmation of a clear relationship between excess sugar in the blood and mutations of proteins within cancer cells that provoke further growth of affected cells 4.
Their official comment in one of the press releases states 3:
“Our research shows how the ultra-rapid absorption of glucose by cancer cells leads to a vicious cycle of further stimulation of cancer development and tumor growth.
It can now be confidently stated that there is a dependence between sugar consumption and the aggressiveness of cancer.
This is of colossal significance.”
In 2008, scientists confirmed the hypothesis expressed in the 1920s about the clear dependence between excess sugar in the blood and protein mutations within cells that stimulate the growth of cancer tumors.
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Does sugar cause cancer?
The authors of the study note that the results they obtained are NOT sufficient to definitively state that excessive sugar consumption causes cancer or, in other words, is the reason for the onset of cancerous tumors 3.
All they have proven is that in a sweet environment, cancer grows faster.
However, Dr. Mercola provides the following comment 10:
“Earlier studies show that the genetic mutations present in cancer cells are the cause of mitochondrial dysfunction, which in turn arises from excessive sugar consumption…”
The circle has closed.
(Naturally, sugar is not the only culprit. Our homes, cars, workplaces, and streets are filled with hundreds of chemicals that are carcinogens, i.e., can cause cell mutations.)
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Cancer Needs a Lot of Sweetness
In normal cells, energy from glucose is extracted using oxygen. This allows for the production of 26 molecules of ATP per glucose molecule – the basic energy molecules that are used directly in the internal metabolic processes.
Cancer cells extract ATP from glucose differently: through fermentation; they do not need oxygen for this.
This process is called glycolysis and it requires less energy and produces significantly less energy (only 2 molecules of ATP compared to 26!), but it is significantly faster than in healthy cells 5.
This is extremely INefficient, and this process can be compared to a person continuing to strike fire from a stone while having a lighter and matches in their pockets.
Why does cancer need such extravagance? Rapid growth and reproduction of cells require quick energy and, accordingly, the presence of a large amount of sugar in the blood.
Otto Warburg was convinced that the defect in the mitochondria of cancer cells allows them to quickly obtain energy from sugar through anaerobic glycolysis.
This means that cancer is actually a metabolic disease, the cause of which lies primarily in an improper diet, specifically in an excess of sugar 1.
The metabolic theory of cancer states that sugar indeed causes cancer: it disrupts the proper functioning of mitochondria (the energy-producing elements of cells), initiating a mutation process that is sustained by regular consumption of sweets.
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Chemotherapy? Surgery? Radiation? Or just cut sugar from the diet?
According to the World Health Organization, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide; approximately 8.8 million people died from it in 2015 6.
Typically, cancer is treated through surgical removal, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy.
Most often, these methods allow only to extend life by a few months or years.
Their premise is that cancer is a genetic disease, which means it can only be eliminated by directly killing cancer cells or surgically removing them from the body.
This approach completely ignores the dysfunction of mitochondria due to poor nutrition as a possible cause of cancer development and growth stimulation.
Therefore, patients are cut, irradiated, and poisoned with chemicals, and afterwards, they continue to be fed meat patties with compote in hospitals.
Recent studies involving both animals and humans indicate that chemotherapy provokes the spread of metastases and significantly increases the risk of mortality, as well as potentially causing damage to DNA molecules in healthy cells, leading to the formation of new treatment-resistant cancer cells 7,8. And again, the same vicious cycle…
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Sugar-free diet – a new method of treatment and prevention of cancer
Otto Warburg’s hypothesis about the relationship between sugar consumption and cancer, which has been confirmed by modern scientists, suggests that limiting the intake of foods that serve as fuel for cancer cells can be an effective preventive measure against cancer, as well as a means of treatment, since cancer cells that do not receive fuel simply die from “hunger”.
Most often, genetic mutations are cited as the cause of cancer. This fact leads to a sense of hopelessness, as it is beyond control.
However, more and more evidence suggests that the cause of gene mutations may be mitochondrial dysfunction due to lifestyle errors, more specifically – poor nutrition, even more specifically – chronic poisoning of the body with sugar, which creates an ideal environment for cancer development.
In other words, if the mitochondria are healthy, the risk of developing cancer is low.
Doctor of Science Thomas Seyfried, author of the book “Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: Causes, Control, and Treatment,” has received numerous awards for promoting the idea of the impact of nutrition on cancer development.
He is one of the pioneers in treating cancer through ketosis 1. Ketosis is a state in which the body uses fats as a source of energy instead of carbohydrates.
The state of ketosis is the goal of the ketogenic diet, which today is recognized as one of the most effective for weight loss, beneficial for health, and for treating cancer, diabetes, and other diseases, including neurological ones like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
On the ketogenic diet, the diet is primarily composed of healthy fats (about 75% of daily calories), while carbohydrates are almost completely excluded. Read more about it in our article Ketogenic Diet: Benefits for Weight Loss and Against Cancer.
Modern cancer treatment methods absolutely do not take into account the fact that improper nutrition may be the cause of its occurrence; the ketogenic diet, which almost completely excludes carbohydrates from the diet, is considered one of the most effective against cancer.
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How much sugar can you eat without harming your health?
Sugar is a recognized factor in the development of many other chronic diseases, including 9:
- cardiovascular diseases;
- hypertension (high blood pressure);
- atherosclerosis;
- cancer;
- stroke;
- diabetes;
- chronic liver diseases;
- Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases;
Based on all of the above, one can draw an unequivocal conclusion: if you want to be healthy and reduce the risk of many dangerous modern diseases, the best decision would be to completely eliminate refined sugar from your diet or at least limit it 1,10.
Make whole natural foods the foundation of your diet and stay away from everything that humans have learned to produce, caring not for your health but for maximizing their profit.
Scientists are categorical on the question “how much sugar can you eat in a day without harming your health?”: it is best to completely remove it from the diet.
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What about fructose?
While all forms of sugar are harmful, scientists say that fructose is even worse.
In the USA, the use of corn syrup, which contains a large amount of fructose, is particularly popular. Here’s how one of the doctors from the Iowa clinic comments on this fact 9:
“Our body processes fructose differently than sugar. This is handled by the liver, which does not control the rate of transformation of fructose into glucose.
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