Accentuate the positive...eliminate the sugar?

There is a ton already written about the impact of sugar on public health. I'd like to look at it from the perspective of the cancer patient, or more specifically, the cancer patient's wife.

Lindy's policy on the past is pretty clear: no self-recriminations, no blaming, no examination of why he got cancer. Sure, he smoked for 20 years. Sure, he drank a lot of red wine; both major causes of esophageal cancer. But there are folks who did both and didn't get cancer. It's just impossible to target the causes precisely, so we don't even try. (The one time I said, in my despair, "I should have taken better care of you," I thought he would explode.)

 But the broad view, the cultural/societal view, the examination of the WHY, is critical. It's the only way to start to build the case for major change. And I'm a Baby Boomer which means I'm in this to change the world, no matter how ridiculous that idea is, especially to my GenX friends. (I look at generations the way others look at the Zodiac. It defines who we are and why, but is also produces generalizations that are just as often wrong as right. Still, it has a basis in history, so if you are not a typical GenXer, that in itself is interesting. But I digress.)

I have never been exactly ignorant of the food industry's culpability for problems of public health, but becoming a cancer patient's wife has made me dig into the details. Knowing about the food past helped me frame up what I wanted for his food present. I've noted the book Anti-Cancer so frequently you're probably sick of hearing about it, but it was truly inspirational. Then I found this talk that the author, David Servan-Schreiber, gave about the history of the food industry and the impact on public health.

So watch the video above.

I have also heard about the "sugar conspiracy," the successful attempt to villify fat as the cause of the increase of heart disease in the 1950s, but this video (above) gave me more details and is fun to watch.

There is no controversy about one thing: obesity causes cancer. So cutting back on sugar is just a good health practice.

This might be a good time to mention that I have something of an eating disorder, myself. I'm a compulsive eater, especially foods high in sugar. So this information should have a much bigger impact on me than on Lindy, who could live without sugar quite happily. However, when we get into the area of refined carbs, white flour, white bread, crackers, breakfast cereal, he is a bit more annoyed by the new restrictions.

Yesterday he got himself a bottle of organic wine (that in itself is a triumph for me) and I asked him to eat it with food, to slow the spike of his blood sugar. He came home with organic Ritz crackers. Facepalm! You don't slow absorption of sugar with something that is also going to spike your blood sugar. I didn't say anything, which I think is heroic of me. He'll read this and find out.

So, why can't people with cancer eat sugar? Well, it's controversial, like everything else involving the intersection between conventional medicine and "alternative" approaches. I've read things that say STOP STOP STOP EATING ALL CARBS RIGHT NOW OR YOU WILL DIE! and I've read things that say, avoiding sugar has no impact on tumors. What to do!

Well, it all comes down to what you've chosen to believe. Who you trust, what their reasons are for saying what they do, what their perspective is, and how good you think the science behind what they say is.

For example, the Dana-Farber oncologist who talked to us before we started chemo said Lindy really had to gain weight, so let him have all the ice cream he wanted. Conventional medical sites say there is no evidence that avoiding sugar will help.  But it comes down to this for me and for many others. In the words of David Servan-Schreiber,

Cancer feeds on sugar.

OK, read that sentence, and now read these pages:

Cancer causes: Popular myths about the causes of cancer
Sugar and Cancer
No Sugar, No Cancer? A Look at the Evidence

See what I mean?

Back to Servan-Schreiber:

"When we eat sugar or white flour -- foods with a high "glycemic index" -- blood levels of glucose rise rapidly. The body immediately releases a dose of insulin to enable the glucose to enter cells. The secretion of insulin is accompanied by the release of another molecule, called IGF (insulinlike growth factor), whose role is to stimulate cell growth. In short, sugar nourishes tissues and makes them grow faster. Furthermore, insulin and IGF have another effect in common: they promote the factors of inflammation, which ... also stimulate cell growth and act, in turn, as fertilizer for tumors."

There's more, but I don't want to type in the whole book. This is just one of the ways in which Servan-Schreiber says sugar helps cancer cells.

There is a strategy for coping with all this conflicting information. Eat mostly the stuff you know is good. Accentuate the positive, and if not eliminate, reduce the negative.

I have to say this about my own eating disorder: since Lindy was diagnosed, I am no longer anxious about my own weight, and I don't stress about what I eat. I don't weigh myself. Maybe that's entirely because I'm focused on him, but I think it's more than that. I think I feel better.

I did pig out on the organic Ritz crackers, my excuse being the more I eat the less HE will eat. And that's fine. Whatever. I have simply added into my diet much, much more of what is good, leaving less room in my day and in my belly for what is bad.

So decide for yourself what is believable and what to take action on. Remember, another uncontroversial fact is that stress DOES feed cancer. Whatever you choose, make peace with it, make it work, make it a positive and happy change in your life.

Lisa