Give up Sugar or Fat?

Which should you give up – sugar or fat? Sugar may be a much harder habit to break, according to some researchers.

A recent study was based on the idea that cancer is fueled by sugar. The theory is simple: if most aggressive cancers rely on the fermentation of sugar for growing and dividing, then take away the sugar and they should stop spreading. Meanwhile, normal body and brain cells should be able to handle the sugar starvation; they can switch to generating energy from fatty molecules called ketone bodies — the body's main source of energy on a fat-rich diet — an ability that some or most fast growing and invasive cancers seem to lack.

Patients with cancer were asked to give up all forms of refined sugar during a clinical trial. However, several patients dropped out of the trial because they couldn't give up sugar and sweets. One of the researchers said, "We didn't expect this to be such a big problem, but a considerable number of patients left the study because they were unable or unwilling to renounce soft drinks, chocolate and so on." These are people with cancer.

Kick the artificial sugars, too. .Aspartame, Nutrasweet, Splenda, and even low carb sugar products (protein bars that are "low sugar") don't quell sugar cravings, but increase them. A study at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio found that a person's risk for obesity went up a whopping 41% for each daily can of Diet soda.

 

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