Susan Thomas, Oxford

Wednesday 13 May 2015

Sir

cancer is a scourge now affecting one in two of the population.

Recently there has been some interesting research on the effects of intermittent 2 day fasting and cancer.

Conventional NHS guidelines tell the patient undergoing chemotherapy to eat plenty of sweet foods such as donuts etc to keep the strength up.

However this other research points in a totally different direction.

The team showed how tumours need glucose to proliferate and multiply.
Fasting for a couple of days can cut off tumours` energy supply so making chemotherapy more effective.
The investigation is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
It found that tumour cells responded differently to the stress of fasting compared to normal cells.

Brain tumours can only use glucose and glutamine found in mono sodium glutamate etc to grow.

Therefore a green veg and fish diet that is very low in sugar and refined carbs may help slow tumour growth.

Decades ago this effect was discovered by Professor Warburg who observed that cancer cells crave sugar.