How Cupcakes Cause Cancer

By Dr. Kathleen T. Ruddy

The January 18, 2013 issue of Science arrived in the mail today.  I know, it’s January 26; better late than never, right?  Anyway, sandwiched between articles like “An Efficient Polymer Molecular Sieve for Membrane Gas Separations” (oh, yeah?) and “Olefin Cyclopropanation via Carbene Transfer Catalyzed by Engineered Cytochrome P450 Enzymes” (yeah, right) is a review article about the important role inflammation plays in the development of cancer.  As you many know, refined carbohydrates such as white flour, white bread, white rice and, yes, things like cupcakes stimulate a surge in insulin release.  Among other things, insulin stimulates an inflammatory response – just the sort of thing that, over time, leads to cancer.  It turns out, the real danger in the American diet is not saturated fat, per se, but distorted oils (think the gunk that is used to make French Fries) and, especially, the highly refined carbohydrates that have taken over the American diet like super storm Sandy.

Steer clear of Super Storm Sugar.  It’s as simple as that.  Get to higher ground:  fresh fruit, nuts, organic dairy and meat, fresh vegetables, and whole grains – these are the tickets to good health.  Don’t let the food industry fill your precious vessel, your body, with their toxic dump of refined carbohydrates.

By the way, the article about inflammation and cancer also provides some highlyquotable statistics:

30% of human malignancies are linked to tobacco use,

35% to diet,

14-20% to obesity (see above),

18% to infectious disease (e.g., hepatitis B/C virus, human papilloma virus, HIV infection … and quite possibly the human mammary tumor virus), and

7% to radiation or environmental pollutants (e.g., benzene, oral contraceptives, hormone replacement therapy)

If our healthcare policymakers could be persuaded to address just the first three on this list we could prevent 85% of all human cancers.  And targeted vaccines like Guardisil could protect against the additional 18% of cancers caused by infectious agents.

Bottom line:  we could prevent the majority of all cancers in this country and around the world if we wanted to.  Anybody interested?  I can think of a long list of other items we could spend those precious and increasingly scare federal dollars on.  Can you?

Reference:

A. Palucka, Science, January 18, 2013, page 286.