My shocking sugar intake and why I transformed my diet

One of the first – and biggest – things I did after being diagnosed with cancer was completely change my diet. For years I was a a chocolate-loving, fizzy drink-gulping sugar fiend, and it soon became clear how that lifestyle could have caught up with me – especially for someone who has never smoked or really drunk much alcohol.

A few months on – after employing the help of a specialist nutritional therapist – I’m now a sugar-free, organic-loving water drinker. I’m definitely not perfect, and I’ve succumbed to temptation on more than one occasion, but at least I’m giving my body a break from the massive sugar and carb-fuelled hangover it used to deal with.

It all started in October 2014, a few weeks after diagnosis, when my consultant told me surgery would clear the visible tumours but not catch any other cancer cells that were hidden elsewhere. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy weren’t on the table and, although surgery would see the tumours removed, he was firm in his belief that the cancer would probably return.

Looking back, he was almost too convincing and I suspect some people would go away from that preparing for the worst – almost giving up. I tried to forget what he said because the mind can be a powerful thing and I needed to believe that with the right steps, I could stop the cancer from returning.

As it happened, he was right. But I don’t think his prediction was inevitable, which is almost how it was conveyed to me, and I believe it is possible the growth of secondary tumours may have been stunted because of my dietary improvements.

Consuming small amounts of sugar can’t hurt on special occasions – like this ice cream in Lynmouth, North Devon – but it seemed to be in everything I ate.

There were three things I decided to do coming out of that meeting: Get a nutritionist, get fitter and, on the advice of my Macmillan Nurse, see a counsellor. As it happened, that last option was a waste of time as it took about two months to even get an appointment with an NHS counsellor and after an hour I decided it wasn’t for me. But the other two options were definitely still on the table. To be fitter I got back into football, cricket and cycling, but it was the idea of improving my diet that would be the biggest challenge.

And why was that? Well, this was a typical weekday for me:

7.30am:

• Crunchy Nut cereal and semi-skimmed milk. Pint of orange squash.

10am:

• Either a cup of coffee or a hot chocolate

10.30am:

• Packet of crisps or chocolate bar

1pm:

• Sandwich from a supermarket or local café
• Can of coke
• Chocolate bar (sometimes even a bar of toblerone or a bag of chocolates which I would graze on all afternoon)

6pm

• Dinner – homemade most of the time, but often a pie, bag of chips and can of Sprite from the local chippy. If homemade, normally something with chips.
• More pints of orange squash

I’ve always been known for my sweet tooth…

I had assumed cereals were healthy, sandwiches were decent, and that carbs and sugar were OK in moderation. However, a quick Google session and a rough calculation gave me some shocking figures. I had been consuming 120 to 150 grams of sugar every single day. Even at the lower level, that’s FIVE times more than the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily intake. Not only that, but I’m known for having a particularly sweet tooth and believe it or not, this list is a conservative effort.

Looking back, what frustrates me the most is that I didn’t realise the impact all that sugar was having on my body. The scary thing is that my list might not be too different from that of other people my age. I’ve always been very slim and just assumed that that was proof my body could deal with all the rubbish I was putting in. I feel like I’m shirking the responsibility by claiming ignorance – but I always figured I was a pretty healthy lad because I was slim and exercised loads. No one ever told me any different and I didn’t learn about nutrition at school.

…But even I couldn’t finish this dessert off!

It took one meeting with my new nutritionist to make me realise the error of my ways. For 90 minutes, I sat and listened to logical argument after argument about why I should turn my back on what I considered standard foods and turn to fresh, organic and healthy produce. ‘Eat a Rainbow’ became our tagline and we got to work.

It wasn’t going to be an easy transition – and I still consider it a transition 12 months on – but I knew it needed to be done if I was to fight back. I felt it doubly important because of my suspicion it was diet that got me in this situation. Doctors would probably disagree with that but I’ve never drunk a lot of alcohol, or had even one puff of a cigarette, and a genetic test came back 99 per cent negative. To my mind, it only leaves one suspect.

My new diet – probably most similar to the Ketogenic diet – tries to stay away from as many carbs and sugars as possible. I even had to cut down to two portions of fruit a day because of the sugar they contain and if I did need a sugar hit, I turned to ultra-dark chocolate. Bread was a big no-no and my aim was now to consume nothing but veg, protein and good fats. I’d never even seen coconut oil, avocados or sheep yoghurt before – and now I was eating them everyday.

A typical day now consists of vegetable juices, homemade soups, lots of salad, veg and chicken. I’m also trying to eat more fish but as my appetite has deteriorated in recent months, so has my taste for it. As for the dark chocolate, I love it. I’m up to 90 per cent now after working my way up, and it no longer tastes bitter. ‘Normal’ chocolate just tastes like fat – it’s disgusting, and I can’t believe I ever liked it!

My doctors have never really seen diet as an important factor in my recovery – but it seems logical to me to starve any cancer cells of the glucose they crave. It’s a big sacrifice but with so much at stake, it was an easy decision. Whether I can stay on the diet for the rest of my life remains to be seen but one thing is for sure – no more milk chocolate, no more fizzy drinks, and no more ignorance!

*UPDATE – I wrote the majority of this back in October 2015 – before I started my IL-2 treatment. I’ve drifted back to a more usual diet right now in a bid to keep my weight up, but I’ll be going back onto an ultra-healthy diet soon!!