Cutting excess sugars from the diet may reduce the risk of cancer

Grapefruit diet. Atkins. South Beach. Low in fat. It has a low carbohydrate content. High in protein. There seems to be a fad diet for all tastes. While the abundance of weight loss plans varies widely in terms of what you should and shouldn’t eat to lose weight, there is one ingredient that almost everyone agrees should be eliminated: added sugars. That’s because extra sugars aren’t just empty calories; They also contribute to weight gain, which in turn can lead to obesity. Since obesity is linked to 13 types of cancer, taking care of your waist is important to your health, not just your wardrobe.

The primary focus should be on lifestyle factors. “Obesity is associated with worse outcomes and a greater chance of recurrence if someone is diagnosed with cancer,” says Carolyn Lammersfeld, MD, vice president of integrative medicine at Cancer Centers of America. ^® (CTCA). “I would suggest that people follow the same diet that we recommend to our patients: an anti-inflammatory diet based primarily on plants.”

Watch out for added sugars

One of the easiest ways to improve your diet is to reduce added sugars, not natural sugars like fruits and vegetables and lactose in dairy products, but sugars and juices that are added to foods during processing or preparation, Lammersfeld says. , including the ones you sprinkle on the dinner table. These high-calorie sweeteners can be found in a variety of foods and drinks, including sodas, juices, sports drinks, bread products, cereals, yogurt, coffee creamers, and even granola, fruit snacks, and salad dressings.

Empty calories can add up quickly. For example, a regular 12-ounce soda has 39 grams of added sugar, while a 20-ounce serving of vitamin water might have 33 grams of added sugar. Those 16oz Mocha Frappuccinos? With whipped cream, you can add an additional 47 grams of sugars to your diet in one sitting.

That’s way more than any American should get on any given day. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams of added sugars per day for women and 38 grams for men. To put that into perspective, one teaspoon equals four grams of sugar, so no more than six teaspoons of sugar per day if you’re a woman, or more than nine if you’re a man. However, the average American consumes 89 grams of added sugars per day, two to three times the recommended amount.

Follow the SPLASH plan

One way to cut back on sugars, Lammersfeld says, is to follow the SLASH plan:

TO STAY FOR MEALS – Take control of it by cooking at home and packing lunch and snacks.

Look at the labels: Identify the difference between natural sugars and added sugars on nutrition labels.

ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF SUGAR – Use or make your own condiments and sauces without added sugar.

Sweeten yourself: Buy sugar-free products and sweeten yourself with fewer alternative sweeteners.

Hydrate : Rethink what you drink and choose water more often.

“There are many healthier ways to feed your sweet tooth than adding sugar to your diet,” says Lammersfeld, adding that berries and apples are examples of delicious fruits that are also rich in nutrients. “Fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants that can be important in protecting cells from the types of damage that can lead to cancer and other diseases.”

The research linking poor diets to chronic diseases like cancer has become so compelling that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last year that it would change its guidelines on food labels to help consumers make healthier and more informed choices on supermarket shelves, although it hasn’t. Updated schedules are issued for when the designations go into effect. The new guidelines will require food manufacturers to list added sugars on their product labels, both in grams and as a percentage of the daily serving. “Scientific data shows that it is difficult to meet nutritional needs while staying within calorie limits if you consume more than 10 percent of your total daily calories from added sugar, and this is consistent with the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans-20,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in his announcement. Another major change to food label guidelines:

In addition to reducing added sugars, Lammersfeld says there are many changes you can make to give your diet a healthy makeover, including looking at existing labels for evidence (sugar, honey, dextrose, etc.) I offered these additional tips:

• Eat plenty of unsorted foods. These are natural products such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains.
• Reduce the number of foods labeled, especially the processed and packaged variety.
• Get between 21 and 38 grams of fiber per day.
• Try to have one to three servings of fermented foods and drinks per day, such as yogurt, kefir and miso.
• Eat two servings of fish twice a week or an alternative, such as ground flaxseed.