Nutritional experts recommend that most people who are in treatment for active cancer and diabetes avoid white sugar and flour and that they maintain high fiber diets. Those in treatment for cancer are told to avoid carbohydrates that quickly break down and cause blood glucose to spike. For diabetics, spikes in blood glucose are at best uncomfortable and can become dangerous. For people in treatment for cancer, the best explanation for the interaction between sugar and cancer that I have found goes beyond the assertion that sugar feeds cancer. Sugar feeds all cells. According to Caring For Cancer’s well-researched article, Sugar and Cancer, Is there A Connection?, the issue is insulin. Blood sugar spikes cause insulin spikes. High levels of insulin accelerate cell growth, especially cancer cell growth.
How should a person who wants to avoid spikes in blood glucose try to eat? There is something called the 10:1 rule. When eating anything that has carbohydrates, the ratio of grams of carbohydrates to grams of fiber should be very close to 10:1, or lower. The idea is to have a substantial level of complex carbohydrates in what we eat. Complex carbohydrates, whole grains, are nutrient and fiber rich and they take time for the body to metabolize. For instance, because of the whole grain high fiber presence in Smarter Cookies, a person eating one will not metabolize the sugars too quickly. Severe blood sugar and insulin spikes associated with white flour and sugar are not a problem. Although it is unclear who came up with this ratio, it is considered a very important benchmark for people under treatment for cancer and diabetes to meet when choosing what they eat. It is also a benchmark that many athletes who are trying to optimize their training nutrition work with.
Although I wanted to develop a high fiber cookie that tasted good, I did not know about the 10:1 rule when I put the Smarter Cookie Original’s recipe together. It was a fellow cancer survivor who was on a carefully monitored Low Glycemic diet who first told me that Smarter Cookies have Low Glycemic Index. She was delighted to find a moderately sweet cookie that she could actually eat while remaining in her nutritional safe zone. It turns out that one serving of a Smarter Cookie Original has 20 grams of carbohydrates and 2.5 grams of fiber. So the good news is, Smarter Cookies are a healthy choice for most people in treatment for cancer and diabetics to consume in their daily diets, in moderation. They’re also very well suited for hypoglycemics. Smarter Cookies can also be a part of a sound nutritional strategy for athletes in training. And they’re delicious, so they’re perfect for anyone who loves a good cookie.
Thanks for reading our blog!
Peace, Wellness and Blessings
Richard Harvey
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The New York Times magazine ran an in-depth story on the link between sugar and a host of illnesses, including cancer. The link to the story is:
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Thanks Lisa. I'll check it out.
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I read the article. It's prudent to conclude that excessive consumption of refined sugar is a root cause of many of the most serious diseases we face in the United States today. I was particularly interested in the section on fatty liver. I was diagnosed with a fatty liver 12 years ago, and if any of my doctors had known enough to warn me what that actually means, I would have taken it as more than an anomaly I just had to live with. Well, thanks to Lisa and my friend Kim (Slowboat) for sending me the above referenced article. I'm concluding that excessive consumption of sugar is a really bad idea, but as an occasional consumer, I feel pretty comfortable I'm going to be okay.
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