Patients hoping for a diet to help with diabetes are doomed to disappointment in South Africa. Meanwhile over a billion pounds has been spent in the UK on cancer drugs that don’t work, says a new report. In South Africa, the scientist who blew the whistle is in the dock…

Last week I ended my post with the finger pointing firmly at sugar (glucose) in the blood as being a vital source of fuel for cancer growth. Turning cancerous has the effect of re-wiring a cell’s energy production system so it becomes more demanding and less efficient (known as glycolosis).

Last week I ended my post with the finger pointing firmly at sugar (glucose) in the blood as being a vital source of fuel for cancer growth. Turning cancerous has the effect of re-wiring a cell’s energy production system so it becomes more demanding and less efficient (known as glycolosis).

A fine example of post truth and alternative facts appeared in the Guardian on Monday. Defining any diet that made a medical claim as a fad, the article consigned them all to the bin.

A diagnosis of cancer is really scary. It can seem as if there are only two options, neither very appealing. Conventional treatment which promises a lot but is likely to be toxic and gruelling or the complementary route, seen to lack the punch needed to beat cancer.

Twelve years ago Robin Daly’s 23-year-old daughter Bryony was dying of cancer when he set up a charity called Yes to Life to provide information about unconventional treatments such as changes in diet, supplements, vitamin C infusions, oxygen therapy and the like. At the time, although popular all such complementary options were sternly rejected as ineffective and possibly dangerous by conventional oncologists.

I’m not given to melodrama but I think I have just spotted that the cancer establishment is getting ready to perform a massive, unthinkable, screeching U-turn. Impossibly expensive new drugs are out and diet, exercise and supplement (yes you read it right) are in.

Leafing through the New Year papers I was struck by the similarity between the housing crisis the diabetes and obesity epidemics. In one case rapidly inflating prices pushing virtually all properties out of reach of anyone on an average wage, in the other a relentless expansion of supermarket shelving devoted to refined carbohydrates, driving an inexorable inflation of the nation’s waistlines.

Just over a year ago Sophie Sabbage was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was a 48-years-old experienced personal development trainer, married with a young daughter. Her doctors agreed she didn’t have long to live but this week the book she only began writing just over a month ago, is being published.

As anyone who is involved with cancer knows, you have two options. Follow the standard, scientifically validated route – variations on surgery, drugs and radiotherapy – supported by proper clinical trials or venture into the unapproved, unlicensed territory of complementary medicine frequently described as quackery.