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?

complex sugars are converted into simple sugars. oxidative metabolism requires glucose. here is a pic of glycolysis and the kreb's cycle to explain this

Sorry - cross-posted with @tt9 about reason why Warberg won Nobel Prize

My understanding is cancer can easily use simply sugars but can’t use other forms of energy so in theory starve your body of simple sugars starve the cancer?

If this was so, no one would die from cancer. They would all just give up sugar and be cured.

Do you honestly think that if this was the answer to curing cancer, it wouldn't have been discovered?

*Dr. Warburg won a Nobel prize his research showed limiting flucose slowed down tunour growth, since then there have been many more researches that have found the same.

These charity things are pointless of course, the xharities are like McDonalds ronald mc donald, “supports” children with cancer yet sell them fruit shoot,”sugar”free lemonades with asparatame and acesulfame k- bith cancirogens.

and kind of like breqst cancer pink ribbon foods that are sold- absolutely full of junk.*

So sweeping. Those charity 'things'?
Maybe straighten out the facts bit.

No, funds are needed whether for research or helping those affected by the disease.

Sugar feeds cancer cells.

If only people knew what it was like to watch their child go through radiotherapy and chemotherapy and become so ill they had to be tube fed...and how happy you would feel just for them to eat or drink anything at all...please stop speculating and misunderstanding and just listen to NHS oncologists and oncology dieticians, thank you.

@tt9 I was going to ask if by referring to "other forms of energy", they meant trigylcerides, as they can enter glycolysis directly. But somehow I suspect not. They wouldn't suggest them if so as they'd pretty much already know you can't "starve the body of glucose", if they knew anything about triglycerides and glycolysis, and the Krebs's cycle etc.

Cutting out sugar if it was only that simple, sod chemo just cut down sugar.

Ffs this thread is getting worse.

I can't stand anything sweet - I don't even have sugar in my tea and coffee.

How would she explain my cancer?

Stop with the bollocks.

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.

@BackAgainstWall and bears shit in woods. What "feeds" other, non-cancerous cells?

@BackAgainstWall
Have you read ANYTHING on this thread written by scientifically-literate posters?
Can you not understand, or do you (and others) not want to?

In science, we have theories, these are un-proven ideas, scientists, both good and the odd nutter toil away alone or in groups trying to prove a theory and make it fact.

In my specialism (Physics) it isn't very dangerous to joe public, mostly it's dry atomic theory, time and space, that kind of thing. In medicine unproven ideas can be really dangerous if they escape the lab and get into the public domain, there is a stat out there that one of the biggest causes of cancer death is patients drifting away from proven treatments towards theoretical or alternative treatments.

for those on here thinking sugar feeds cancer... or how doctors are being funded by big pharma (really wish we were... would have helped with the mortgage) or wanting to follow scammers nutritionists - I have met patients who have followed this bollocks and refused medical treatment... only to return a few months later with incurable cancer when they could have been easily treated on initial presentation.

as far as I am concerned.... spreading or giving misinformation regarding health should be criminalised especially when they are making profits.

And, just for the avoidance of doubt, to "starve your cells" of glucose, you'd need to avoid all fruit, and all vegetables. All dairy. Beans, legumes etc too. Anything that contained any form of carbohydrate, so all things apart from pure meat/fish and fat, will be broken down to glucose. Which I don't think would be a very good way of beating cancer, all you'd end up with is a number of deficiency diseases, as well as the cancer.

@LMNT I has aggressive cancer a few years ago. I had a few weeks to live and they advised I start chemo.

The only dietary recommendation was to eat sugar and eat crisps to get the calories up to survive the cancer.

I had worldwide oncology peer reviewed treatment.

Sugar helped me to survive

She sounds like a dick

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

What a surprise. Someone on Instagram talking crap. If people want to listen to someone with no qualifications in an area sprout shot then what can you do realistically. Probably better to educate the masses not to listen to sheisters rather than try and shut people up.

Of course fund raising morning teas should not be banned. Of course fund raising morning teas do not cause cancer. Only complete idiots would think these things are correct.

as far as I am concerned.... spreading or giving misinformation regarding health should be criminalised especially when they are making profits

@tt9 There have always been snake oil salesmen since the dawn of time. You will never get away from this. Unfortunate as it is, it’s a form of Darwinism if people listen, although I do understand some people and the desperation factor. Still, …..

The only issue is if someone purports to have quals they don’t have. So claims to be a qualified nutritionist and gives nutritional advice for instance. Then it’s expected people would listen, on the basis they are qualified in that area and that aspect should be subject to penalty.

yes I know what you mean... just really upsetting when totally avoidable tragedies happen. especially when children are involved.

Oh and you still wouldn't be staring your cells of glucose, as even with a carnivorous diet, the amino acids are just broken down to glucose instead of being pretty much solely used to build proteins as they are in omnivores (us). It's literally not possible to starve a cell of glucose, unless you're not actually eating anything at all.

Yes I think this is why trials have probably not taken place because they know it would be impossible to starve the cells of glucose in a human body. In a lab, in vitro it’s possible.

Oh and to continue this line of thinking even further, and even if you're not eating anything, and you are actually starving yourself, when it's depleted it's glycogen (again turned into glucose) and fat stores (mostly turned into glucose), your body will just start breaking down your muscle for the protein to break down into glucose. Your cells cannot survive without glucose. You will be dead long before all the glucose sources in your body are depleated.