Cancer - Fact or Fiction - Does Sugar Cause Cancer?

Whether sugar is or is not linked to cancer is a question that is really not all that easy to answer. There is no quick or definitive 'yes or no' answer to this question that has the backing of any of the major health organizations such as the American Medical Association.

There are many great articles from reputable health care professionals that explain the complexity of sugar in your diet and what, if any, link there might be to sugar and cancer. There are no iron clad facts that provide the undisputed science to back these claims that make a link between the two absolutely clear.

Hundreds of bogus articles and unfortunately, so many unfounded statements, have been floating out in the stratosphere for many years about a link between sugar and cancer.

My quest to help answer this question started about 4 years ago. I read one of these questionable articles that made clear a link between sugar and the potential for being diagnosed with cancer. Alarmed at what I was reading, I started my own in-depth research on this subject.

After my initial research, it was evident that, that particular article was not entirely based in scientific facts. So I debunked all of the details of that article and I started my homework on the subject.

Little by little, and after a lot of reading, I gathered information that I can share with you in this article. To reassure my readers, I am only using information received from reputable, professional health care organizations such as the American Cancer Society, American Medical Association, the Mayo Clinic and the like.

There are numerous websites that get your attention by trying to sell you something that you think you need. They swear that their miracle product will 'detox' your body from getting cancer and other really scary diseases and disorders. Or that you can drop 10 pounds in 2 days!

Sometimes it's a new and improved vitamin or a 'body cleanse' that will work miracles on your entire body. Beware of these types of websites. Their main goal is to make money and they don't care how they make it.

Clearly, and only in my opinion, these types of scare tactics and pressure to buy some new cure-all product is a huge distraction to the real facts of the matter. And the other side of that is, do you really know what you just bought? Is it safe? Will it negatively interact with some other vitamin or prescription that you might be taking?

If you can't confidently answer those questions in the affirmative, don't buy their hype!

Let's be honest, cancer is not going to be prevented or cured with a new vitamin pill. God willing, in the future cancer and other terrible diseases might be cured or prevented with a pill, but science is just not there yet.

Some of us are clearly addicted to our sugar. We crave it like we crave our cup of hot java in the morning. We crave it morning, noon and night. We crave it when we're stressed and when we're happy. There is no end to the cravings for a real sugar addict, but maybe there should be.

We don't have to ask the AMA if sugar is good for us. It isn't something that actually adds nutrients to our diet. What it does do is satisfy that 'feel good thing' when we're hungry, tired, aggravated, happy, sad, and so forth.

Sugar satisfies the cravings from our brain for that feel good feeling, the increase in dopamine. It gives us that sugar rush for added energy especially in the afternoon. It rots our teeth and builds bacteria in our mouth which causes bad breath. It increases joint pain and it ages our skin faster.

Have you had enough yet? Well these next few are really important!

With excess sugar in our system, our liver, heart, pancreas and kidneys all have to work harder to filter it out, get rid of and process that extra sugar and can negatively effect our ability or inability to keep our insulin levels in check.

Last but not least, sugar puts on all those extra pounds!

This is the simple truth, the bottom line, the skinny, as we know it today on the sugar and cancer question.

When sugar enters your body it turns into glucose. Glucose is needed to feed cells with energy. Glucose is also responsible for cell growth, all cells, healthy cells and cancer cells.

However, there is no scientific link that has been proven to definitely say that sugar feeds cancer cells. Sugar turns into glucose and feeds energy to all cells.

As of this writing there is no proof that depriving your body of sugar will slow down cancer cell growth and likewise, eating excess sugar doesn't make those cancer sells grow faster.

So just because we don't have a definitive link between sugar and cancer, should we try to curtail our intake anyway?

After my research I decided that cutting back on my sugar intake would definitely be beneficial to my overall health. Another reason for cutting back on my sugar intake is that as I'm aging, my metabolism has slowed down so losing a pound or two isn't going to be a bad thing.

In the beginning it was a little difficult not to pick up that chocolate bar while going through the grocery store check-out but I've made it though with flying colors!

Some of the myths about cancer being linked to sugar have a life of their own.

This article does point out that sugar is not really good for us and there are some medical conditions directly related to excess sugar intake.

There are still many studies that are ongoing to research the links or lack of links between sugar and certain types of cancer.

However, sugar has been associated with obesity and diabetes which may increase the risk of cancer.

I hope this article was helpful and I look forward to your comments.