This breast cancer link will make you go sour on sugar
There's an old expression about eating too many sweet foods: "A moment on the lips...forever on the hips."
We all know that overindulging in sweets can create long-term health consequences.
But it turns out that the damage that sugar is doing to your body goes a lot further than just your waistline or your hips.
In fact, if you eat too much sugar, you might be on the high road to deadly breast cancer.
Because according to a shocking new study out of the University of Texas, consuming large quantities of sugar over a prolonged period of time can increase your chance of breast cancer.
Worse yet, it can actually help the disease spread to other areas throughout your body.
For the study, researchers fed mice diets that were either heavy in starch or in sugar.
Of the mice that were fed a starchy diet, 30 percent developed breast cancer within six months. Yes, that's high -- but not compared to the nearly 60 percent of mice that were fed a sugary diet and wound up with breast cancer.
And the more sugar they ate, the bigger the tumors grew.
Even if you're not literally eating spoonfuls of sugar like these mice were, sucrose (a.k.a. table sugar) can be found in the most unexpected items in your fridge and kitchen cabinets. Lunchmeat... ketchup... potato chips....
While all sugars helped make the tumors grow and spread, the researchers said that fructose sent the tumors off to the races more than any other type of sugar.
And that's scary when you think about the amount of high fructose corn syrup we've consumed over the last 50 years.
In 1970, the average American consumed only a half-pound of fructose in an entire year. In 1997, it was at an annual all-time high of 62 pounds.
Since then, our annual high fructose corn syrup consumption has actually gone down -- to about 36 pounds per year, according to the Illinois Farm Bureau -- but if you ask me, that's still way too much. Your fructose consumption should be a lot closer to zero.
In fact, you should try to forget the fact that high fructose corn syrup ever existed.
If you want dodge the breast cancer bullet, dump out those sodas and stick to a low-carb diet of animal protein, vegetables, and healthy fats. Skip the processed foods, and prepare your own meals so you know exactly what you're putting in and on them.
To Your Health,
Dr. Glenn S. Rothfeld, M.D.