But some researchers will make the case, as Cantley and Thompson do, that if something other than just being fatter is causing insulin resistance to begin with, that’s quite likely the dietary cause of many cancers. If it’s sugar that causes insulin resistance, they say, then the conclusion is hard to avoid that sugar causes cancer — some cancers, at least — radical as this may seem and despite the fact that this suggestion has rarely if ever been voiced before publicly. For just this reason, neither of these men will eat sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, if they can avoid it.
“I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet and eat as little as I possibly can,” Thompson told me, “because I believe ultimately it’s something I can do to decrease my risk of cancer.” Cantley put it this way: “Sugar scares me.”
Sugar scares me too, obviously. I’d like to eat it in moderation. I’d certainly like my two sons to be able to eat it in moderation, to not overconsume it, but I don’t actually know what that means, and I’ve been reporting on this subject and studying it for more than a decade. If sugar just makes us fatter, that’s one thing. We start gaining weight, we eat less of it. But we are also talking about things we can’t see — fatty liver, insulin resistance and all that follows. Officially I’m not supposed to worry because the evidence isn’t conclusive, but I do.
If the conclusion intrigues you, read all of Gary's article. It seems pretty obvious that we were not made to eat 150 pounds+ per year of sugar, and that something like 20 pounds per year, or 25g/day, might be a prudent dose. There are a few things that we've changed as drastically as our sugar intake over the years: industrial seed oils, grain/bean agriculture, much less sleep of much lower quality, fat soluble vitamin intake, sun exposure, and a drastic reduction in physicality. But you can see in the paleolithic cultures that went neolithic, with Westerners around to observe them, that they got the diseases we have now with just the addition of wheat and sugar to their traditional diets.
The good news? When you de-sugar your palate, regular food tastes much, much better, never mind the abundant benefits in how you look feel and perform. Eat meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, little fruit or starch, no sugar/wheat.
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