But Dr. Robert Atkins was absolutely right: the enemy is carbohydrates, not fat, and refined carbohydrate ingredients like refined white flour and white sugar contribute to a stunning assortment of serious diseases: obesity, diabetes, cancer, clinical depression and even heart disease. This study confirms the link between high-carb foods and cancer.
But here's the fascinating part: it says the insuline spike that occurs after eating high-carbohydrate foods is to blame for the growth of tumors. If you give your insulin a roller coaster ride by consuming too many refined carbohydrates, you'll be simultaneously promoting cancer throughout your body. But if you control your blood sugar and eat proteins, fats and fiber-rich foods, you won't experience the blood sugar spikes, and you won't accelerate the growth of cancerous tumors in your body.
This is why I call refined carbohydrates metabolic disruptors: because they disrupt the normal metabolic processes of the human body and, as a result, promote serious disease. It should also be noted that high-carbohydrate foods spike not only insulin levels, but also your appetite, causing you to eat even more food a few hours later. In this way, a low-carb diet also acts like an appetite suppressant, causing you to automatically eat less, even if you're not trying to.
Diets filled with certain high-carbohydrate foods may increase the
risk of colorectal cancer in women, according to a study published today
in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Cakes, cookies and other quickly digested foods score high on the
"glycemic index," a measure of the rate at which carbohydrates are
processed into sugar.
A sudden surge in blood sugar prompts the body to produce a matching
rush of insulin, which helps convert the sugar, or glucose, into energy.
Women in the study with high dietary glycemic loads were more than
twice as likely to develop colorectal cancer.
"It's difficult for the average person to make sense of this," said
dietitian Melanie Polk, director of nutritional education for the
American Institute for Cancer Research.