Cancer can use sugar, fat, and protein as fuel

What? Everyone knows cancer uses sugar as fuel. 

As a reminder, the three sources our bodies can use as fuel are the three "macros" carbs, fats, and proteins. Under normal circumstances all three sources are available to the body at all times. Under those circumstances the body primarily uses glucose for fuel, if glucose becomes depleted the body begins to use fat for fuel (ketosis), and if glucose and fat are both depleted the body begins using protein for fuel, which is the onset of starvation, and a fairly rapid progression toward starvation death.

BTW, even the average "lean" person has enough fat to go 2 months on water before starvation begins.

Cancer researchers have been seeing for some time cancers can "switch" fuel sources...in the absence of one another is used. So while this is not "news" to cancer researchers, it really hasn't filtered into the collective mind yet. Jane McLelland is a health care professional who contracted cancer and began researching the literature for answers. She has written a book called "How to Starve Cancer with Off-Label Drugs", and in this clip talks about the problem with the overly simplistic idea "sugar fuels cancer".

Chris Wark, the interviewer, also mentions a blog post he wrote:

The Evidence Against the Ketogenic Diet for Cancer

The low carb high fat approach to diet has a lot of curb appeal because it allows us to continue consuming an animal product based diet.

Being grounded in familiar territory can be a "sticky" condition, meaning it can be very difficult to change course even in the face of convincing evidence "familiar ground" may not be the best place for us. I try to elucidate this problem in a previous blog "Thoughts on the prevalence of addiction".

The low carb "keto" diet keeps us on familiar ground, and has the benefit of weight loss. "I can eat bacon AND lose weight?" is a tremendously appealing "familiar ground" solution. The problem is bacon is a known carcinogen.

There are simply piles of evidence that optimal health is attained with a whole foods plant based diet. There are intervention programs that teach how to make the change.

Intervention can easily be the difference between success and failure when trying to adopt healthier patterns.

Here's a good one:
10-Day Live-in Program