Cancer charity coffee mornings should be banned

[Luxell934]

So someone on instagram, who usually gives advice to new mums on positive birthing, posted today that she though coffee mornings for cancer charities should be banned. Why? because she thinks cancer loves sugar, cancer grows from sugar and people shouldn't be giving sugar to cancer patients. She said instead of eating cakes and biscuits they should be helping cancer patients to educate themselves to change their diets to beat the disease.

My own personal opinion is that she is spreading complete misinformation to her followers not based on any actual factual studies.

For a start these coffee mornings are not held in the hospital rooms of cancer patients to feed them cake. They’re fundraising events often in school halls, offices, community centres or hospitals as a support system where people are coming together to support and raise money for those diagnosed with cancer. They don't target cancer patients, it's more about the general public raising funds for cancer nurses and research. Cancer coffee mornings are just one of the ways charities fund raise. They also do lots of fitness based ones, like the muddy 5k run, race for life, some do walking based ones. Although not everyone would be able to do something physical for charity, so they might choose the coffee morning. Let's face it, cake is nice right, if it was advertised as a green tea and carrot stick morning, it wouldn't be as popular.

Yes I agree sugar isn't healthy for us. We should all reduce our refined sugar intake. Excess sugar can lead to weight gain which can cause serious health issues including diabetes and obesity which could be a contributing factor to some cancers. BUT cancer is not caused by sugar alone, and cancer can't be cured by cutting out sugar. Cancer also can't be cured by diet alone. I've heard the stories of people saying "My husband cured his stage 4 lung cancer by diet alone!" Right.

There is also no actual evidence that cancer cells grow from sugar. All cells, including cancer cells need glucose (blood sugar) to survive. Glucose comes from any carbohydrate, refined carbs (cake, bread) and unrefined carbs (fruit, veg). Glucose is critical for our cells to survive and function properly. Not consuming sufficient carbohydrates can lead to the breakdown of protein stores in our body, which can contribute to muscle loss and possibly malnutrition. There is no possible way for our bodies to stop cancer cells from getting the glucose and only giving it to the healthy cells.

So should cancer coffee mornings be banned?

Annoying that cancer, and dementia get so much attention!
i have been to a nuro cafe near me, mainly Parkinson’s, with some ms and motor neurone, and one epileptic.
Yes 1.5 hrs every 3rd Thursday, never so much funding or research nor popular enough, eh.

Yes this appears to be one of the reasons why a low/no sugar diet is actually not recommend by doctors if you have cancer, you need your body to be strong during chemo/radiotherapy/surgery for best chance of survival.

The science literacy of most of the general population leaves a lot to be desired. When I had gestational diabetes with my third, I was actually told to eat malt loaf before bed by my consultant (my ketones were always ++++). I'm sure they would think I was trying to kill my baby

Just don't go then, it really is simple, no one is forcing you to do anything 🙄

I've just watched her

There is growing evidence that a keto diet can help treatment work better in some cancers.

The effect of ketogenic diet on brain cancers has been known and studied for a long time now. Here

paper here

Abstract here:

Abstract
Background
Cancer is one of the greatest public healthchallenges worldwide, and we still lack complementary approaches to significantly enhance the efficacy of standard anticancer therapies. The ketogenic diet, a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with adequate amounts of protein, appears to sensitize most cancers to standard treatment by exploiting the reprogramed metabolism of cancer cells, making the diet a promising candidate as an adjuvant cancer therapy.

Scope of review

To critically evaluate available preclinical and clinical evidence regarding the ketogenic diet in the context of cancer therapy. Furthermore, we highlight important mechanisms that could explain the potential antitumor effects of the ketogenic diet.

Major conclusions

The ketogenic diet probably creates an unfavorable metabolic environment for cancer cells and thus can be regarded as a promising adjuvant as a patient-specific multifactorial therapy. The majority of preclinical and several clinical studies argue for the use of the ketogenic diet in combination with standard therapies based on its potential to enhance the antitumor effects of classic chemo- and radiotherapy, its overall good safety and tolerability and increase in quality of life. However, to further elucidate the mechanisms of the ketogenic diet as a therapy and evaluate its application in clinical practice, more molecular studies as well as uniformly controlled clinical trialsare needed.

We’re in the very early stages of a food revolution. We know that keto diets can reverse type 2 diabetes, can help control type 1 diabetes, have an impact on preventing dementia and can reduce symptoms. In Sweden, where this type of diet has been adopted (as opposed to low fat/high carb type diets in the UK), I believe they’ve found it’s had an effect on stroke rates and outcomes.

We’re so backward here wrt diet advice that newly diagnosed diabetics are still often not encouraged to follow a low carb diet because so many drs won’t yet recognise its positive effects on patients. We’re also very attached to an unhealthy western diet that we know can, and does, make us ill.

The study linked above suggests that more research is needed, but that for some cancers using ketogenic diets may improve the efficiency of more traditional treatments. Not sure why this is so controversial on mn, and really not sure why such venom towards posters suggesting that avoiding sugar might help.

This is representing the percentage of people who get sick, cancer is 1 in 2 as we get older. Rarer diseases are less prevalent in society.

Dementia is waiting for around 30% of us at age 85.

Less than 3% with MND . It's natural that illness that will affect large parts of the population will have an appetite for fundraising

May help. May.

There's zero evidence @CatchItDerry and this is a) making people feel like they've caused their cancer. I'm sorry you can't see how damaging this is.

Again, from Cancer Research:

There’s no evidence that following a “sugar-free” diet lowers the risk of getting cancer, or boosts the chances of surviving if you are diagnosed.

NO EVIDENCE.

I'd like to see her try and take cakes, biscuits and sweets off some of my chemo buddies - the steroids they put you on can give you a hell of a temper and a hell of an appetite, it wouldn't be pretty lol!

Seriously though, adult cancer patients aren't babies and don't tend to appreciate being told not to find pleasure in foods they like or even the odd beer or wine when they're already having a rough time of it.

The study linked above suggests that more research is needed, but that for some cancers using ketogenic diets may improve the efficiency of more traditional treatments. Not sure why this is so controversial on mn, and really not sure why such venom towards posters suggesting that avoiding sugar might help.

What's controversial is posters making sweeping statements of FACT.

NO EVIDENCE.

Brain cancer, keto diet

Brain cancer, keto diet

Brain cancer, keto diet

There is evidence. In regards to other tumour types it’s early days, and more research is needed. This is not no evidence.

Plenty of posters are making sweeping statements that eliminating sugar cannot help, when there is growing evidence, particularly in treatment of brain cancers, that a ketogenic diet can be effective.

I genuinely don’t understand why this pisses people off - surely this is good news?

none of that data is statistically significant.

this is not evidence. none of the results are statistically significant. nor can they really be classified as results due to very limited number of patients involved.

please read this for more info on how to read scientific papers

https://www.bjaed.org/article/S2058-5349(17)30073-2/fulltext

https://www.bjaed.org/article/S1743-1816(17)30448-1/fulltext

https://www.bjaed.org/article/S1743-1816(17)30492-4/fulltext

The three links there are just papers, they aren’t research studies. There is no clinical evidence on a large scale. They range in date from 2007-2015, but nothing has led to actual research studies.

@tt9 thank you

yes @tt9 thank you for for those links, I'll check them out when I'm a bit more awake!

@CatchItDerry
I would see it as good news too - we can do something that could help us prevent and/or treat cancer which is relatively simple to do albeit adjunctive. No one is saying ketogenic is complete prevention or treatment - but layered over the top of no smoking/exercise/no alcohol/spf etc., surely it's a good thing?

No one is saying ketogenic is complete prevention or treatment - but layered over the top of no smoking/exercise/no alcohol/spf etc., surely it's a good thing?

If it is effective, anything, is a good thing. It is still TBC.

And read the thread though. There is a a lot of dogmatic This Is type assertion. Also bad science.

It doesn't sell the cause. And is extremely harmful.

I just don’t understand why it’s harmful?

Let’s not forget it wasn’t until the 60s that smoking was identified as a risk factor for ill health - prior to that it had been “physician approved” - is it really hard to imagine that what we think of as a healthy diet now is actually really not and that something has to change?

Let’s not forget it wasn’t until the 60s that smoking was identified as a risk factor for ill health - prior to that it had been “physician approved” - is it really hard to imagine that what we think of as a healthy diet now is actually really not and that something has to change?

It's not hard to imagine. Things change all the time.

That's not the point.

The point is it's wrong to categorically say something IS a factor when it's not proven.
Especially by uninformed, unqualified bods on Social Media!

And In direct opposition to oncologists, cancer specialists, people who work in the front bloody line of cancer care .

But it can't. And that's what's dangerous. No one is saying a healthy diet isn't a good thing. But it doesn't prevent cancer.

It's not harmful

I would find it devastating to hear that my husband's cancer could have been cured, or mitigated by a diet change!!!!

That's what people are stating as fact on here.

( I choose to believe in what his doctors said )

And I can't even be bothered to explain how that so called fact could impact someone going through cancer treatment- think about it!

A good diet never hurt anybody.

But these incorrect assertions are really harmful to vulnerable people going through cancer or have experienced cancer.

I’m truly sorry for your husband’s cancer diagnosis- I see where you’re coming from now.
All I’m suggesting is that we need to keep an open mind - doctors were encouraging people to smoke in the 40s/50s which is mind boggling now. What’s to say in another 50 years, the same isn’t true of a non ketogenic diet?

Maybe she’s overthinking it: in a “Let us eat cake” kinda way…