100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (59 page)

technically his “half” sister and brother (al -

though I do not allow that term in my house, as there is no such thing as

halves when it comes to sibling love). He also has three “half” sisters in

England from his father’s side of the family.

I had the pleasure of witnessing Ben’s joy when he was reunited with

his British sister, Faye, as I was making ready for my trip back to the treat-

ment center. Faye was kind enough to leave her “home sweet home” for

two weeks to help her father take care of Ben during my absence. Although

Ben is a boy of few words, I could tell by the way his face lit up that he

and Faye share that special brother-sister bond despite not growing up

I 243 J

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

together. I was so grateful that even the broad Atlantic could not keep this

family from uniting in a time of need. It also gave me great comfort to

know that when I do leave this world, at around the ripe old age of ninety,

Ben will continue to be loved and looked after by his family.

Cancer has a way of bringing families together.

If you are separated or estranged from someone in

your family, reach out to them in your time of need.

HEALTH TIP #60

Is Your Home Sweet Home Too Sweet?

H
ow can sugar be bad? It grows on a cane and helps the “medicine go

down”! If you haven’t heard all the hullabaloo about how bad sugar

is, listen up, because the evidence is mounting. (Go ahead and eat those

bon-bons now, because you may not want to after you read this.)

But first, a brief (very brief) lesson about what sugar is and what hap-

pens to it in your body: When you consume foods containing carbohydrates

(sugars are carbs), they are broken down and deposited in your blood as

glucose. Glucose triggers the pancreas to produce insulin, which is a hor-

mone that allows the glucose to be used in all your cells so you can think,

move around, go to work . . . basically “live.” If glucose couldn’t enter the

cells, they would die.

There are sugars that are naturally present in fruits and vegetables, and

then there are “added sugars.” Added sugars find their way into all processed

foods: store-bought breads, cakes, cookies, cereals, granola bars—anything

that was “made” by anything other than nature to make it taste good and

make you want to buy it.

These “added sugars” are the problem.

Remember that pancreas that produces the insulin? That pancreas,

which lies right next to its buddy and friend, the liver, works hard every day

responding to the foods you eat. Foods that allow the blood sugar to rise

Perk #60: Families United

245

slowly (vegetables, fruits, whole grains) give the pancreas ample time to pro-

duce insulin to effectively handle the sugar in your blood and get it into

your cells so your body can function in a healthy way.

But eating added sweeteners like refined white or brown sugar, or man-

made high fructose corn syrup, causes the blood sugar to rise very rapidly.

When your system is flooded with such a large amount of glucose, the pan-

creas has to work extra hard. That’s fine once in a while or for a short period

of time, but like anything else, livers and pancreases included, if you over-

work something continuously for a long time, it will wear out.

When your pancreas wears out, it is called “insulin resistance.” Simply

put, it means your body can’t handle the amount of glucose you are shov-

eling into it, and because of the lack of insulin needed to get the glucose

into the cells, your blood sugar remains high. Chronic elevated blood sugar

is the definition of diabetes and can also lead to other illnesses, like

heart disease, blindness, loss of limb sensation and

chronic pain and/or numbness, and loss of limbs.

When the pancreas is in trouble, its buddy, the

liver, wants to help out. When there is a very rapid

rise in blood sugar, like with the ingestion of

processed sugary foods, the liver metabolizes the

“fructose” part of the sugar and then converts the rest

of that sugar into liver fat. It’s okay—the liver doesn’t

have a complex about being fat. Because as soon as the blood sugar nor-

malizes, and with a little exercise from your muscles to work it off, the liver

fat begins to go away. The problem occurs when the blood sugar
doesn’t
nor-

malize and there is
little or no
exercise. The liver stays fat and gets fatter. Fat

livers can occur even if the person the liver belongs to is thin.

Fat livers are tired, sick livers. Fat livers also are part of a combination

of symptoms known as “metabolic syndrome,” which is related to obesity

(in particular, apple-shaped, obese folks), diabetes, high blood pressure, and

insulin resistance. It was also found that those with metabolic syndrome

have increased serum C-reactive proteins, which indicates inflammation in

the body. (The root of most major chronic illnesses is inflammation.) It is

widely accepted in medicine today that metabolic syndrome poses a risk

for many serious illnesses and is, unfortunately, on the rise.

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

Just like any chronic illness, high blood sugar and insulin resistance hap-

pen gradually over time. One candy bar or ice cream float won’t send your

pancreas and liver shouting for help. But if bad habits persist, with higher

and higher amounts of refined, added sugar and high fructose corn syrup

foods, this condition will eventually evolve. In the early 2000s with the

explosion of high-sugar soft drinks and energy bars, the U.S. Department

of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that the average person consumed 500

calories a day of refined sugar. (We’re not counting the sugar that occurs

in fruits and veggies here.) The increase in sugar consumption went hand

in hand with the rapid rise in the incidence of diabetes and obesity, from

6 million
diabetics in 1980 to over
14 million
ten years ago, to over
25

million
today (and that’s not counting the 7 million diabetics that don’t even

know they have it yet). I dare you to try and find a label of a processed food

that doesn’t have sugar listed in the ingredients. It’s very hard to do, as sugar

has found its way into peanut butter, bread, tomato sauce, ketchup, chips,

even table salt . . . the list is endless. Our taste buds have grown so accus-

tomed to everything tasting sweet that natural fruits and vegetables can taste

bland in comparison.

So what does that have to do with cancer? It is a well-accepted fact that

those with diabetes have an increased risk of cancer (as cited in the World

Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer). It all

has to do with blood sugar and insulin. The more refined sugar there is in

the blood, the faster the blood sugar rises, the more insulin must be pro-

duced to compensate. Tumors and many different kinds of cancers feed on

insulin. Research is now shining a spotlight on the mechanism of this

process in an attempt to understand how cancer develops and spreads.

One of the top researchers in this field is Dr. Craig Thompson, president

of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York, and one of the world

leaders in cancer research. Current research shows that insulin (and an

insulin-like hormone that follows it, IGF-1) acts as the green light that tells

precancerous cells to turn malignant and spread to other parts of the body.

Other researchers are building on this knowledge.

Stand Up To Cancer (www.standup2cancer.org) is an organization that

funds cutting-edge research without an agenda—political or otherwise. They

encourage teamwork instead of competition.

Perk #60: Families United

247

A huge Stand Up To Cancer grant was awarded to Dr. Lewis Cantley, for-

mer Harvard University researcher and current head of Weil Cornell Medical

College’s new cancer center. Since 2009, Dr. Cantley has led a “Dream Team”

of talented researchers to study the effect of an insulin-signaling gene (PI3K)

and its role in malignant women’s cancers, specifically breast, ovarian, and

endometrial.

Both Dr. Thompson, who also heads up a Stand Up To Cancer Dream

Team, and Dr. Cantley agree that if excess sugar (and by sugar we mean

“added” sugar) is the culprit in the development of insulin resistance, then

they
can
truly say that sugar causes cancer. The evidence is pointing that way,

and it looks like it won’t be long before it’s proven.

Of interesting note is that neither of these two brilliant scientists eats any

refined sugar in their own diets. Dr. Thompson told
New York Times
author

Gary Taubes, “I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet and eat as little

as I possibly can because I believe ultimately it’s something I can do to

decrease my risk of cancer.” Dr. Cantley simply said, “Sugar scares me.”

How can something so sweet elicit such bitter thoughts?

Your added sugar is hiding from you. Manufacturers are getting very cre-

ative with their ingredients lists. Sugar can sound so harmless and natural

when it’s listed as “natural pure cane sugar” or “brown rice syrup.” But alas,

added sugar is added sugar. Here are some sugar aliases:

●
date sugar
●
beet sugar

●
corn syrup
●
invert sugar

●
malt syrup
●
honey

●
maple syrup
●
fruit juice concentrate

●
lactose
●
maltodextrin

●
molasses
●
refiner’s syrup

●
barley malt
●
agave nectar

●
pretty much anything ending in -ose:
●
and many others

dextrose, maltose, galactose, sucrose

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

There are several sweeteners that do not raise the blood sugar and are

actually good choices when used in moderation. They are xylitol, stevia, and

yacon syrup, and I’m sure more will be available as the demand increases.

A word about “natural sweeteners”: Included in this list of “sugars” is

honey, maple syrup, molasses, and agave nectar. While these are less

processed and contain additional nutritional value by nature, they are still

sugar and should be limited in your diet. I would cer-

tainly recommend switching from processed white sugar

To help reduce your risk

to a more natural form when using a sweetener for cook-

of disease, take note of

ing, baking, and such. (By the way, a healthy diet does

where sugar is appearing

not include anything artificial, so I’m not even mention-

in your foods and make a

ing chemical, artificial, “no calorie” sweeteners here.)

conscious effort to reduce

Now that you know about sugar and cancer risk, just

it. Because you are sweet

be mindful of the foods you eat. It’s not the spoonful of

enough, don’t you think?