Stanford University School of Medicine scientists identified a compound that attacks certain cancer cells by depriving them of their favorite food, the sugar glucose.
We know this is so. If you get a PET scan imaging test these days, they have you avoid sugars for 3 days. Then they give you an IV of radioactive isotopes that are piggy-backed on top of glucose. Your sugar-deprived cancer cells head for this sugary duo, and they “find each other.” This enables the docs to see if you have cancer cells and where they are.
But it’s based on the authenticated information that cancer cells love sugar, and need it to grow.
At Stanford this study was done on kidney cancer cells. Kidney cancer cells adore and need sugar. They make energy through a process called aerobic glycolysis (which healthy cells don’t use), which is dependent on taking up glucose from the surrounding environment, inside the body.
When they cancer cells can’t get glucose, they starve.
Renal cell carcinoma cells aren’t the only cancer cells that are love glucose (blood sugar). Many cancers do. Many cancer cells, if they can’t get glucose, end up starving, which causes them to die. (Science Translational Medicine 2011)
Looking at this from a nutritionist’s viewpoint, cancer patients should be instructed in sensible ways to help starve their cancer. One intelligent take-home is to consume a low glycemic diet, foods under 50 on the 0-100 glycemic scale. Makes great sense. But many cancer patients are not informed of this, or are told that diet has nothing to do with their treatment or prevention of recurrence.
I hate it when science and common sense bump heads in the clinical trenches with arrogance and nonsense that can hurt the patient, not insurance reimbursement. Ugh! Let’s change this around. Inform your loved ones with cancer that what they put in their mouths, especially avoiding sugary foods, and consuming healthy gene-promoting foods, matters.