Cancer Cells Use Fructose to Grow: Don't Blame Us, Says Corn Lobby

By: David W Freeman
Topics: News ,; Cancer ,; Research

soda, generic, stock, fructose, sugar, high fructose corn syrup

Time to cut down on soda? (istockphoto)

(CBS) Afraid of fructose? You may have good reason to be, as an alarming new study shows that the popular sweetener can fuel the growth of cancer.

The study, conducted by scientists at UCLA, found that pancreatic cancer cells grew faster when "fed" with fructose. Study author Dr. Anthony Heaney, associate professor of medicine and neurosurgery at the university's cancer center, said it was likely that fructose would also speed the growth of other cancers as well.

"The bottom line is the modern diet contains a lot of refined sugar including fructose and it's a hidden danger implicated in a lot of modern diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and fatty liver," Heaney said in a written statement.

The study was published in the August 1 issue of the journal "Cancer Research."

Heaney called for government action to reduce American's consumption of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a leading source of fructose in the Western diet. Fructose also comes from sources such as fruit, vegetables and old fashioned table sugar.

"I think this paper has a lot of public health implications," Heaney said. "Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of HFCS in our diets."

But the corn lobby (high-fructose is made from corn) felt the research left a bitter taste in its mouth.

"This study does not look at the way fructose is actually consumed by humans, as it was conducted in a laboratory, not inside the human body," the Corn Refiners Association said in a statement, concluding that the root causes of pancreatic cancer are complicated and poorly understood.

Between 1970 and 1990, consumption of high-fructose corn syrup rose 1,000 percent, according to the cancer researchers. The sweetener - a blend of fructose and another sugar called glucose - is found in all sorts of foods and beverages and is the most common sweetener used in American soft drinks.

The association said that overall, sugar is still the most common form of fructose in the American diet.

And don't be fooled by products which replace high-fructose corn syrup with sugar. They also contain high levels of fructose.

Read the full research here.

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by qmpash January 30, 2012 11:25 AM EST: MAYBE THIS REPORT IS RIGHT OR MAYBE IT ISN'T. BUT YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED HOWEVER, THAT VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING THAT IS EATEN OR DRUNK HAS BEEN "PROVEN" TO CAUSE, OR SUPPORT, CANCER. EVER HEAR OF THE BOY THAT CRIED "WOLF" TOO MUCH? IN THE END, NOBODY BELIEVED HIM WHEN HE CRIED WOLF, WHEN A REAL WOLF FACED HIM.; Reply to this comment


by MollyBloom100 August 8, 2010 9:44 PM EDT: I'm not going to say anything scientific.

If Satan existed, he'd be riding a wave of modified corn syrup screaming...yahoo. You are all going to die a slow and painful death.

All sugar is bad. It rots your brain. It rots your teeth. It's our boogeyman.; Reply to this comment


by WillowSunstar August 7, 2010 6:23 PM EDT: Yet another reason not to consume high fructose corn syrup. If you aren't reading labels yet, you should seriously consider doing so.; Reply to this comment


by WillowSunstar August 7, 2010 6:18 PM EDT: This is yet another reason to avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup. Start reading labels if you aren't already.; Reply to this comment


by WillowSunstar August 7, 2010 6:17 PM EDT: Also what this study says is learn how to cook. By cooking natural foods at home, you avoid additives.

If nothing else, at least buy Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. I've lost 10 pounds by using it since December. It's real food and she tells you in detail what to do.; Reply to this comment

by voxpopulus August 7, 2010 12:10 PM EDT

These guys are sounding more and more like big tobacco every day.

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by feistyjourn August 7, 2010 3:21 PM EDT: My thoughts exactly.


by guest173 August 7, 2010 5:21 PM EDT: just what I was thinking, greed is willfully blinding them

by SunDog8259 August 6, 2010 2:34 AM EDT

Clearly we should be looking to get most of our energy from fats. A low-carb diet also boosts the immune system which can be slowed by too much sugar. Cancer cells, most lack functional mitochondria, use glycolosis to reproduce -- they can't use ketones from fats for energy like normal cells can (the Warburg effect.) Ketones, check the scientific literature, are also the preferred fuel for the heart and the brain. The dogma "we need sugar for energy" we hear this all the time, well -- is false.

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by guest173 August 7, 2010 5:24 PM EDT: I have not really heard that we need sugar for energy, I've heard fiber, protein, fruits veggies and water are a good base along with some exercise, and many parents try to purposely limit sugar. your source sounds like psuedo science, no offense


by porcine_aviator August 10, 2010 6:25 PM EDT: I have not really heard that we need sugar for energy, I've heard fiber, protein, fruits veggies and water are a good base along with some exercise, and many parents try to purposely limit sugar. your source sounds like psuedo science, no offense

No offense, but you obviously don't even have a high school level understanding of biochemistry.

Fiber does NOT provide caloric value (energy) to humans! And yes, SunDog is right, most cancer cells (along with red blood cells and nerve cells) use glycolysis for metabolism, hence they MUST have glucose to function. Fructose can readily be substituted for glucose, however.

Don't accuse someone of pseudoscience when you don't even know basic science yourself.

by bbqdhampster August 6, 2010 1:22 AM EDT

....Xylitol has a glycemic index which is 1/10 that of granulated/refined sugar. As alternative to almost all other sweeteners which should be considered chronic poisons unless they are consumed in the form of fruit or vegetables.
....As the world wide use of corn syrup and refined sugar expands so does heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes. Cultures which had none of these North American diseases prior to the introduction American diet now have all of these and more.
....The typical American diet is so full of "sugar" that it is nearly impossible to avoid the associated illness unless you avoid prepared foods and cook everything yourself while eating as much raw foods as possible.
....Nothing looks more stupid than someone trying to lose weight by fiercely working out for an hour only to be seen later swigging on a 48 ounce soft drink. Sugar is killer food.

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by SunDog8259 August 6, 2010 3:05 AM EDT: "Nothing looks more stupid than someone trying to lose weight by fiercely working out for an hour only to be seen later swigging on a 48 ounce soft drink. Sugar is killer food." Largely true, but it's not only sugar that leads to type II diabetes, premature aging, fatty liver, high blood pressure and heart disease, but so called "healthy grains", pasta, rice, breads and potatoes. Anything processed that soon turns into sugar inside you. Don't believe me? Well, ask any diabetic that tests his blood sugar regularly. Even so called "healthy whole grains" cause a blood sugar spike, but it's later on when you least expect to see it. I was pre-diabetic with an FBS=116 while on a "balanced diet", but no more my FBS=88, I got off the processed foods and sugar roller coaster for good, and I feel now 20 years younger.

by feistyjourn August 6, 2010 12:12 AM EDT

"This study does not look at the way fructose is actually consumed by humans, as it was conducted in a laboratory, not inside the human body" the Corn Refiners Association said in a statement.

This statement is crap. Total horsehockey. The Corn Refiners and the Corn Lobby are just like the Tobacco Lobby was decades ago. Full of a bunch of brainless, greedy drones trying to slither around the truth and protect their bottom line.

Yes, yes, yes -- we Americans need to take charge of our own health, but we need some help here!! Corn products are cheap because farmers are paid to grow it by good ol' Uncle Sam, perpetuated by the Corn Lobby. (I am not blaming the farmers here.)

Cheap would be great except that corn is good for NOTHING nutritious. It's not natural for cattle or other livestock to eat it, so they have to be given enzymes and "Cow Pepto" to digest it. They release much more methane gas because of this. Chickens don't naturally eat it either, nor do horses, goats, or any other livestock animal. Corn is even questionable for combustion engines (Ethanol). But it's cheap, and that's why it's used for so many things.

We need to do the same thing to Big Corn that we did to Big Tobacco, and shut them down. Encourage farmers to grow flaxseed or oats in larger quantities. Our national health would improve immensely.

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by SunDog8259 August 6, 2010 3:19 AM EDT: Corn is not a vegetable. Corn is a grain used to fatten hogs and cattle, it's also used to chemically make synthetic HFCS. They [livestock] need antibiotics to handle all the grains force fed into them in the feedlots. It [grain feeding], unlike grass feeding, lowers the acidity inside livestock so they can then produce Escherichia coli -- the type that can make us ill. This grain feeding can also change the Omega-3 Omega-6 balance ratios in our meats. Corn should be used to make ethanol to fuel our cars or to consume in moderation -- not to make a highly processed and unwholesome syrup -- that's my opinion on corn.


by healthweaver August 5, 2010 12:12 PM EDT: The molecule FRUCTOSE is required when a human cell divides to make new genetic material. Normally a healthy cell make just the amount of fructose needed, As a result normal cells contain no fructose unless blood glucose is high or dietary fructose is ingested. Cancer cell may or may not be able to make fructose needed to divide dietary fructose or diabetes condition where fructose is abnormally high in cells. If I knew I had cancer I would avoid all dietarty fructose. Otherwise I would keep intake to 15grams /day or less. see http://FructoseFree.com; Reply to this comment