New research finds that cancerous tumors feast upon sugar to become more aggressive, as reported by the Science Daily.The study was a nine-year joint research effort that focused on the Warburg effect, which is the method by which cancer cells quickly break down sugar and stimulate the growth of tumors.
The Link Between Cancer & Sugar:
“Our research reveals how the hyperactive sugar consumption of cancerous cells leads to a vicious cycle of continued stimulation of cancer development and growth, ” said Johan Thevelain, lead composer of the study and a professor at Katholieke Univsiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium.
They analyzed how yeast consumes and breaks down sugar to know how Ras proteins, the most common cancer-causing genes, affect aggressive tumors as they feed on sugar.
“The main advantageous asset of using yeast was that our research wasn’t affected by the additional regulatory mechanisms of mammalian cells, which conceal important underlying processes, ” Thevelain said.
How It Works:
The researchers unearthed that excess sugar triggered the yeast to make exceptionally active Ras proteins. Sugar stimulates the cancer cells and makes them multiply and expand quickly.
Almost all the healthy cells in the torso need energy to work, and they get the energy from the sugars in the food we readily eat. On the other hand, cancerous cells also need sugar to work. Nevertheless , cancer cells break up so much more sugar compared to normal cells within the body. They turn glucose in to an excess of lactic acid, which has been linked to stimulate the growth of tumors. This is one of the most well-known characteristics of cancer cells, which has been comprehensively studied and used to identify brain tumors. Apparently, there isn’t enough evidence regarding whether the Warburg effect causes cancer or is just a symptom of cancer.
Previous studies on the metabolic process of cancer cells concentrated on the important points of metabolic abnormalities, but this research sheds light on the association of sugar and growth of cancerous tumors. Thevelein and his team noted that their study won’t have evidence to establish the primary cause of the Warburg effect.
“Further research is needed to find out whether this primary cause is also conserved in yeast cells, ” Thevelein said.
Recommandations On Consuming Sugar:
Consuming added sugars, or any sugar added in the preparation of foods, that might include sucrose, high fructose corn syrup and the others, in the food diet is something to be cautious about. This is because people in the United States consume a lot more than the recommended sugar intake – about 66 pounds of added sugar per person, every year, are consumed on average. (Related: Sugar junkie? Study suggests extortionate sugar intake is similar to drug addiction. )
The American Heart Association suggests women must not exceed six teaspoons or 25 grams of added sugar a day, while nine teaspoons or 38 grams is advised for men. The entire world Health Organization recommends that adults and children lessen their daily intake of sugars to perhaps not significantly more than 10 per cent of their total energy intake.
Eating too much food full of sugar is not great for the body. Some of the negative health effects of sugar include slower cognitive functions, faster skin aging, more danger of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Fructose also can interfere with your appetite, making you want to eat noticeably more sugar. Moreover, additionally, it accelerates the normal oxidation process in the cells, damaging the proteins, tissues, and organs, which in turn advances the risk of liver infection, kidney failure, and cataracts.
