Uncle Wu was diagnosed with lung cancer some time ago. Fortunately, the course of the disease is still in the early stage, and he soon recovered and was discharged after treatment. After returning home, his wife attached great importance to Uncle Wu’s diet and searched online for various dietary patterns suitable for cancer patients.

By chance, my wife saw an article saying that sugar would promote the development of cancer, so she began to strictly control Uncle Wu’s sugar intake. This is very uncomfortable for uncle Wu, because he likes sweets himself. My wife not only doesn’t put sugar when cooking, but also doesn’t let him add sugar when drinking soybean milk.

When drinking soybean milk this morning, Uncle Wu secretly added a few spoonfuls of sugar, turned around and was found by his wife, and then was severely scolded. Uncle Wu is also very unconvinced. He thinks that his wife has read some pseudo-popular science articles. Now he will take his wife to the hospital to ask the doctor if sugar can be eaten.

01

The latest research: sugar can directly promote cancer!

Sugar is one of the condiments often eaten in life. In recent years, there are more and more debates about it. It is even said that sugar will promote the occurrence of cancer. What is going on?

There is no denying that cancer cells have a special preference for sugar. Compared with normal cells, the amount of glucose required by cancer cells for metabolism is more than 10 times that of normal cells.

Many scientific studies also show that a high-sugar diet will increase the risk of cancer. Researchers at Harvard Medical School once published a study in JAMA, which included data of 98,000 postmenopausal women and followed them for 21 years. It was found that compared with women who drank less than three sugary drinks a day, women who drank one or more sugary drinks a day had an increased risk of liver cancer by 85%.

In the past, the medical community generally believed that glucose promoted cancer by participating in various metabolic pathways, but a recent study pointed out that glucose itself is a signal molecule that can induce cancer without metabolism.

Researchers at Duke University in the United States once published a study in Cell Metabolism, which pointed out that glucose, as a single signal molecule, can directly bind to activate NSUN2, inhibit cGAS/STING pathway, promote the occurrence of cancer and increase the drug resistance of immunotherapy.

With the development of science and technology, more and more cancer treatments have entered our lives, among which the advent of PD-1 and PD-L1 immunotherapy has brought new hope to many cancer patients, but the mechanism of immune resistance against PD-1 and PD-L1 is still unclear.

The researchers further explored the therapeutic effect of targeting glucose /NSUN2/TREX2 axis, and knocked out the gene encoding NSUN2/TREX2 in breast cancer cells and prostate cancer cells which were tolerant to PD-L1 inhibitor.

The results showed that whether the gene was deleted or not, it could activate cGAS/STING pathway, thus exerting anti-cancer activity and overcoming the drug resistance of cells to PD-L1 inhibitors. In other words, targeting glucose /NSUN2/TREX2 axis is directly related to cancer development and overcoming drug resistance in immunotherapy, which may become a new idea for cancer treatment.

02

Can cancer patients still eat sugar?

The fast growth of cancer cells is related to its ability to absorb a lot of energy in glucose. As a result, many people think that eating sugar is "feeding" cancer cells. In order to prevent the disease from getting worse, I will strictly limit the sugar intake in my diet every day. Can this really stop the development of cancer?

Sugar, also known as carbohydrates, will be hydrolyzed into glucose and fructose after entering the body, then absorbed into the blood by the body, and finally entered the cells as raw materials for breathing to provide energy for the body. All cells in the body need glucose to provide energy. Without glucose, the body will have no energy source and life activities will not be normal.

Cancer cells and normal cells have different energy metabolism pathways. Cancer cells mainly use glucose to generate energy through anaerobic glycolysis, which is inefficient, which directly leads to the demand for glucose for cancer cells is much higher than that for normal cells. Therefore, many people think that cancer cells can starve to death without eating sugar.

In fact, in addition to cancer cells, normal cells also need to absorb sugar to provide energy for organs to maintain operation. Moreover, glucose is not the only source of nutrition for cancer cells. Without sugar, cancer cells will absorb a large amount of protein to produce their abilities, and even plunder the nutrients of normal cells.

So if you don’t eat sugar, not only can you not starve cancer cells, but you may starve normal cells first.

Cancer patients should learn to eat sugar instead of being unable to eat sugar. Li Ying, Department of Nutrition, xuanwu hospital, Capital Medical University, said that cancer patients should learn these three things when eating sugar:

Learn to read the ingredient list: read the ingredient list when buying food, and try to eat as little as possible when you see ingredients related to adding sugar, such as sweet drinks, desserts, snacks and biscuits.

The staple food should be thick and thin: compared with fine rice flour, the GI value of coarse grains is lower, and the blood sugar fluctuation after eating is smaller. Pay attention to the thick and thin collocation in daily staple food, and you can’t just eat coarse grains or flour and rice. Optional coarse grains include corn, black rice, Redmi, oats, buckwheat and other grains; Miscellaneous beans such as yellow mung beans, red beans and black beans; Tubers such as sweet potato, yam and potato.

Beware of sugar-free food: sugar-free food does not mean that it is completely sugar-free. According to the relevant standards in China, sugar content ≤ 0.5g/100g (solid) or 100ml (liquid) can be marked as sugar-free or sugar-free. Some foods without sucrose may also contain sweeteners and other sugar substitutes. Excessive intake of these sugars will also increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, which is not good for health.

03

It is these five foods that really accelerate cancer lesions.

The most fundamental cause of cancer is gene mutation, but some external factors in life can also induce the pathological changes of cancer cells. The following five foods have been listed as "first-class carcinogens" by the International Agency for Cancer of the World Health Organization, so it is best to eat less.

1. Processed meat

Processed meat is classified as a class 1 carcinogen by WHO, and daily common sausages, bacon, ham and braised pork all belong to the category of processed meat. Because there is a large amount of nitrite in processed meat, the substance is converted into nitrosamine after entering the body. Nitrosamine is a clear carcinogen, and long-term contact will increase the risk of cancer in the body.

2. Pickled food

Pickled vegetables and salted fish are the "artifacts" that many people like to eat, but the nitrite content in vegetables will increase greatly during the pickling process. Especially in vegetables preserved for 3 weeks, the nitrite content in them will reach the peak, and will gradually fall back after 30 days.

3. Moldy food

There is likely to be aflatoxin in moldy food, which has strong toxicity and carcinogenic effect. When it enters the body, it will cause abdominal pain and diarrhea, and it will cause cancer.

Once moldy food is found in daily life, such as moldy peanuts, corn, rice, fruits, bitter nuts and melon seeds, it should be discarded in time, and the moldy parts must not be removed and eaten continuously, and some parts invisible to the naked eye may also be polluted.

4. Barbecue food

When food is baked at high temperature, the fat, cholesterol and other components inside will be pyrolyzed and thermally polymerized, and then benzopyrene will be formed. Benzopyrene is a clear carcinogen, which can increase the risk of various cancers.

5. Alcohol

Alcohol itself is not a carcinogen, but the real danger is acetaldehyde formed by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase after alcohol enters the body. Acetaldehyde is a clear carcinogen, which will directly bind to DNA, induce gene mutation, and finally easily induce cancer.

For patients with cancer, it is not that they can’t eat sugar at all, but that they should eat it selectively. Maintaining a healthy dietary pattern is more critical to health.

References:

[1] Is there a new breakthrough in the carcinogenesis of glucose? ! Optimization strategy of sugar and lipid focusing on anti-tumor therapy. Yimaitong Oncology Department 2023-09-14

[2] Nutrition Science | Can cancer patients eat sugar? Department of Clinical Nutrition, Yunnan Cancer Hospital 2023-10-08

[3] Published by WHO! Seven kinds of cancer-causing bombs are hidden on the dining table in Chinese! ".Health sector 2021-10-17.

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Original title: "WHO publishes a list of first-class carcinogens: don’t want to provoke cancer, don’t eat five foods easily."

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