Here’s what doctors won’t tell their cancer patients about high fructose corn syrup

Step Back!

A California researcher has called on the federal government to “step back on the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diets.”

Right. I can see it now: Federal HFCS agents roaming grocery store aisles and hanging out beside soda machines where they’ll advise consumers to step back on their HFCS consumption.

Or maybe this researcher–Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA–has something else in mind. Maybe he’s aware that the U.S. government has generously contributed to the HFCS boom by imposing high tariffs to discourage sugar imports, while subsidizing farms that produce the raw material for HFCS: corn.

In any case, Dr. Heaney just wants to help cancer patients live longer.

Can’t argue with that.

Cancer 101

When Dr. Heaney and his UCLA team recently exposed pancreatic cancer cells to fructose, they found that fructose prompted a dramatic growth of the malignant cells.

In the journal Cancer Research, they wrote, “These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation.” And even worse, they believe that fructose may have this effect on other types of cancer cells–not just pancreatic cancer.

Of course, the Corn Refiners Association immediately responded with a press release, calling the conclusions of the UCLA study “premature.”

Fair enough. After all, it was a lab study, and what happens in a Petri dish can be very different from what happens in the body.

Still, I’d be willing to bet a paycheck that further research will very likely show that fructose does play some sort of role in cancer cell proliferation. For two reasons: 1) HFCS intake has already been linked with increased pancreatic cancer risk, and 2) It’s all about sugar, which is 50% fructose and 50% glucose.

About 80 years ago, German Otto Warburg, Ph.D., showed that glucose is a potent fuel for cancer cell growth. And this wasn’t some harebrained theory. It was proof. And it won Dr. Warburg a Nobel Prize.

For decades, the medical community has been aware of the danger for cancer patients who eat foods with added sugars and refined simple carbohydrates. So for every cancer patient, this advice should be considered Cancer 101: Wean yourself from these foods, and then restrict consumption as much as possible.

As for high fructose corn syrup, if you have cancer, you can’t go wrong to avoid it completely. And if you don’t have cancer…well, you can’t go wrong to avoid it completely!

But whatever you do, don’t wait for the government to dream up some bureaucratic Rube Goldberg program designed to step back our HFCS intake.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Sources:
“Fructose Induces Transketolase Flux to Promote Pancreatic Cancer Growth” Cancer Research, Vol. 70, No. 15, 8/1/10, cancerres.aacrjournals.org
“Cancer cells slurp up fructose, US study finds” Reuters, 8/2/10, reuters.com