interesting news article on study on glucose vs. fructose- it's official: fructose helps cancer cell

lisa42

Thought I'd copy and share this article I just read on msnbc online news on the outcome of a study looking at the difference between how cancer cells react to glucose vs. fructose (as in high fructose corn syrup, which is in everything today in lieu of "regular" sugar or other sweeteners)
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Here's the copy of the article's text:

Cancer cells feed on fructose, study finds
Research shows the refined sugar helps cancer cells proliferateAdvertisement | ad info
.by Maggie Fox

updated 2 minutes ago
Share Print Font: +-WASHINGTON — Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.

Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

They said their finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

"These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation," Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

"They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth."

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.

Too much sugar of any kind not only adds pounds, but is also a key culprit in diabetes, heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

Several states, including New York and California, have weighed a tax on sweetened soft drinks to defray the cost of treating obesity-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods have strongly, and successfully, opposed efforts to tax soda.

The industry has also argued that sugar is sugar.

Heaney said his team found otherwise. They grew pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes and fed them both glucose and fructose.

Tumor cells thrive on sugar but they used the fructose to proliferate. "Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different," Heaney's team wrote.

"I think this paper has a lot of public health implications. Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diets," Heaney said in a statement.

Now the team hopes to develop a drug that might stop tumor cells from making use of fructose.

U.S. consumption of high fructose corn syrup went up 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, researchers reported in 2004 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

C Dixon

Thanks Lisa.
I know this is about HFCS but I wonder if regular fructose (such as in fruits) also has the same effect of proliferation but on a smaller scale.

Catherine

John23

high fructose corn syrup


My wife and I attempt to avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup,
and it's not an easy task,

But sugar shouldn't be totally avoided. Our cells need glucose, and
cancer steals glucose from our good cells, leaving our good cells
in need of the energy. Removing sugar from the diet can allow
cancer cells to continue to live, while good cells starve to death.

It's the reason late term cancer patients lose weight, and/or all
energy. A lack of glucose will do that. There are numerous chemicals
that can keep a cancer cell from using sugar, with some being used
in other countries, with chemotherapy. (hydrazine sulfate is one)

So anyone considering the thought that eliminating glucose, sugar,
or otherwise, from their diet in an effort to kill cancer cells, should
be aware that in doing so, they will starve their good cells first,
and long before starving cancer cells.

Eat sensibly, and natural foods, whenever possible.





(White Castle hamburgers are natural foods for me)


John

KathiM

John23 said:

high fructose corn syrup


My wife and I attempt to avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup,
and it's not an easy task,

But sugar shouldn't be totally avoided. Our cells need glucose, and
cancer steals glucose from our good cells, leaving our good cells
in need of the energy. Removing sugar from the diet can allow
cancer cells to continue to live, while good cells starve to death.

It's the reason late term cancer patients lose weight, and/or all
energy. A lack of glucose will do that. There are numerous chemicals
that can keep a cancer cell from using sugar, with some being used
in other countries, with chemotherapy. (hydrazine sulfate is one)

So anyone considering the thought that eliminating glucose, sugar,
or otherwise, from their diet in an effort to kill cancer cells, should
be aware that in doing so, they will starve their good cells first,
and long before starving cancer cells.

Eat sensibly, and natural foods, whenever possible.





(White Castle hamburgers are natural foods for me)


John

Well said, as usual, John!
The other question that comes to mind with this is: I thought fresh fruit (fructose) and vegies were good for you...hummm....and 'natural', to boot!

I, too, take things in moderation. Sure, I 'sin' with stuff every once in a while, but I try to stick to a well balanced diet if at all possible. I try to restrict highly refined anything, which, can lead to trouble. Exercise is also important.

My 2 cents...

Hugs, Kathi

idlehunters

KathiM said:

Well said, as usual, John!
The other question that comes to mind with this is: I thought fresh fruit (fructose) and vegies were good for you...hummm....and 'natural', to boot!

I, too, take things in moderation. Sure, I 'sin' with stuff every once in a while, but I try to stick to a well balanced diet if at all possible. I try to restrict highly refined anything, which, can lead to trouble. Exercise is also important.

My 2 cents...

Hugs, Kathi

Wow
Thanks Lisa............. Definately gave me a boost to stop that PEPSI addiction that I keep putting off. I am going to switch over to tea NOW. No more putting it off. Thanks again.

Jennie

serrana

sugar stuff
Maybe this is why I only have solitary mets after 4 years of stage IV crc.....I totally eliminated ALL fructose, high corn syrup stuff from my diet, totally.
Go to that pantry cupboard and read those labels folks
Serrana

walkingnutritionman

Berries, especially
Berries, especially blueberries and strawberries, contain fructose, but they also contain substances which have anticancer activity. David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., PhD includes them among recommended foods in his popular and widely read book "Anticancer: A New Way of Life". Just Google the book at Amazon.com. It would be well worth your while to get copy of the book!

CherylHutch

serrana said:

sugar stuff
Maybe this is why I only have solitary mets after 4 years of stage IV crc.....I totally eliminated ALL fructose, high corn syrup stuff from my diet, totally.
Go to that pantry cupboard and read those labels folks
Serrana

sugar stuff
Well, I certainly can't argue with anyone that white sugar, corn syrup, fructose and any of the processed sugars are bad for us humans (and animals). They don't grow on trees or bushes and animals don't produce sugar for human consumption... so to say the above is bad for us and should be avoided, I have no problem with that.

But I have to take issue with what you are saying, Serrana...that maybe you only have solitary mets after 4 years of Stage IV crc.

I was on a low carb diet where I eliminated all whites (white sugar, white flour, potatoes, white rice, etc), fructose, corn syrup, soda pop, etc. and although I did feel better, I can't say that eliminating it did anything for my cancer. I was on this low carb diet BEFORE I was dx'd with crc, but apparently, by the size of the tumour they took out, they say it had started about 10 years before. So the diet of no sugar/whites didn't do anything about preventing the tumour or the spread to the adrenal gland and lungs. Ever since the surgery in January 07, I have to admit I've fallen off the low carb diet bandwagon and yes, I'm eating some of the whites again (and I must admit, enjoying them all!) and my mets have been very indolent for the past 3+ years.

So I don't buy into the thought that cancer will get worse if you are eating sugar or whites (in moderation). Cancer definitely lives off glucose, produced by normal cells... but everything we eat will turn into glucose once it's processed. So if you lived on a diet of only vegetables, you'd still produce glucose and the cancer cells would live on any of it that was produced

Just my .02 (and I did ask my oncologist what her opinion was on a diet that had processed sugar. She agreed that processed sugar has absolutely no benefits for us humands, but it does not affect cancer any more than any other kind of food we eat).