PHILADELPHIA — Eating a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet may reduce the risk of cancer and slow the growth of tumors already present, according to a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The study was conducted in mice, but the scientists involved agree that the strong biological findings are definitive enough that an effect in humans can be considered.

“This shows that something as simple as a change in diet can have an impact on cancer risk,” said lead researcher Gerald Krystal, Ph.D., a distinguished scientist at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre.



http://www.aacr.org/home/public--me...ews.aspx?d=2396

Here's something interesting--high carb diet in mice fuels tumour growth; low-carb diet inhibits it. But note that one of the researchers changed his diet after study results were clear!

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/...8578/story.html

Interesting article. I watched a docu-movie a while back that talked about cancer and using vitamins to reverse it but there was a point made in the movie that made a lot of sense at a higher level of observation.

Cancer needs the right environmental conditions within the body to take hold and start to grow. Cancer is essentially, out of control cell growth. So the questioned raised was....if you change the internal environment then can you essentially make the internal environment inhabitable for cancer cells to thrive. The answer according to the "experts" in the film said "Yes".

They said it can be done by eating healthy and using vitamin and mineral supplements to literally change the internal environment.

Now obviously I'm no oncologist, but at a very simple level, that makes total sense to me. So I believe it is possible by just changing your diet you can create an "anti-cancer" environment within your body and this is exactly, in essence, what the article is saying.

The free radicals within all of us just need the right environment to take hold and grow so it certainly can't hurt to work on creating an environment that is hostile towards free radicals.

That's a great article. I'd like to see a little more detail.

Cancer cells need glucose to survive, they can't run off ketosis like other cells can. So if you bathe them in high doses of glucose from typical eating you're giving them a nutrient rich bath many times a day.

I confess this is rather a nice vindication. I hope the word spreads through oncologists. My SIL has rectal cancer.

There is something wrong with today's "standard" diet. Too much sugar, too much starch, way too many carbs. There is no balance. Why is there still so much of these bad foods available? It's killing us, in one way or another.

It is known that some cancer cells like glucose. Is it known that all cancer cells like glucose? There was a similar problem with immune system augmentation, some cancers use some parts of the immune system to grow.

i hate the way people dismis the LC diet and sayits bad for you - this just proves that this is the way we all should be living and eating. Ever since i started this diet i have been sick once with a bug and it was not even 6 hours. it was like 2 - 3 hours i was sick then end of it - its great

I posted this on my FB page and in another forum, and got little to no response. Odd -- to me, this is extremely exciting. Not so much the result (unsurprising, to me), but the fact that this kind of research is taking place at all, and that it's not in the context of some kind of "extreme," "therapeutic" ketogenic diet, but a regular low-carb diet. I wonder if Mr. Taubes's magnum opus (GCBC, not so much the newer WWGF) has prodded a few folks into doing serious looking into the benefits of low-carb eating. Just a guess.

I don't know. I've had several relatives pass from cancer, and a few of them I told about this. But, the doctor says to feed them "what they want" and that nothing tastes good, and to tempt them with desserts to "at least get calories in them". I have an EXCELLENT heavy whipping cream strawberry or cherry smoothie, with eggs that tastes wonderful. Said it was too much fat.... ?huh? If you WANT someone to get more calories, wouldn't it make sense to use a macronutrient that has nine calories a gram as compared to four calories per gram. That's 2.25 times the calories... I've got news, if I ever get cancer, and since I'm a low carber, it's not likely, you can bet your boots I'll be high fatten and low, low carbing...

OMG that is so sad! I know doctors are not stupid since they make it through medical school but they sure can be illogical at times!

Sydney Morning Herald
16 Jun, 2011

Put that sandwich down, now. As if the link between carbohydrates and the muffin-top spilling over your waistband wasn't bad enough, new research indicates that a high-carbohydrate diet may also influence your cancer risk and the growth of tumours.

Scientists at Canada's British Columbia Cancer Research Centre found that mice fed on a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet had slower tumour cell growth than those fed a typical Western diet high in carbohydrates. While the experiments were conducted with mice, the findings appear to be strong enough to be applied to humans.

"On the Western diet, half of the mice had tumours by middle age. On the low-carb diet, none of the mice had the tumours," said Dr Gerry Krystal, who authored the study along with colleague Dr Vincent Ho.

The mice used were predisposed to breast cancer, and had a life expectancy of two years.

Published in the July issue of Cancer Research, the study found about 70 per cent of the mice on the Western diet developed cancer by the time they died, compared with 30 per cent of those on the low-carb diet.

"Only one of the mice on the Western diet reached a normal lifespan, and half of the other mice reached or exceeded the expected lifespan."

Cancer cells depend on glucose more than normal cells do, and carbohydrates in the bloodstream convert quickly to glucose. "It's possible that by simply changing our diet to a low-carb, low-fat, high protein diet, we can starve the cancer by eliminating the glucose the tumours need to grow," said Krystal.

The "Western diet" consisted of 55 per cent carbs, 23 per cent protein, and 22 per cent fat, while the other mice ate 15 per cent carbs, 25 per cent fat and 60 per cent protein. Krystal also noted that while the two diets contained the same number of calories, mice on the high-carb diet "gained a lot of weight."

"Taken together, our findings offer a compelling preclinical illustration of the ability of a low CHO (low carbohydrate) diet in not only restricting weight gain but also cancer development and progression," the study concluded.

"I would like to see people go up to 35 per cent protein," said Krystal, who suggested that any dietary changes to lower carbohydrates would have health benefits, although he warned that diabetes sufferers should consult a doctor before altering their diet. However, a study published lat year indicated that an animal-based low-carb diet was linked to an increased risk of death, while a plant-based low-carb diet was linked to decreased risk.

I know lots of stupid doctors. The ability to take in and regurgitate lots of information does not make a person intelligent. I know plenty of doctors with no common sense at all. My own doctor thinks that a scale with a max weight limit of 150kg can weigh someone who weighs 200kg - I tried to explain how scales worked - she just looked confused. Another doctor I saw thought that a progesterone was a steroid and was too arrogant to look it up. Doctors can be idiots too. Their main problems being lack of common sense and critical thinking. Not to say there aren't some very intelligent doctors, but having a medical degree does not guarantee intelligence.

Lee

The muffin top is due partly to the low cut pants, not just a high carb diet. Many cultures have used methods to shape body parts differently. Elongated necks, skulls, stretched lips and earlobes, smaller feet, etc. Even the Europeans have the corset for narrower waists. Today we use braces to re-align teeth, or legs and spines. The low cut pants act just like a corset but to produce narrow hips instead.

As for diet and cancer, that was a mice study. However, human cancers eat just as much glucose as mice cancer so carb restriction would probably work just as well against cancer. Although here they propose a high protein diet to compensate for the carb restriction with this mice study, a high fat diet would be more effective in humans.

-edit- It's the same study here: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=429497

Yeah, they can't all have graduated at the top of the class. Even if they did, it might be more of a testament to their ability to memorize than understand.