Sugar exclusion

Summary

· Cutting out sugar from your diet has a number of possible health benefits

· Highly refined sugar may be one of the factors which lead to diabetes

· Cutting out sugar can help weight control (if your are overweight)

· There is some evidence that some cancers may be stimulated by sugar

How does this work?

There are claims that sugar feeds cancer cell growth and that therefore patients with cancer should cut sugar from their diet to deprive the cancer cells of this source of energy.

However, the evidence for this is, at best, circumstantial: it is true that all cells derive energy from carbohydrate; but highly refined sugar is simply one of many sources of such energy.

Despite that, there have been concerns that a diet high in sugar has a number of bad effects on health including dental decay, and, of course, obesity. In addition, diets high in sugar may be one of the factors that contribute to developing type II diabetes and people with diabetes have a high incidence of cancer and worse cancer outcomes. So there may be something to it after all.

What are the benefits?

The main direct benefit from cutting out sugar are likely to be in weight control (if you are overweight). Assuming you are not diabetic, you reduce your risk of becoming diabetic. Whether cutting out sugar really has a direct effect on cancer we can’t say for sure.

Healthy diet modifications like this are with everyone’s reach and setting yourself a challenge and successfully meeting it can be satisfying and restore a sense of control.

What is the evidence?

· Studies of cancer incidence in people with diabetes show significantly higher rates of cancer then in people who don’t have diabetes

· Laboratory studies of cancer cells show that, like other cells, they use carbohydrate as their main source of energy.

· Further lab studies have identified that one of the pathways that is damaged in cancer cells and appears to be driving cell growth is the insulin-like growth factor receptor pathway which is a key pathway in sugar metabolism.

· We have not been able to find any studies showing a direct anti-cancer effect from excluding sugar from diet.

As a result we are giving an approval score of 2, because, although there are no clinical trials proving a positive anti-cancer effect, there seems to be a reasonably good rationale for avoiding sugar and doing so does have definite health benefits generally.

Who would this be good for?

Unfortunately, it probably goes without saying that the people who would most benefit from sugar exclusion are those who have a sweet tooth. In addition, if you feel you are overweight and would like to slim down then excluding sugar from your diet is probably where you should start.

Who should be careful?

If you are underweight or losing weight, be careful about changing your diet in a way that reduces your daily calorie intake. This stands to reason: maintaining weight is more important than any theoretical benefit that may be associated with sugar exclusion.

Apart from that, as with all of the elements of PlanBe, we don’t want to be recommending people take on changes that they find are very difficult to comply with and are going to make them unhappy, guilty or depressed if they fail to stick to them. See the PlanBe Stepping Stones: everything has to start with self-compassion and being kind to yourself.

Myth busting

· Eating sugar will make your cancer grow: we just don’t know if this is true

Preparation and Self-Assessment

As part of your general preparation for starting your PlanBe, we recommend you keep a complete food diary for a week or so. A good place to start, if you are thinking of sugar exclusion, is to see how much sugar is currently in your diet. Sugar is in: soft drinks, sweets, chocolate, biscuits, cakes, and desserts but is also in a surprising number of other prepared foods such as breakfast cereals, baked beans, ketchup, salad cream etc.

You need to know whether you are over- or underweight: check your weight against your height to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI)

Local Resources

Dietary advice is available at your local GP practice, often from your GP Practice Nurse

Gadgets and Apps

There are lots of Apps available that help you monitor what you eat. MyFitnessPal is a popular one but there are many others.

Method / Planning what to do

Part of the challenge is deciding what to exclude. Sugar added to tea, for example, is easy. What about sugar in fruit? honey? It is not possible, or advisable, to try to exclude all carbohydrate from your diet. We recommend, that if you want to exclude sugar, you start with the highly refined sugar that is in sweets, biscuits, cakes, soft drinks etc. but don’t worry too much about fruit sources.

If you decide you are going to exclude sugar from your diet, another significant challenge is sticking to it. Will you go cold turkey or just try to cut back? What rewards can you give yourself to help maintain your commitment? Preparation here will pay dividends later.

Setting personal goals

A simple goal is to complete each day having avoided sweets and other sugary snacks and drinks. You can record this in your diary or one the online PlanBe.

Evaluating your progress

Keep an eye on your weight: if your weight falls below a healthy weight you may need to re-evaluate whether it is a good idea to go on with sugar exclusion.

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