Episode Overview

So many women healing from breast cancer are told, “Just cut out sugar,” as if that one step could control everything. But is that really the whole story?

In this episode, we take a deep breath and go beyond the fear-based headlines to explore what’s really happening inside your cells.

From the basics of cellular fermentation to the Warburg effect, you’ll learn how both glucose and oxygen play critical roles in energy production—and why a multifaceted approach to healing is so important.

We’ll talk about:

• What fermentation means and why your body uses it
• The real meaning behind the Warburg theory
• How oxygen, breath, movement, and mindset influence your terrain
• Why you don’t need to live in fear of food
• The role of mitochondria and metabolic health in breast cancer recovery

You’ll leave this episode with more clarity, less fear, and a deeper appreciation for how your body adapts and communicates. Because healing isn’t about perfection—it’s about creating an environment where your cells can thrive.

Key Topics Covered:

• Cellular fermentation explained in simple terms
• How oxygen supports healthy metabolism
• Sugar and cancer: understanding the nuance
• The Warburg effect, debunked and demystified
• The power of movement, breath, and whole-body wellness
• Practical steps to support your healing terrain

This episode is perfect for you if:

• You’ve been confused or anxious about carbs and cancer
• You’re tired of oversimplified advice like “sugar feeds cancer”
• You want a grounded, science-backed approach to metabolic health
• You’re ready to support your healing without fear or restriction

Resources & Support:

Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer™ Metabolic Health and Mindset Membership to get weekly guidance, monthly group calls, and a compassionate community that understands your journey.

Let’s Connect!

If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

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🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

Rate & Review the Show

If this episode helped you feel more clear, confident, or just a little more supported, it would mean so much if you left a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other breast cancer survivors find the show and feel less alone.

Read the full transcript:

0:00
You're listening to better than before breast cancer with the breast cancer recovery coach, I'm your host, Laura Lemmer. I'm a certified life coach and I'm a breast cancer thriver. In this podcast, I will give you the skills on the insides and the tools to move past the emotional and physical trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis if you're looking for a way to create a life that's even better than before breast cancer, you've come to the right place. Let's get started. Hello there, my beautiful friends, and welcome to episode 418 of better than before breast cancer. Today, we're going to bring up a topic and go deep into this topic in the simplest way for the best understanding that causes a lot of confusion, and especially when it comes to supporting our healing. So I work with a lot of people, and I get calls and questions and messages asking about food, asking about diet, asking about blood sugar. And although that's very important, and we're going to touch on it today, something that I think is super important to understand. It's something that Dr nation winters talks about all the time, and she says diet alone is not going to fix the issue. And in this episode, I hope to give clarity on that. I want to help you understand why diet is very important, why the management of blood sugar or glucose is very important, why the management of oxygen is very important. And I want to discuss this idea that sugar feeds cancer. What does that really mean? I mean is it just that cut and dry, that clear? And how can you support your body taking a whole picture, the holistic picture, of your life and your body, and learn to understand different things that need to be incorporated so that you aren't left feeling frustrated. And what I mean by that is a lot of times people will come to me and say, I cut out these carbs and I cut out my sugar. But here's what didn't change. I didn't feel different here. I didn't feel better there. This marker didn't change. And I hope that this episode will give you some clarity on why, what the steps that are already taken is important. You know, reducing carbohydrate intake, definitely cutting out sugar and processed food. But why? That's not the complete picture. Okay, so what if, instead of just going into the panic mode of, I've got to cut out all carbs, no fruit, no sugar, no flour, no anything. Let's try and reframe that and look at it to gain more clarity, from a place of curiosity, from a place of compassion, because I think, and in my own experience, I truly believe that real healing is not about fear. It can't be fear based. It can't be fear driven, because we have to learn to love our body, to want to nourish it, to want to take care of it, and to tune into the language and the signals that it sends to us so that we're listening and supporting it through love and self compassion, which is not driven by fear. And I think that's where a lot of the healing come from. So we need to focus on understanding what's happening inside our body and learn how to support that in a way that helps you to feel strong, that helps you to feel grounded, safe in this moment, right? And in your body and also alive, right? Have great energy. So I want to talk about this process that you may have heard of before, and it's called fermentation. So your body is full of these little, tiny, fantastic, mind blowing, amazing, little working machines called your cells, and one of their jobs is to make energy. And they take the food that you eat and they turn it into fuel. And kind of like how a kitchen turns ingredients into a meal, right? Is how your body is working, and your cells have two ways of making energy. The preferred way is to use oxygen for energy, and this process is clean, it's efficient, and it produces a lot of energy. And maybe think back to high school biology and ATP. Remember hearing about ATP, it creates a lot of energy. Well, the backup to this process is called fermentation. It is a quick, but much dirtier method that your body uses when oxygen is low or energy is needed fast, and fermentation mostly happens when you're working really hard, like running or lifting something heavy, and your body doesn't have or can't get enough oxygen to yourself. Fast enough so your cells are like, no problem. I've got Plan B, and they switch to fermentation. So it's actually, again, remarkable. Our bodies are remarkable, and it's a beautiful survival mechanism. It's not a failure, right? It's not like your body isn't working, right? It's an adaptation. So in your muscles, fermentation creates a small amount of energy and something called lactic acid. So think about anaerobic exercise, meaning, when you're lifting heavy weights and you start to feel that burn right that sword, you move to fatigue. So the body is run out of the energy that's oxygenating that muscle and giving you energy. So when we go into this fermentation process, our body produces what's called lactic acid. And so that is, you know, that sore that we say, Oh, that's a good sore, right? Because the lactic acid will build up in our muscles. But cancer cells, it's a little different. Fermentation becomes their default. So even when oxygen is available for them to use, they turn to fermentation instead. And that's where this guy, you probably heard of, Dr Otto Warburg, came into the picture. So in the 1920s just quick, quick Cliff Notes, in case you haven't heard of Dr Otto Warburg in the 1920s Dr Warburg discovered that cancer cells use fermentation even when there's plenty of oxygen around. And he thought that this was the key to understanding cancer. And in some ways, he was right, but over time, his we figured out that his theory was oversimplified, right? And it became just this one statement of cancer feeds on sugar, which is not untrue. But here's the thing, yes, cancer cells use glucose to make energy, but so do your healthy cells, right? Your brain runs on glucose. Your red blood cells only use glucose. Even your immune system uses glucose to fight off invaders, pathogens, viruses. So glucose isn't necessarily the enemy. Dysfunctional metabolism is the problem, right? Cancer cells don't just feed on sugar. They prefer fermentation. But the deeper issue is, why? Why do they do that? And it turns out that the health of your mitochondria, which are these little energy factories inside your cells, plays a very big role here. So when your mitochondria are damaged by inflammation, toxins, low oxygen or stress, your body shifts to fermentation. So even if you cut carbs but you don't improve your mitochondrial function, you're not completely solving the root issue. So this is why diet alone isn't enough. Avoiding carbs on its own isn't enough. So let's talk about this unsung hero of energy, oxygen, right? Every time you take in a breath, oxygen travels from your lungs into your blood, and then it gets carried to every cell in your body. So you may be thinking, to me, this makes no sense. What do you mean that my cancer, that the cancer in my body, or that certain cells in my body are going to turn to another process when there's no oxygen, if I'm breathing, I have oxygen, right? Well, yes, but if you're not moving very much, or if your breathing is very shallow, or if your tissues are inflamed, or your blood is sluggish, like thick, sticky, then your cells might not be getting enough oxygen. And so just because you're breathing and you're alive doesn't mean there's enough oxygen to supply your metabolism in your cells to work in the most optimal way. Okay, so when oxygen delivery goes down, fermentation goes up. So one of the most important ways to support your body isn't just what you don't eat, it's what you do with your breath and your body. Know where I'm heading with this, right? What this means is things that are very important in addition to your diet or gentle movement, deep belly breathing, walking outside, resistance training, even just stretching and mindful yoga. So these aren't just feel good activities, and they're, they shouldn't be. We think of them as optional, but they're, they're really not. They're therapeutic, and they're needed for a healthy, optimized metabolism. So when we do these things and we participate in these activities. It's a way of just saying to ourselves, I want you to work well, I realize what you need to survive. I see you, right. I hear you, I see you. So let's zoom out a little bit, and let's say that, yes, balancing sugar is important. Yes, reducing process costs.

10:00
Carbs can help calm inflammation, but we have to completely embrace this idea that healing doesn't happen in the food chart alone, right? It, it lives in the terrain of your body, the healing, the energy, right? How all of the parts of your body interact so it encompasses what you eat, how you move, how you sleep, how you breathe, how you think and feel, how you process stress and past trauma, big, big players there, and this is why two people can eat the exact same meal and have very different responses, because their inner train, their hormones, their genes, their inflammation, their mitochondria, their emotions, are all different, and you cannot out diet, poor sleep. You cannot out supplement, chronic stress. You can't expect one food rule to do what your whole body and spirit are designed to do, which is to work together in harmony. And I think this is really important to think about and to address, because way too often we fall into comparison. And I hear this all the time. I don't understand I eat this, and I see her eat that, and I'm dealing with cancer, or she eats that, and she never gains an ounce. And I look at that and I gain five pounds, right? We've gotta deal with, one, the root issue, and two, understanding our terrain, understanding what your unique body needs. So when you find yourself going down this rabbit hole of overwhelm over what you're eating and you're terrified of a piece of pineapple, I want you to come back and think I don't have to be overwhelmed by this. Right? Taking good care of a body isn't rocket science. There are some simple steps that support a healthy human metabolism. And sure we can dig deeper, and sure we can look at all of the nutrition genomics, and we can look at lab work, and we can really dial things in, but there are foundations, and I think it's important to talk about in in this podcast episode, because I just have heard so much of this lately. I mean, over the last eight years of my coaching, I hear a lot of focus on food, but it's really been pretty intense lately. It's almost like this, this fear of food, but also these blinders to all the other things that support you in addition to food, right? And I think if we can take a step back and learn to love and enjoy our food and listen and tune into what our body needs from our food, then we can also pay attention to more things. And so this is one of the things that comes up. Is people always say, what supplement do I need? You know, what therapy do I need to do? And I always ask, first, tell me about your diet, tell me about your sleep, tell me about your stress and tell me about your hydration, right? We look at these things first. So to roll back that, you know intensity meter on the fear that can come up and the confusion and the anxiety, let's remember eat whole foods. Focus on variety. Focus on getting you lots of colorful vegetables, good quality, clean proteins, right? Because factory farmed animals and the inflammatory fats that are in them, and the processes that are driven by some of the poor diet. I mean, think about it, if you're eating an animal that's had a poor diet and is not a healthy animal or well fed. How, when you take in that energy from that food, how's that going to translate into your own body? Right? So we think about eating clean, yes, fiber, rich, carbs, right? Like all of your healthy greens, lots of vitamins, but also moving every day. So if you've got the diet dialed in, are you moving every day, 10 to 20 minutes and joyful moving? Do you like what you do? Are you walking, dancing, strength training? These things make a difference. Are you breathing with intention, at least for some part of your day? And what that means is noticing many of us are driving to work or drive places throughout the day, or maybe take walks. Pay attention to the breath and really deep breathing. Notice that if you expand the lowest lobes of your lungs, you can't help but expand your belly. Allow the belly to expand. See what it feels like to breathe deep. This is a practice that I have in the morning. So when I was first diagnosed with stage four cancer, I had a liter and a half of fluid in my chest. My heart was surrounded by fluid. My right lung was surrounded by fluid, and the lower lobe of that right lung was collapsed. So over time, as I healed, and I've had to have, you know, fluid drained out of the chest a couple times in the beginning, and that caused what's called atelectasis. So it's a it's a change basically, in the tissues of my lung. And so there's also adhesions there. There's where tissue is kind of stuck together because of the surgeries I've had, the tumors I've had in my lymph nodes, and just the overall damage that was created in my chest. So deep breathing is really important for me to regain. Some of that function in my lungs, but because if I forget about it, I go a few days without my deep breath practice, which I usually do in the morning, I'll breathe in deep, and I can just feel this rippling. It's like, oh, like a really sharp pain through there. And I know that those adhesions have come back together, right? So deep breathing is really important. And if you've had a lot of surgeries in your chest, and you try to take in those deep breaths, it might feel a little uncomfortable at first, and so notice that if it feels uncomfortable, maybe this is something you can get support with right. Physical therapy is amazing for this. So we can talk to a physical therapist to get help with the breath. We can talk to a breath work expert, but remember, the all of these tissues in and around your chest may have changed, so breath work very important deep sleep. So when your body heals and detoxes, it repairs your mitochondria, and so we have to prioritize sleep, seriously, like it's an appointment, like, why it's so interesting to me, how we just choose the certain things we want to prioritize. And for some reason, most of us go to food. Well, a lot of people go to supplements first. Hopefully we go to food first. But prioritizing sleep. I have a friend. Well, I have a routine. I'm pretty consistent with going to bed. I go to bed early. I get up early, but, you know, I have a couple of friends. They're like, nope, 738 o'clock, I'm starting to put on my pajamas. Nine o'clock, 930 I'm asleep. And they prioritize, and it's a really healthy boundary for them. Now sometimes, of course, they deviate, and they go out, but on a consistent basis that that healthy sleep routine is so important and prioritizing it as if it is an appointment for you. This is my appointment, because this is what serves my health. This is when I do this thing right. Very important for whatever works in your routine, and then managing stress, meditation, journaling, taking warm bath, allowing yourself to say no and honor your boundaries when it comes to things that you don't have the energy for, that you don't enjoy, that you don't like the energy you get from them, right? And practicing really holding on to those healthy boundaries. That's a big stress reducer there. And so if you're eating the healthiest foods, and you don't have a single grain in your diet, and you never eat sugar or drink anything sugary, but you are constantly feeling, on an emotional level, assaulted by people violating your boundaries because you're not clarifying them and standing up for them. You that's an area that can use a lot of attention, right? Because your diet is not going to compensate for that, right? These small actions, especially, I again, truly believe when it comes to these actions that protect us emotionally. This helps our body to feel safe. It helps our

17:54
cells to know they're safer. We have got their back, and that really supports our healing, right? So if you are afraid of food, as is not uncommon, don't think you're alone. I've been through the fear of food. I dip in and out of the fear of food still sometimes, and I think like food is the driver. And I've got to talk myself through that and remind myself that we don't want to get stuck in the fear of, am I feeding cancer with this food? Right? We can just kind of let that go a little bit and know that consistency and good choices add up, but it's not the be all and the end all. We've got to give energy to the whole lifestyle. Okay? So you have to understand how your body works and be consistent at offering it loving support, not just in one area. Your cells are very, very smart. Your body is very, very smart. It wants to survive. It loves to adapt, and so your cells have lots of backup plans, and we don't need to micromanage every molecule in the body, but to create an environment where it's healthy, most healthy function as possible, like it's Plan A is doable, so it doesn't have to go to the backup plans of the plan B. Okay? And this happens through nourishment, through breath, through joy, through rest, through movement, right? We want to keep asking ourselves, do I have joy in my life? Am I inviting joy in my life? Am I intentionally creating joy in my life? Right? So, just as your body is wise, you are also wise and very capable, and I would love for you to give yourself space, to allow yourself to trust your body again. Listen to it. Trust it. Understand what it's saying to you this next three months. So this comes out actually, on July 4. So for all of my listeners in the United States, Happy Fourth of July and so for this next three months in the better than before, breast cancer, metabolic health and mindset, membership. It, we are focusing on being anchored in the strength of being in the present moment and of listening to our body and building that trust with our body. So we can leave those things like I feel like my body betrayed me behind. So if you would love to jump in and dig into this program, just go to my website, the breast cancer recovery coach.com and enroll in the better than before breast cancer, metabolic health and mindset membership. Even if you're hearing this later, think, oh my gosh, I missed it. You didn't miss it. Because everything I teach, every lesson we've done since the opening of this membership in March of 2021 all the workshops I've done, all of the programs I've created in the eight years that I've been coaching, everything is inside that membership, and when you enroll, you can access all of it at any time so you can get what you need when you need it. There's no need to figure this out alone. There's no need to go through confusion all the time and wonder what to do, because there is support available for you. Okay? And you know, what an interesting thing again. So many people say to me, you know, I listen to this podcast and I love it, but it's not just about breast cancer, it's about life, and everybody should listen, and you're right. So it isn't just people who've had a breast cancer and diagnosis, whose bodies decide between using oxygen and using fermentation. It's not just those of us who have had a diagnosis or living with cancer or working on healing our bodies from cancer, who need to know this, our loved ones, our friends, our family. If they know it, then maybe they can reduce the risk of all kinds of diseases and understand how their bodies work before they get to the stage that we've gotten to, and it becomes such an urgent thing, right? So share this episode with somebody, help them to understand. You know, there is so much more. Food is important, believe me, I am not saying food is not important. I'm not saying that carbohydrate limitations are not important, but there's so much more. And this oxygen factor moving your body, I cannot emphasize how important that is. It is part of the therapy. It's part of the healing, and it increases that oxygenation, it improves the quality and the viscosity, the movement of our blood in our body. So hydration, sleep, movement. So let's ask ourselves, are we moving? Maybe you share this with somebody else who you want to move with you so you can support each other in having a healthier life. The way that we turn this titanic ship of increasing cancer rates is to start before early detection, right? Early detection is great, don't get me wrong, but early detection is also too late, because you already have disease. So if we can dial that back, and we can work on all these things before we have any kind of diagnosis or detection, then we're that much more ahead of the game. So come to my website, the breast cancer recovery coach.com in addition to my membership, lots of programs to support you, free downloads that can support you in reevaluating your diet, in managing your mind and your breath and your stressfulness and that it's all there for you at the breast cancer recovery coach.com All right, so I hope This cleared up some things for you and helped you to understand better, little bit more about how your body works, so that you could turn to the breath and you can turn to gently loving your body with movement every day, right? And give yourself credit for every single small step, tiny step, tiny success that you make, because every single one of them counts, alright, friend, Happy Fourth of July. To those of you who celebrate Fourth of July, and I will talk to you again next week. Until then, Please be good to yourself.