Metabolic Awareness & Embodied Healing

Sweet Deception: How Sugar, Stress, and Cancer Became Entwined

It’s easy to think of sugar as a harmless comfort — a small reward in a busy day or a way to sweeten life’s bitter edges. But our relationship with sugar has a deeper story, one that has dramatically shaped the health of a generation.

The Low-Fat Era: When Sugar Took Center Stage

In the 1970s through the 1990s, the food industry declared fat the enemy. Grocery shelves filled with “fat-free” products — yogurts, dressings, cookies, cereals — all promising health and vitality. The problem? When fat was removed, food lost its flavor and satisfaction. To make up for it, manufacturers added sugar, and lots of it.

That shift — from fat to sugar — was more than a dietary change. It trained our taste buds to crave sweetness and our bodies to live on a blood-sugar rollercoaster. Energy spikes followed by crashes, anxiety, fatigue, and the constant hum of hunger became the new normal. We didn’t realize at the time that by cutting out fat, we were feeding another fire.

Sugar, the Adrenal Glands, and the Stress Response

Every time we reach for a sugary snack or drink, our body releases insulin to process it — and cortisol, the stress hormone, often joins the party. Over time, those repeated blood sugar spikes keep the adrenal glands in overdrive, pushing them to release cortisol again and again.

This isn’t the kind of stress response meant to save us from danger; but it’s still an activation that can leave us feeling wired and tired all at once. The result is adrenal dysregulation — cortisol too high when we need rest, too low when we need energy. That imbalance weakens the immune system, disrupts hormone balance, and creates inflammation — the silent groundwork where disease can take root.

Our bodies weren’t designed for dessert all day long. The constant rush and crash keeps our stress hormones on call, long after the emergency is over.

Sugar and the Cancer Connection

It’s an oversimplification to say “sugar causes cancer,” but it’s fair to say that sugar helps create a terrain where cancer can thrive. Chronic high blood sugar leads to elevated insulin, inflammation, and oxidative stress — all factors that can disrupt healthy cellular function.

Cancer cells, in particular, love glucose; it’s their preferred fuel source. That understanding has led researchers to explore metabolic therapies that don’t just target tumors directly, but change the environment those cells live in. By stabilizing blood sugar and reducing excess insulin, we can shift the internal chemistry toward balance and healing.

The Rise of the Modified Ketogenic and Fasting Approach

One of the most promising approaches gaining traction is the modified ketogenic diet — a way of eating that lowers carbohydrate intake and encourages the body to burn fat for fuel instead of sugar. This metabolic shift can help regulate blood sugar, reduce inflammation, and limit the glucose available to cancer cells.

When paired with intermittent fasting, which gives the body time to rest, repair, and recycle damaged cells, this approach has gained a wave of attention. While research continues to evolve, countless success stories and testimonials have surfaced from people integrating this method as part of a comprehensive cancer-healing journey.

It’s not about rigid rules or restriction — it’s about supporting the body’s natural intelligence to restore balance. Food becomes medicine again.

Bringing Awareness to Your Own Body

For those curious to understand their body’s unique responses, continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are an incredible tool. They’re not perfect, but they offer valuable insight into how your blood sugar behaves throughout the day — when you tend to spike, how certain meals affect you, and what times you might need more balance or nourishment.

I personally used the Stelo brand and had an interesting experience. It was painless, simple to apply, and the connected app made it easy to track patterns over time. Seeing my own data was almost instant feedback from my body. And, more importantly, during the process of tracking what I was eating and drinking it naturally deepened my sense of embodiment. How as I feeling?

When we start observing not only what we eat, but how we feel afterward — energy levels, mood, digestion, even mental clarity — we reconnect with the body’s innate wisdom. We begin to notice subtle signals: feeling sluggish after certain foods, energized after others, or bloated and uncomfortable after a rushed meal.

This awareness becomes a quiet conversation with the body — one that says, “I’m listening.” Over time, that dialogue rebuilds trust, reminding us that our bodies are not the enemy or a mystery to decode, but intelligent allies that already know what they need to heal and thrive.

*For more information on the ketogenic diet for cancer I recommend the book Keto for Cancer by Miriam Kalamian.

*The ketogenic diet is not for everyone so I encoutage speaking with your healthcare professional -Oncologist, Naturopath or Primary Physician - to see of it would be a good fit. I did a modified ketogenic diet personally to make it work for my lifestyle.

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