Many factors contribute to the cause of cancers. The cause of many cancers are unknown. There is a strong belief that sugar causes cancers. In some cases this can be a contributing factor. But not the total picture.

Every cell in your body uses blood sugar (glucose) for energy. Cancer cells use about 200 times more than normal cells. Tumors that start in the thin, flat (squamous) cells in your lungs gobble up even more glucose. They need  huge amounts of sugar to fuel their growth.

The sugar your cells need comes from your diet. And not just from gooey desserts or giant white chocolate mochas. Sugar is also found in:

Fruit (fructose)

Vegetables (glucose)

Dairy products (lactose)

Carbs like white bread, white pasta, and white rice

Not eating these foods has no proof that it will lower your risks. One exception is cancer of the esophagus, the tube that runs from your throat to your stomach. A recent study suggest that sugar and sweetened drinks may raise the chances of this cancer by 70% or more. Highly spiced foods can also generate this type of cancer.

The American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute, doesn’t think sugar causes cancer. They say the real problem is obesity. And a lack of exercise.

Fat cells release inflammatory proteins called adipokines. They can damage DNA and eventually cause tumors. The more fat cells you have, the more of these proteins you are likely to have.

Being overweight or obese puts you at risk for at least 13 types of cancer, including breast, liver and colon cancer.

Other cancer experts say sugar itself can drive cancer. One such expert is cancer researcher Lewis Cantley, director of the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

Cantley thinks some cancers may start with high levels of insulin, the hormone that controls the amount of sugar in your blood. He says his research shows that “Having high levels of insulin is likely to drive cancer. And what drives insulin levels is sugar.”

Always have an A1C test with your routine blood work. Which includes glucose. The A1C test evaluates how high your glucose levels are over the course of three months.

An article published by Craig Thompson, CEO and President for Memorial Sloan Kettering is an expert on cancer metabolism. In the article by Matthew Tontonoz who interviewed Mr. Thompson for his article No Sugar, No Cancer? A Look at the Evidence, reports that there is a lot of confusing and misleading information on the internet about the relationship between sugar and cancer. The notion that refined sugar causes cancer or that cutting sugar from the diet is a good way to treat cancer are two common and incorrect theories.

That’s unfortunate, because there is important, real science to understand about diet and cancer. To help sort out fact from fiction, Mr. Thompson, who studies the relationship between metabolism and cancer.

There is no question that obesity is associated with an increased risk of cancer. The abundance of refined carbohydrates in our diet is one of the major foundations on which the worldwide epidemic of obesity is built. By carbohydrate this refers to refined carbohydrates. Not vegetables and certain fruits. We need these.

The fundamental basis of obesity is eating more calories than you can burn over a period of time. Many people assume that if a person has a lot of body fat, it is because they ate too much fat! In addition to sugar. That makes intuitive sense, but it isn’t the total truth. Pretty much all you do with fats that you eat is burn them for energy. If you don’t exercise then obesity develops.

The fats you put into your fat cells are by and large made from refined carbohydrates. but it took 25 years for research to figure that out.

WHY IS HAVING TOO MUCH STORED-AWAY FAT DANGEROUS?

Research knows that fat cells are signaling cells. We used to think they were just storage depots. Like the garage where you put your car. But it is known that this isn’t true. Fat cells, through the hormones they produce, are a major regulator of inflammation in the body.

Refined carbohydrates raise insulin levels. Could abnormal levels of insulin lead to cancer?

Insulin is a hormone that helps control your body’s blood sugar level and metabolism, the process that turns the food you eat into energy. Insulin’s job is to tell the cells in our body, “hey, there’s a lot of glucose. We should use it.” Therefore, if we could get people to produce less insulin, they might do better. But the real root problem of the worldwide obesity epidemic – and cancer as a result of obesity – has to do with too much caloric intake. It has little to do with abnormal insulin signaling.

Your pancreas makes insulin and releases it into your bloodstream. Insulin helps your body use sugar for the energy it needs, and then it stores the rest. Your pancreas is an organ that sits just behind your stomach. It releases insulin to control the level of glucose in your blood.

WHAT INSULIN DOES

After you eat, your intestines break down carbohydrates from food into glucose, a type of sugar. That glucose goes into your bloodstream, which makes your blood sugar level rise.

Your body makes and releases insulin in a feedback loop based on your blood sugar level. At its most basic level, it’s similar to your home’s heating and cooling system, which releases cool or warm air as the temperatures rise and fall.

High glucose (blood sugar) simulates clusters of special cells, called beta cells, in your pancreas to release insulin. The more glucose you have in your blood, the more insulin your pancreas releases.

Insulin helps move glucose into cells. Your cells use glucose for energy. Your body stores any extra sugar in your liver, muscles, and fat cells.

EXERCISE 

Exercising is one of the most common recommendations health experts give for reducing your blood sugar levels. But, they also say that exercise can cause your blood sugar levels to spike. So, which statement is true?

Both actually. Understanding why this is the case, though, is a key part of managing your metabolic health. it’s especially important if your have prediabetes or a strong predisposition to diabetes, and you are overweight.

THE AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION advises that exercise can lower your blood sugar levels for up to 24 hours (or more) because.

• Your muscle cells use available insulin more efficiently, meaning you increase your insulin sensitivity.
• Your muscles use more glucose during exercise than when they’re resting. This greater uptake of blood sugar into your muscle cells naturally lower blood sugar levels.

When you exercise, your body relies on two sources of fuel: glucose and fat. How your blood sugar changes during exercise depends on the intensity levels of your workout and the fuel source your body is using.

Steady-state cardio exercises, like jogging or gentle swimming, don’t rely on your body having to produce quick bursts of exercise. In these cases, it  gets more of its energy from fat, so your blood sugar will usually stay at the same levels or decrease.

When you have just eaten or are resting, glucose uptake into your muscles relies on insulin. If your blood sugar level rises (like after eating a meal loaded with carbs), it stimulates insulin release. The insulin then acts on your cells to use or store the excess glucose.

The uptake of glucose is much different when you are exercising. According to the American Journal of Physiology, exercise increases muscle glucose uptake up to 100-fold compared to being at rest!

This uptake does not rely on insulin. Scientists suggest that it is due to a protein called glucose transporter type 4 (known as GLUT4). But even they are still figuring out exactly how it happens.

It’s important to note that the muscle glucose uptake that happens during exercise can still occur in people who suffer from insulin resistance and diabetes. In this case, it acts as an effective lifestyle treatment for anyone with these conditions.

Moderate-intensity exercise improves blood glucose (BG), but most people fail to achieve the required exercise volume. High-intensity exercise (HIE) suggestions vary. Maximal cycle ergometer sprint interval training typically requires only 2.5 minutes HIE and a total training time commitment (including rest and warm up) of 25 minutes per session. the effect of brief high-intensity exercise on blood glucose levels of people with and without diabetes is reviewed in an article titled The Impact of brief high-intensity exercise on blood glucose levels published in the Diabetes Metabolism Syndrome Obesity. The full article can be found on https://www.ncbi.mlm.nih.gov.