Can a Low Sugar Diet 'Starve Cancer?'

Cancer is scary. And fear can lead us to try and find hope in some pretty dubious treatment suggestions. There's a myth circulating in internet health circles that eating a low-sugar diet can somehow starve the cancer and shrink tumors. Today we'll look at how that is supposed to work, and look at the research on whether any of it is real.

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Credits:
Aaron Carroll -- Writer
Meredith Danko – Social Media
Tiffany Doherty -- Writer and Script Editor
John Green -- Executive Producer
Stan Muller -- Director, Producer
Mark Olsen – Art Director, Producer

[clipsidevids]

Cancer is a metabolic disease and therefore what you eat really does matter..

Sugar and carbs are really the main culprit

[janicebailey]

More Doctors / experts are saying that cutting out sugar can help starve cancer cells. What is this persons field of medicine. He did not say.

[jenniferdagnat]

So the evidence is inconclusive but you decide to make bold claims anyway. I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer which rapidly developed into Stage 3 because the tumor was growing so quickly. My doctors only expected chemo to shrink the cancer by about 30-60 percent. I switched to a ketogenic diet while undergoing chemo and at the end of 6 months the tumor and cancer cells were completely gone. The only thing left was the biopsy clips. The majority of people gain weight when on chemo or develop a "chemo belly" my doctors were at first concerned that I was losing weight. I can't say for certain if the keto diet helped me get the more optimal outcome but when you're diagnosed with cancer most people would try anything to help their body heal itself. Telling people to not to try to help their bodies and instead eat whatever they want because it doesnt matter anyway then say this is backed by "science" is disingenuous at best.

[bobbarker]

There is soooo much evidence though. My bull-shite meter is through the roof on this one!

[Alifeofglory]

I have cancer and I noticed that I have a lot more symptoms after eating any type of sugar. Also I heard from a nurse that when they want to see where the cancer has spread they use a sugar solution and track where in the body it goes. How do you explain this?

[shantube]

Can a low sugar diet alone kill cancer? That question distracts from the corollary, "Does sugar feed cancer". Which has been proven to be the case.

This video does more harm then good. Yes, it is shameful to elevate your blood sugar for extended periods of time while trying to be anti-cancerous.

[broccool]

What I get from this is that you can't confirm nor deny it has positive effects on cancer. What we do know is that lowering your sugar intake is absolutely beneficial to your health no matter if you have cancer or not. Sure there are people who will prey on people who love sugar with pastries and there are people who will prey on people who believe in the elimination of sugar for starving cancer, but who can say what side is doing more damage? If you asked me the people who prey on sugar lovers have a much more detrimental effect on health outcomes than the other way around.

[sandyx]

I have been reading more & more cases of keto diets reversing stage 3 & 4 cancer. I think you should take that into consideration. Flatly saying stop having sugar, misses the fact that once glycogen is unavailable, the body changes to ketosis mechanism to generate energy. Cancer cells cannot suvive on that. It however takes a month for ketosis to kick in. Overall, extremely poor research in this video

[gummybears]

Strange that a non medical doctor, just some random person with a Youtube account is discussing this topic and quoting at 2:25 m that some studies were done and as usual not providing links to these studies. Unscientific for sure and anecdotal at best. Perhaps conflicts of interest?

Of course your body is capable of making glucose via gluconeogenesis. that is not what is the problem or the issue. And of course healthy cells need glucose or ketones to function but you should take into account that cancer cells are unhealthy cells. These tumor cells are not efficiently using the glucose via the Kreb (producing 36 ATP from glucose) but the less efficient glycolysis, producing at best 2 ATP per glucose. So tumor cells need much more glucose to survive and to grow and divide. Limiting the extragenous glucose intake will stress the cancer stem cells and full grown tumor cells. This is an important fact which he ignores to mention. Also limiting the amount of cholesterol will stress these cancer cells. A plant based diet can help with the latter.

It is really simple, ignore this guy and do your own research on PubMed.

[Zeyev]

Thanks. I'm a diabetic who is living with three types of cancer. Were there a singular cure, instead of just treatment, for all of my ailments, I would be all in. I'm not fond of getting my hopes up for no reason.

[nawnaw]

this guys is full of certitude in a field where there is a lot of unknown

[bigmike]

Awesome video, any chance there's any data on fasting and if it has any effect on cancer?

[Westerlywick]

I had breast cancer in 2019, and the number of people who were suddenly health professionals giving me health advice was astonishing. During chemo, all I could keep down was potato chips, peanut butter, and ice cream. My oncologist was totally fine with this because eating anything is important during chemo to maintain strength. I will have to show people who still give me grief about my diet (while eating the things they say I should avoid in front of me) a link to this video.

[richardbautista]

So … if it is inconclusive, diet still gives hope .. and wouldn’t you want to do everything in your power to overcome it?

[Eric_D_]

Back when I was recently diagnosed, I was definitely subjected to a lot of comments about sugar supposedly feeding the cancer while I was eating something sugary, my doctors at the time were telling me that I needed to gain weight, so they were fine with it. Nice to see someone trying to communicate the real science on the subject.

[johnnyappleseed]

He’s clearly reading from cards behind the camera man. I’m assuming someone else is there too holding a gun pointed at him.

[venom]

Friends' mother died of cancer. When she was in the hospital, they gave her a dye injection. My friend asked what was the dye for. Doctor said it was basically just liquid sugar with dye in it. Asked him, "why do you use sugar dye?". Doctor said, "the dye is so we can see/track it, the sugar will go directly to the cancer. That way they can see exactly where the cancer is."
Wouldn't that be reason enough to think cancer is feeding on sugar??
Just curious

[bersl]

If/when cancer comes for me, I still feel that I would want to try a ketogenic diet in combination with the other clinically recommended courses of action. Bypassing glycolysis as much as possible may be a marginal effect due to gluconeogenesis, but every little bit helps.

[cassieoz]

So, no mention of the role of insulin in cancer growth (it's a necessary addition to many cancerous cell culture). Given that upto 80% of adult Americans may be hyperinsulinaemic, this is a significant omission.

[allenweston]

The medical doctors I’ve listened to online state affecting cancer is about lowering your blood glucose level not just specifically avoiding sugar therefore a keto type diet. This diet does interfere with the reproduction of the cancer cells and can be combined with conventional treatments. Why the presenter would limit his video to just sugar is misleading.