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Cancer cells feed on fructose, study finds
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.
Copyright 2010 Reuters. Click for restrictions.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38528161/ns/health-cancer/
“The common wisdom that all sugars are the same.”
Table sugar sucrose is composed of half glucose and half FRUCTOSE. So common table sugar is likely fueling the over 100 different cancers in the human body.
If we combine the HFCS with table sugar we as a society eat about 25% of our calories as sugar MOSTLY fructose. It is a wonder cancer is not taking a lot more of us. Doctor Richard Johnson has done some leading edge work on fructose.
“Fructose causes insulin resistance. In just TWO weeks of a high fructose diet people developed insulin resistance, the good thing is this insulin resistance was reversed with a low fructose diet. We now have data that fructose is injuring the pancreas itself. You can induce diabetes in animals over time with fructose.” Doctor Richard Johnson MD
“Fructose is the number one factor in obesity. We believe beer is the second most important factor in obesity.” Doctor Richard Johnson MD
Refined sugar, table sugar, sucrose, is half glucose and half fructose. The glucose half can be bad but not as bad as fructose as your body can handle glucose. What is often bad about the glucose is the sudden flood of glucose from simple carbs that requires too much insulin production. A slow release of glucose such as occurs from complex carbs is fine in moderation.
But unbound, free, fructose (See Fructose Protocol) is a toxin in all but trace amounts. The fructose found in fruit is mostly bound. Watch Doctor Robert H. Lustig MD UCSF excellent video on the dangers of fructose and I guarantee you will view both sugar and HFCS as poisons to be avoided at all costs.
Lou
“It is a wonder cancer is not taking a lot more of us”. Like I was just explaining to my wife who showed me the article, the study does not say that HFCS causes cancer, but increases the cell growth if you HAVE cancer. Big difference! For the record, I am a dentist and not a Coke/Pepsi seller. I agree however that HFCS is terrible for you and should be limited, like everything else take in moderation!!
Tony
Tony
Yes cancer is a somewhat complex subject. IMO we ALL have some cancerous or pre-cancerous cells in our bodies at almost all times OR it is best to operate on this assumption which should cover all cancer obviation bases.
You are correct there are two phases in combating cancer.
1 Prevention
2 removing cancerous cells
There are Four Main Problems in Cancer
1) Prevent Cancer by assuring a continuous sufficient supply of oxygen to all 100 trillion of your cells. This is easy if you eat well.
2) Prevent Cancer by assuring a slightly basic body pH. This is trivial if you eat well and are aware of the importance of your pH.
3) Prevent and deal with Cancer by Avoiding Sugar in ALL its many forms especially FRUCTOSE, This is not so easy but let the thought of a horrible prolonged wasting away death give you a little incentive to turn off your sweet tooth.
4) Deal with cells that are lost to cancer by removing them first functionally and finally physically. This requires knowing your anti-cancer mechanisms.
Seven Simple Anti-Cancer Steps
Eat a mostly raw plant based diet
Assure good Oxygen levels for ALL tissue in your body
Make sure your Vitamin D levels are at least 60 ng/ml, get good noon sun or Vitamin D3
Avoid Processed Vegetable Oils and all “foods” made from them
Make sure your Omega 3 EFA and Omega 6 EFA are balanced
Avoid Sugar in ALL its many forms especially FRUCTOSE
Assure Omega EFA, Enzymes, Iodine, Magnesium, Selenium, Folate and other anti-cancer agents
Dr. Lustig’s video is enlightening. Watching a video is only a beginning. We need to take our health in our own hands. Here are a few helpful tips to add to Lou’s list.
Start with a few simple measure that you are in control of:
Eating a whole food diet, eating foods that look like they were just harvested and take steps to eliminate processed foods from our diets helps tremendously, but it is not the answer.
Move 30 minutes a day or five to six days a week if not every day. Walk, bike, dance, garden, do aerobics, get the blood flowing!
Sleep an 8 hour deep sleep every night if you can’t than try napping during the day.
Lower your stress levels with deep breathing, walking, art, music, meditation, whatever it takes for you to feel relaxed and whole.
Be part of you community, contribute by volunteering or just enjoy your neighbors and family.
By starting with what you can do, you may begin the healing process and then if you do find you have cancer or other illnesses, you have a strong base to begin your recovery.
No Surprise Here!
Dr. Otto Warburg, Nobel laureate (I believe twice), proved that cancer cells, unlike normal cells, do NOT function on oxygen respiration. They grow and proliferate by metabolizing fermented glucose (blood sugar).
What causes the blood sugar to ferment? A low (acidic) blood pH, combined with a lack of oxygen. Every one of us (healthy people) produces six cancer cells daily, which are scavenged by the lymphatic system (you know, that second circulatory system that doesn’t have a heart to pump it). Lymphatic circulation can be increased via deep breathing, gentle bouncing (best on the surface of a mini-trampoline, but you can and should do it on a daily basis), and compression (like grabbing your finger after you’ve slammed a door on it; it doesn’t swell till you let go!).
I get all my fructose from fruit, and don’t eat much sweet fruit. With a family history of diabetes, I do everything in my power to keep my pancreas healthy, including love and gratitude. Why? On a spiritual level (all organs have energetic “twins”) the pancreas is responsible for helping to assimilate all of the sweetness of life. Develop a healthy attitude to go along with a healthy diet: low-glycemic, mostly plants (at least half of them raw), which should make up 80% of what you eat, and the other 20% minimally processed foods. Health and peace.
what about all those unbelievably healthy fruititarians? and i know that some cancer’s were cured by consuming only carrot juice which is is loaded with sugars…so what’s up with that? i guess agave syrup is out then? you don’t drink agave syrup it’s always combined with other foods so is it still bad? i’m so confused…
Sabine:
I am not sure about the carrot diet, but I noted you are a fan of Agave…Please research this extensively. Agave is totally out. It is far from natural unless it is not processed. Stevia is the great substitute. You can grow it yourself and use it for sweet taste without toxic effects. Your tastebuds take 6 months to change so give it a 6 month try. Take heed with Zyxomma and Lou’s reply, they are jewels in the nightime sky. The PH is very important. Other important factors are elimination of acramilides (homogenized milk, french fries, chips, anything that produces high heat cooking). Elimination of Bovine (cow) products, they are now linking domestic red meat consumption to violent behavior along with colon cancer, increase in estrogen fueling, and just plain dirty meat (not by the animals doing, but by our cramming and mistreatment of them – it is totally unethical anymore). These products halt your “killer cells” in the immune system. Avoid grain fed animals. Grow your own vegetables or buy them from Kosher places. Protect your land from the money mongers (government). Might have to move to another country other than the U.S.
Going raw is splendid and was the designers original diet.
wow kim, thanks for that. i grew stevia last year and was super disappointed in the saccharin-like metallic awful taste that made me throw out my coffee *ahem i mean tea
i also bought the white powder form from the health food store which was even worse tasting than the plant. 6 months huh? i do like coconut sugar, how is that? i know it has a lot of fructose and that’s what makes it a low glycemic substitute for sugar but can you please explain…agave is MOSTLY fructose, not only fructose so what is the magic number, the fraction of frucotse in a ‘food’ that makes it bad for you?
and also, i believe, as you commented on ‘the designer’s original diet’ that ‘the designer’ wouldn’t make such glorious fruit that contains something so bad. however, having said that…every plant (?) does contain a toxin to prevent any one animal from eating the entire plant so is this..just..that? is fructose a poison? and if so, why do all fruits contain it as opposed to each fruit having it’s own distinct poison like many plants? and what about bears that gorge themselves on fruit? bears will decimate plants in one sitting…still, i’m so confused!
thanks in advance for any light shed on this perplexing subject
p.s. what IS the purpose of fructose?
Sabine
Something that is very important to realize is that anytime we take a natural food (fruit or vegetable) and process it by taking out a chemical, (in this situation the fructose) and just consume that chemical, then we have altered it from the way it was intended to be consumed. Fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds in their whole state have many, I repeat, many different constituents to them. When we eat something in its whole state all those different constituents work together to create health in our bodies. So the problem comes when an isolated constituent is consumed, especially if it has been highly processed to get to that state.
As has been stated, eat as much raw foods as possible to keep the body in an alkaline state, then disease can’t live. “The China Study” is a good book that provides information about cancer being “turned on” by animal protein. This is also a good read for anyone trying to protect from cancer and just be healthy.
I love these comments! Thanks everyone for the knowledge you share.
hi sara,
thanks for sharing. i’m familiar with processing and in a perfect world nothing would be processed but the reality is that we do consume some processed foods and some are worse than others. i’m not trying to be perfect just better and better, you know aim above morality. yes i enjoy a little honey in my tea, an animal product that was extracted from the hive…but back to my question… is fructose a poison and what purpose does it serve…anyone anyone??? ex. glucose is needed for energy, etc…
What’s incredible is that the human body cannot metabolize fructose without first converting it to glucose in the liver.
For a cancer cell to spontaneously develop this ability would indicate it’s burning through it inefficiently (getting less than 38 molecules of ATP) while depriving the normal cells of useful energy (via the liver).
To Sabine and others,
People are confusing the sugar that is in fruit which is called levulose with fructose that is man-made. The people who make fructose want you to be confused.
Levulose – definition from Biology-Online.org
http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Levulose
The article below differentiates between levulose, found in fruits and fructose which is man-made.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024892_fructose_food_health.html
Sabine, the purpose of fructose is to make companies rich while at the same time it makes people sick. FDA, shame on you. Good old American business/politics. You just have to be part of the old boys club to get clearance.
Sabine, the purpose of fructose is to make companies rich while at the same time it makes people sick. FDA, shame on you. The FDA never bothered to do the research before sicking fructose on the populace. Good old American business/politics. You just have to be part of the old boys club to get clearance.
“People are confusing the sugar that is in fruit which is called levulose with fructose that is man-made. Really big difference between the two. The people who make fructose want you to be confused.
Google “levulose fructose” and you will get info.
Levulose – definition from Biology-Online.org
“THE BAN OF HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP IN THE U.S”
On Facebook, search for the page and sign the petition.
Google this article: “FDA Petitioned to Change Name of High-fructose Corn Syrup Take This with a Grain of Sugar”
Article lists some companies that no longer use fructose. Some cereals and breads contain fructose so read the package labels. Kelloggs and Post are fructose and/or HFCS users/abusers. I buy Greenway, Moms Best and Kashi at Pathmark. They don’t use fructose/HFCS. Vote with your wallet.
Google: “UCLA Study Finds Link Between Fructose Sugars and Cancer Growth” By Exception Staff | August 05, 2010
We should ask these research teams to do the same type of research on the other chemical sweeteners, including Isomaltulose. Take back your power, if you want it.
That’s right the Gov’t and FDA want to confuse you… and they are! All you people have Fructose confused with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which are completely different compounds, the latter a man made scientific creation derived from Corn. Fructose is a Natural sugar found most predominantly in fruits. Don’t get it twisted!!!
My mother did not have a diet of sugars, snacks, alcohol, and she died of this deadly cancer years ago. She was on the thinner side and did not eat foods with sugars. She was not a candy or snack eater, just her three meals a day. She was a coffee drinker, which is typical of a pancreatic cancer patient. She had to have her first morning coffee before she would even talk to anyone. (I always found it strange that someone would have to have coffee so they could talk) Needless to say I never wanted to drink coffee. She did eat canned veggies and organ meats, and cream cheese half of a sandwich for lunch. She did not have a lot of fiber in her diet as she did not eat fresh green salads or fresh veggies. Cooked broccoli was not on the menu either as she ate all canned foods, such as peas and green beans daily with her liver, ham (nitrates),teak or beef, and rarely chicken. So I beg to differ in her case that sugar was the culprit for her cancer. I think not eating fresh veggies contributed to her cancer. She didn’t have any antioxidants to combat the cancer cells.
I think we need to look at nitrates as a possible problem in cancer patients. I have another sister who was a heavy nitrate eater approximately six times a day snacking on Dietz and Wastson bologna lunch meat, and she died of colon cancer. She was a sugar eater and a heavy Diet Pepsi drinker. She was not a not a fresh green salad eater.
My other sister died of lung cancer and she was a heavy CocaCola drinker. She was an engineer and used a lot of chemicals in her job. She wasn’t a salad eater either.
In all these cases, none of them had fresh greens as part of their diet. There was nothing the combat the cancer cells on a daily bases. None of them took any type of vitamin supplements either.
please, someone explain … is the article specifically talking about HFCS? or fructose? i am confused….i eat lots of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries….those cant be bad for you with all those antioxidants!!! i am on a low fructose diet but i am allowed those berries and green apples only. do i have to eliminate all fruit, that just doesnt make sense to me!
I think the recent uptick in fructose studies (including high fructose corn syrup) is a good thing, however, until they rule out a possible GMO connection, then I consider these studies incomplete. It is very plausible that the source of the fructose could modify the effects. Most of these studies have been conducted using GM sourced fructose/HFCS OR the investigators have not controlled for the GM variable. They need to do these fructose/HFCS studies and either include a non-GM / organic fruit sourced fructose arm or control for GM completely to rule it as out as the contributing cause of proliferative obesity or cancer. Agricultural studies have shown a possible mechanistic link via GMO shown to act as a PPAR agonist. Follow-up studies need to be conducted to parse out the details. Best recommendation for now it seems: stay away from beet sugar, HFCS, canola, soy and soy-derived products, salmon –now–; indeed ANYTHING GM. Instead, eat healthy, whole, real food, grown under cover for optimal safety. It’s tough because Monsanto has completely infiltrated the commercial feed/food system despite the best efforts of the organic industry.
I think the recent uptick in fructose studies (including high fructose corn syrup) is a good thing, however, until they rule out a possible GMO connection, then I consider these studies incomplete. It is very plausible that the SOURCE of the fructose could modify the effects observed. Most of these studies have been conducted using GM sourced fructose/HFCS OR the investigators have not controlled for the GM variable. They need to conduct these fructose/HFCS studies and either include a non-GM / organic fruit sourced fructose arm or control for GM completely to rule it as out as a contributing cause of obesity or cancer via proliferative pathways. Agricultural studies have shown a possible mechanistic link, showing GMO as a possible PPAR agonist. Follow-up studies need to be conducted to parse out the details if this can be verified. Best recommendation for now, it seems: stay away from beet sugar, HFCS, canola, soy and soy-derived products, salmon –now–; indeed ANYTHING GM. Instead, eat healthy, whole, real food, grown under cover for optimal safety from potential fallout and/or ongoing chemtrail activity. It’s tough because Monsanto has completely infiltrated the commercial feed/food system despite the best efforts of the organic industry.
Just a word of warning: I have seen products with labels saying “corn sugars” and similar – pretty sure this is just HFCS with the ‘re-branding’ thanks to the FDA.
it’s a double whammy, (sugar) weakens the immune system, bad news all around, should be banned for children if anything