A few weeks ago I diagnosed a patient with breast cancer. Thankfully, it is at a highly treatable stage; however she asked me what she can do to improve her outcomes and her future. I checked her fasting glucose and fasting insulin because, as they say, cancer feeds on sugar. Hers were much higher than they should be however they were not in diabetic range.
When I am looking at blood sugar, I want fasting levels to be under 85mg/dL. The normal blood test says a sugar level (glucose) should be under 99mg/dL, in between 100 and 125 mg/dL is considered impaired fasting glucose and over 126 mg/dL is diabetic.
To many, a fasting level under 85mg/dL sounds crazy however I am dealing with cancer here. Oddly enough, I also want you under 85mg/dL if you are trying to lose weight.
When I look at fasting insulin, I want a fasting level to be under 10 microU per ml however the normal range is between 5-20 microU per ml.
I told this particular patient she needs to avoid all sugar and all simple carbohydrates. I advised her to limit her complex carbohydrates – limit the brown rice, only one piece of whole wheat bread in her sandwich, no pasta, no pretzels, no yogurt, no granola, no chocolate (gasp! I know!), no wine and so forth. I asked her to choose low glycemic foods including vegetables and free-range/hormone-free meat.
She also needed to start weight lifting as muscles burn a lot of sugar without the need of insulin.
Research shows that blood glucose and insulin may have an impact on breast, colorectal, pancreatic, endometrial and prostate cancer. In a normal, healthy cell, it goes through phases of a life cycle where it eventually dies. In cancer, those cells don’t die and use glucose to proliferate and grow. If you are eating mostly vegetables and other low glycemic foods, you reduce the food source for those cancer cells.
If you or someone you know was diagnosed with cancer, please make the necessary dietary changes to eliminate sugar and starve those bad cells!