Dietary fructose and cancer


High fructose corn syrup has been linked to fatty liver disease, high triglycerides, insulin resistance, high blood sugar, cancer and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. It is added to many foods: candy, condiments, beverages, pancake syrup and various snack foods. A recent paper in the journal Nature highlights the mechanistic link between dietary fructose and cancer growth.

Bottom line: in zebrafish and mice, tumors grow up to twice as fast when animals are fed a fructose-rich diet. Cancer cells in culture don’t respond similarly. That’s because in whole animals, dietary fructose is metabolized by the liver into lipids that are then secreted into the bloodstream to be taken up by cancer cells.

To be clear, this paper doesn’t say that dietary fructose *causes* cancer, only that it accelerates cancer growth. But it seems prudent to limit fructose intake.

For those who know their carbohydrate biochemistry, table sugar—sucrose—is a disaccharide comprised of glucose and fructose. It seems that low levels of fructose don’t find their way to the liver. So limiting both sucrose intake and foods with high-fructose corn syrup seems like the prescription.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03653-2

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