Dietary fructose may contribute to cancer tumor growth, a study in animal models suggests.
- Fructose is a natural sugar found in fruits,
vegetables, and honey.
- Fructose can be bad for your health when
consumed as part of high-fructose corn syrup in processed foods.
- Past studies have linked high-fructose corn
syrup intake to many diseases, including cancer.
- Researchers from Washington University in St.
Louis has found that dietary fructose may promote tumor growth in animal
models of melanoma, breast cancer, and cervical cancer.
Fructose is
the natural sugar found in fruits, as well as some vegetables and honey. When
consumed from a natural source such as an apple or dates,
fructose is not considered harmful to a person’s health.
However, when fructose is consumed as part of high-fructose
corn syrup via processed foods like soda and packaged baked
goods, then it can become a health concern.
Past studies link the consumption of fructose or
high-fructose corn syrup to an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, and
“Fructose occurs naturally in some fruits and
vegetables — so humans have always been exposed to it,” Gary Patti, PhD, the Michael and Tana Powell
Professor of Chemistry, Genetics, and Medicine at Washington University in St.
Louis, told Medical
News Today.
“What has changed over the past four to five decades
is that we started using it as an artificial sweetener in processed foods. As a
result, many people are exposed to much higher levels than ever before. It is
important to understand what impact this has on human health,” he added.
Patti is the senior author of a new study recently
published in
Why
look at fructose in relation to cancer?
For this study, researchers used an animal model of cancer
tumors. During the study, the animals were fed a diet rich in fructose.
“It has been well established for over a century that
cancer cells are addicted to glucose,”
Patti said. “We take advantage of this in the clinic all the time. Patients are
given a radioactive form of glucose that shows up in PET scans.
Because cancer cells take up more glucose than most other healthy cells, they
light up in the images.”
“Glucose
and fructose are made up of the exact same atoms,” he continued. “The only
difference between them is the way in which the atoms are arranged. Given the
avidity that cancer cells have for glucose, it’s compelling to imagine that
they might use fructose in a similar way.”
Fructose,
lipids, and tumor growth
Upon analysis, Patti and his team found that the body’s
liver converts fructose into a type of
When cancer cells divide, they require a large amount
of lipids. Having a larger amount of LPCs in the bloodstream aids cancer cell
replication, thus helping tumors grow.
“When you eat an excessive amount of food, your body
converts it into fat,” Patti explained. “That is your body’s way of storing
energy. High levels of dietary fructose induce a similar process. The fructose
is converted into a precursor of fat in the liver, called lipids. Those lipids
can then feed the tumor.”
“Cancer
cells are unique from most other cells in the body because they are rapidly
dividing, which is what allows tumors to grow larger,” he continued. “For a
cancer cell to divide into two, it has to make a new set of cellular contents.
That requires a lot of nutrients, which ultimately come from the diet. It is
therefore intuitive to imagine that dietary modifications could influence the
process of tumor growth.”
“The complication is that there are a lot of variables
to think about such as where the tumor is in the body, which oncogenes it has,
what drugs the patient is using, what dietary components are transformed into
prior to reaching the tumor, etc,” Patti added. “Our understanding of these
issues is only at its very early stages, but there are an increasing number of
studies starting to illuminate important details. I hope our study will be part
of that equation.”
Processed
foods’ effect on cancer risk: Understanding the mechanisms
MNT spoke
with Anton Bilchik, MD, PhD,
surgical oncologist, chief of medicine and Director of the Gastrointestinal and
Hepatobiliary Program at Providence Saint John’s Cancer Institute in Santa
Monica, CA, about this study.
“We’ve been suspicious for quite a while that certain
food supplements such as sweeteners and processed food increase the risk of
getting cancer, but we’ve never really known the mechanism,” Bilchik, who was
not involved in the research, pointed put.
“This is one of the few
studies that provides a possible mechanism for fructose, which is found in corn
syrup, processed food, and sweeteners, a mechanism that may cause a variety of
different cancers. So there may be some truth to the fact that people need to
be very cautious about using sweeteners or using sugars that are not from
fruits and vegetables, but are in processed foods.”– Anton Bilchik, MD, PhD
“Fructose is in so many
food products that we eat, and we’re now seeing a massive uptick in young
people being diagnosed with certain cancers, such as colorectal
cancer, and that is being linked to processed food,” he continued.
“And we know that processed food has high contents of
fructose in them, so this just provides a possible mechanism. I think that we
need to see some clinical studies in people that take sweeteners versus natural
sugars to see whether there’s any difference in cancer. So I think to translate
this to the clinical world would be most beneficial,” said Bilchik.
How can you
decrease fructose intake?
MNT also
spoke with Monique Richard, MS, RDN, LDN,
a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Nutrition-In-Sight, about this
study for ways on which readers can potentially lower the amount of fructose
they consume.
Richard said a simple way — though not always possible
or easy — to avoid excessive or less beneficial types of fructose is to eat
more foods that do not have packaging or labels such as produce.
“Say yes to fructose in fruit and ‘no, thank you’ to
the fructose [in] the fruit roll-up,” she advised.
“The fiber and vitamins and
minerals that naturally accompany the carbohydrates such as fructose in fruit
and vegetables is less likely to be over-consumed, although portions do still
matter. The fiber and nutrients are also beneficial for our gut
microbiota, which we are also observing being affected by excessive
fructose consumption from ultra-processed foods.”– Monique Richard, MS, RDN,
LDN
“Reading labels and
understanding ingredients is another key to knowing what you’re consuming,”
Richard continued. “There are numerous names for sugar. Educate yourself about
the types and names of sugar so that you’re not trading one for an equal or
similar product.“
“Food manufacturers understand how to market to make
money. A label could say ‘no high fructose corn syrup’ but could have just as
much or more fructose, glucose, or sucrose (table sugar), just to name a few. I
see this often in crackers, cookies, soft drinks, and juices,” she told us.
“Keep in mind, there is no reason to be obsessive and
never include these items — hello holidays, Halloween, and favorite treats. But
knowing how much, how often, and making sure that real food is not replaced in
lieu of these things is the most important for our daily dietary patterns and
enjoyment of life,” Richard advised.
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