One more reason to stop consuming so much sugar.
In addition to diabetes, obesity, and heart problems, a study conducted by University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers show that there is a link between sugar consumption and increased risk in breast and lung cancer.
Sugar is a source of energy for healthy cells in our body, but researchers have long hypothesized that they could also be the energy source that kicks cancer cells into overdrive. Proving this theory has been quite a challenge... until now.
So how did the researchers arrive at this conclusion? They tested their theory on mice, giving them sugar levels that were as parallel as possible to the normal consumption in a Western household. The mice used for this research were also susceptible to breast cancer in order to simulate genetic cancer markers that one would find in humans.
Results show that when the mice were six months old, 30% of those fed a starch-controlled diet had breast cancer compared to a range of 50% to 58% of mice with a heavy sucrose diet.In conclusion, researchers said that fructose (the two components of sucrose are glucose and fructose) was the "ingredient" that really aided breast cancer development.
In his statement, co-author Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., professor of Palliative, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Medicine said that, "The current study investigated the impact of dietary sugar on mammary gland tumor development in multiple mouse models, along with mechanisms that may be involved." "We determined that it was specifically fructose, in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, ubiquitous within our food system, which was responsible for facilitating lung metastasis and 12-HETE production in breast tumors."
In addition, they also concluded that high fructose consumption also led to a greater tendency of cancer metastasis to the lungs compared to the mice on the starch-dominant diet. As with most initial studies, the examiners suggested for additional follow-up investigation for this research.
