Living with MCL

So why shouldn’t we be able to eat all the sweets (sugar) we want?

The only good thing about the rain is I have plenty of time to peruse the internet, and find something worthwhile and relevant to post, instead of the useless dribble I’m usually posting. And today is one of those days.

Sugar has always been a concern for me, especially after having my first [and only] PET scan. In order to determine if there is active cancer, a glucose mixture is injected into you, which then migrates to the cancer cells, and is picked up on the scan. So I decided sugar must be bad, and it would be best to severely restrict my intake of sweets in an attempt to stop the progression of my MCL.

Now if you love sweets, especially chocolate, like myself, you’ve probably discovered no matter how good your intentions are, restricting sugar intake can be a daunting task. I did it for quite awhile, but now I pretty much ignore that advice. What’s more important, I soon came to believe after learning the body converts all food to sugar, is how much you consume rather than what you consume.

Of course I’ve always believed eating a balanced diet is still very important. I just never really understood why, up until now that is.

And it just so happened, as I was perusing the myeloma message board this morning, I came across a discussion on exactly this topic, sugar and it’s effects on cancer. A lot of people weighed in with their two cents, and their anecdotes (which I mostly ignored because I have [had] my own beliefs), but one comment stood out, because it provided a clear, understandable and very plausible explanation of why eating a balanced diet and avoiding simple carbohydrates is very important, which I have copied below.

While it’s true that all digestible carbohydrates end up as single sugars when they are metabolized, it is important to remember that your body must metabolize those sugars.  Therein lies the problem.

Complex carbohydrates, are metabolized at a slower rate than simple sugars.

When complex carbohydrates are metabolized, the slow release of simple sugars gives your system time to adapt to the increased levels.  This means that your insulin levels rise gradually, and your cellular uptake of sugars also happens gradually.

However, when you dump a large amount of simple sugar into your system, your insulin level has to rise quickly to accomodate it.  Then what happens is that your sugar levels plummet suddenly, and you are left with excess insulin.  It is important to note here that recent publications indicate that insulin is an important growth factor for myeloma cells.  Anyway, when this is repeated over and over again, as when we consume cookies, cakes, candy and pop [soda], your systems ultimately tire out and you get Type II diabetes.

The rapidity with which sugars are released into your system is known as the “glycemic index”, and there’s a lot written about it…………….

So I’ve decided to take another look at eating a more balanced diet, and avoiding the simple carbs (sugars) as much as possible. I’m just not so sure how easy that’s going to be.

I also discovered this article, from my Facebook group Patients Against Lymphoma, on the consumption of wine, which provides some consolation. At least I won’t have to give up my passion for wine.

And on a final note, it looks like my friend Stacy, who had brain surgery (previous post), is coming along fine. She is gradually being weened off the coma inducing drug, and is starting to respond to stimulus, but there is still a way to go.