BITTER TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR

MOST people know that eating too many sugary or starchy foods is linked to obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and strokes.

And a diet high in sugar can also lead to poor gut health, leaky gut syndrome (where cracks or holes appear in the weakened gut wall allowing bacteria and toxins to get to the blood stream) and chronic inflammation, which I will explain in Monday’s paper.

But quite apart from this, numerous studies have shown that people who consume a lot of sugar also have increased cancer risks.

Researchers who analysed 60,000 Singaporean adults for 14 years reported those drinking two or more sugary drinks a week nearly doubled their risk of developing a cancer — and increased the risk of pancreatic cancer by nearly 90 per cent.

Although high sugar intake can lead to obesity, which raises cancer risk, eating a lot of sugary foods, independent of weight, can increase the number of DNA-damaging free radicals.

There’s also evidence that sugar can cause cancer cells to multiply quicker.

They trigger over-production of an enzyme called insulin-like growth factor (IGF) which, when added to cancer cells in lab experiments, causes them to grow like wildfire and develop a resistance to drugs and cells that might normally kill them.

Two large international studies involving patients who had been treated for cancer found those with a higher IGF rate had an increased relapse rate.

Fortunately losing weight, fasting and exercising all lower IGF, which decreases the risk of cancer or relapse after cancer.

There are numerous ways to reduce your intake of sugar and starchy foods — from cutting out cakes, biscuits and sugary drinks to avoiding white bread, white rice and breakfast cereals.

Simply removing all foods with processed sugar from staff rooms and replacing them with fruit and nuts in our four-month experiment at Bedford Hospital led to an average weight loss of 10 per cent among our staff — without intentionally dieting.