I’ve always had a ‘sweet tooth’ and the softer the sweet the better – toffee, marshmallows, chocolate, jelly babies, jelly beans, fruit pastilles, fudge and macaroon are all on my list of favourites. In terms of desserts, I love those too – ice cream, cheese cake, meringue, cake, sponge with custard, the list is endless. And of course a hot drink isn’t complete without a biscuit (or three….). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not stuffing my face with sweet stuff 24/7, however I do need my sugar ‘fix’ now and then. I’m not a large person, I’m small ‘framed’ and although I was starting to look a bit ‘chubby’ early 2010, my Neuroendocrine Cancer diagnosis took care of that (Diagnosis – I’m no longer in control).
Coping with cancer is hard and it can lead to certain lifestyle changes including diet. This is also hard! Coping with the amount of available and contradictory dietary information on cancer is challenging too! For example, if you read and search through all forms of media, you will see countless stories about how sugar is bad for you. There is also significant ‘chatter’ suggesting that sugar ‘fuels’ cancer cells. Apparently there are more than one million websites capitalising on this fear but virtually none offering the science. If this was true, it follows that cancer patients should consume less of the stuff. However, if you check reputable websites such as the main US and UK research agencies, you will see this link has not scientifically proven and this claim is debunked on many reputable cancer websites in their lists of ‘cancer myths’. As I have said numerous times, Google is not a synonym for research. Of course the situation is not helped by the wide circulation of these myths by the misinformed via social media – we’ve all seen these haven’t we?
I’m not saying that sugar is a good thing but like many other facets of modern lifestyle, too much of a good thing won’t be good for long. The last thing any cancer patient wants is (yet) another debilitating or long term chronic illness, something always in the back of my mind. I now watch what I eat although I try to keep a balance so that I can still enjoy some of my favourite foods – my food diary helps identify the ‘culprits’.
So are sweets dangerous for a Neuroendocrine cancer patient? Like a lot of other things, in moderation they probably don’t do any harm but that’s my opinion and based on my own experience. The amount of specific amines in foods can be a useful guide to how much you eat (but please note not everyone has bad reactions). Chocolate is said to be “moderately high” in tyramine, dopamine, xanthenes and theobromine. One size doesn’t fit all though and these guides emphasise the amount will often matter more than the food itself. In fact chocolate was specifically labelled as “large amounts”. I will therefore continue to eat small amounts For those wishing to explore this issue further, the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation has posted some excellent articles including this one:http://www.carcinoid.org/content/nutritional-concerns-carcinoid-patient-developing-nutrition-guidelines-persons-carcinoid-dis
Let me complete the blog with a recent personal incident regarding chocolate indicating there is a dark side to it (no pun intended!). I cracked a tooth whilst eating a piece of chocolate on 4 Oct. I never found the broken piece so I assumed I’d swallowed it. I kept a lookout for a few days but no sign and I presumed it had exited and I just missed it. However, on 5 Nov (32 days later), my regular surveillance CT scan revealed an “ingested foreign body or ‘entrolith’ within a loop of the small bowel”. It has to be the missing piece of tooth! A bit of a worry given the amount of surgery I’ve had. I hope my Consultant was right when he said these things eventually work their way out of the body naturally. I’ll keep you posted.
Thank you for reading!
Ronny
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Finally, please note this post contains my own views and opinions and should not be substituted for professional medical advice. The contents of this blog post does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my medical team or any Cancer or Charity organisation with which I’m associated.
