Sugar????

Although this is a subject up for debate, the basic premise is this. Cancer cells, and all areas of inflammation for that matter, uptake glucose at a faster rate than "normal" cells. This is the idea behind having a PET scan. They inject you w/ radioactive glucose which is colored. Areas of inflammation as well as cancerous tumors would take up the dye and therefore show up on the scan. Cancer cells are known to take up a large amount of this glucose and can then be differentiated from other areas of inflammation.
So the idea is that sugar can allow cancer cells to grow faster, particularly the sugars low on the "glycemic index". The glycemic index measures how quickly sugars hit the blood stream and thus cause a spike in your insulin levels. Things such as cola, doughnuts, cookies, any refined sugar products are very high on the glycemic index and thus bad. Other things such as whole grain breads (w/ lots of seeds in them) and so forth are low on the glycemic index and not so bad. Some fruits are better than others too, for example, juice gets into the blood stream much faster than actually eating an apple.....so for cancer patients it is probably better to avoid those sugars which go directly into the blood stream and would be quickly taken up by any remaining cancer cells.
I hope that made sense....
-Susan

Mike,

I have been on this website for all of 1 week now and can not believe how much I have already learned. I just received my copy of the book "Beating Cancer with Nutrition" by Patrick Quillin .....thanks Emily...and it really explains the sugar stuff very well. I too am reluctant to give up my diet cola and chocolate, but Quillin makes it hard to ignore.

And Susan..excellent explanation!!!!!

Well I see you all have been listening to the rantings of an alternative proclaimator very nicely! Well done. :-)

Here is a visual for you:

If you have ever baked bread then you know you add the sweetener to the warm water and then add the yeast. Have you ever watched those buggers go nuts for that sweet? That is how I think of cancer cells and sugar. I visualize starving the cancer rather than feeding it. Cancer also likes to snack on mucus so dairy is iffy too--especially for those of us with faulty colons...apparently we have weak colons with a propensity for allowing cancer cells to set up camp in them. So dairy plugs those pipes, sugar feeds the troups, and pretty soon we have an all out mutiny. Our oncologists speak to us about stealth bombers obliterating the cancer and the "war on cancer" continues to look (in vain) for a magic bullet. Whew. It's enough for someone to want to wave the white flag for crying out loud.

There are two camps for the juicing question. Some think it's too much fruit sugar and some swear by it's curing properties. I know of two people personally who have beat their cancer with juicing organic fresh veggies so I chose that route. I have read many other testimonies to underscore that approach. Of course my veggie juice is chock full of barley greens and seaweed and all sorts of living foods. Sugar, brownies and colas do nothing to sustain life. I would at this point if you have active cancer to abstain from any "food" of this sort. It takes life rather than sustains life. There are moments that we need to feed our soul, too, I understand. But I would send those snacks packing and ask them to hit the high road....

peace, emily who is a reformed Coke addict as in cola