Only half of those diagnosed with cancer survive the first year – American Cancer Society
Honoring Survivors. Rethinking the Science.
June 1st marks National Cancer Survivor’s Day—a time to celebrate the courage, resilience, and triumph of millions of individuals who have faced one of life’s most formidable challenges: cancer.
Every survivor’s story is a testament to human strength—and also a powerful reminder that we must keep pushing for better answers, better prevention, and better care. Today, as we honor those who have overcome, we also ask a difficult but necessary question:
What if we’ve misunderstood the nature of cancer itself?
For decades, we’ve been told that cancer is a genetic lottery—a roll of the DNA dice. You either get lucky, or you don’t. Doctors speak of “mutations,” “oncogenes,” and “bad luck” as if these mysterious codes are the ultimate puppeteers of cancer.
But what if this isn’t the whole story?
What if cancer doesn’t start in your genes… but in your metabolism?
That’s the bold—and increasingly evidence-backed claim of Professor Thomas Seyfried, one of the world’s leading experts in cancer metabolism, as well as a growing cohort of cancer researchers and clinicians. In a groundbreaking chapter from the textbook Ketogenic (2023), Seyfried dismantles the popular belief that cancer is purely genetic. Instead, he builds a compelling case that cancer is a disease of broken energy production—rooted in damaged mitochondria, the “power plants” of your cells.
And once you see the evidence, it’s hard to unsee it.
Let’s explore the bold idea that challenges the genetic theory and introduces the metabolic theory of cancer—a model that opens up entirely new ways to prevent, manage, and treat the disease using non-toxic, nutritional, and metabolic strategies.
Because survivors deserve not just celebration—but revolutionary thinking that could change everything and ensure that each year we have less cancer cases and more cancer survivors to celebrate.
The Power Plants That Fail First
Every cell in your body needs energy to survive. Healthy cells get this energy efficiently through a process called oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos), which happens inside mitochondria. But in cancer cells, this system is broken.
When mitochondria fail, cells revert to a more primitive way of making energy—fermentation—even when oxygen is abundant. This is called the Warburg Effect, and it’s been observed in virtually every cancer.
It’s like a city losing access to clean electricity and switching to emergency generators—smoky, dirty, and inefficient. This energy chaos sets the stage for uncontrolled cell growth and all the devastating traits we associate with cancer.
Cancer Cells Aren’t Mutant Supervillains—They’re Energy-Compromised Survivors
Here’s the kicker: Many so-called “cancer-driving” genetic mutations are found in perfectly healthy people. Some cancers show no mutations at all. And in laboratory experiments, scientists have taken the nucleus (the part with all the DNA) from a cancer cell and placed it in a healthy cell—with no cancer resulting.
But when they put a healthy nucleus into a cell with broken mitochondria, cancer emerges.
Let that sink in.
It’s not the genes that make the cell cancerous—it’s the environment. And that environment is metabolic.
The Real Fuel Behind Tumor Growth
Cancer cells are addicted. Not to mutations—but to two specific fuels: glucose and glutamine. These cells can’t survive without a constant stream of sugar and this specific amino acid. They use them to create ATP (energy), not through efficient respiration, but through sloppy fermentation.
This addiction makes them vulnerable.
Seyfried and others have shown that when you restrict these two fuels—especially through ketogenic diets and targeted therapies—you can starve cancer cells while nourishing healthy ones.
And unlike chemo and radiation, this approach doesn’t poison the body. It works with your biology, not against it.
Why Aren’t We Hearing This From Oncologists?
Because the “cancer is a genetic disease” model is big business. It drives pharmaceutical development, insurance protocols, and government funding. It’s deeply entrenched. Shifting that paradigm would mean rethinking billions of dollars in research and rewriting textbooks.
But it’s already happening. Quietly, behind the scenes, a new generation of scientists, clinicians, and patients is waking up to the truth: metabolism matters.
A Paradigm Shift in the Making
If you’re a health coach, nutritionist, doctor—or someone living with cancer—you deserve to know the full picture.
It’s time to challenge the status quo. Not with opinion, but with science. With data. With logic.
Professor Seyfried’s work, as featured in Ketogenic (2023), and expanded in Nutrition Network’s latest training, “Cancer: A Metabolic Disease”, is your roadmap to understanding this critical shift in cancer theory and treatment.
This course breaks down the evidence for a metabolic origin of cancer, shows you how to support metabolic health, and offers hope in a space too often dominated by fear and fatalism.
Reference:
Noakes T, Murphy T, Wellington N, Kajee H, Bullen J, Rice S, Egnos C, editors. Ketogenic: The Science of Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction in Human Health. Elsevier; 2023 Jun 22
Call to Action: Learn the Truth. Be Part of the Change.
The future of cancer care will be metabolic.
If you’re a clinician, coach, or someone who refuses to accept the genetic fatalism of cancer, we invite you to join us. Empower yourself with the knowledge and tools to help others—and to ask better questions.
🧠 Enroll now in Nutrition Network’s online training: Cancer: A Metabolic Disease
Let’s stop blaming our genes. Let’s start supporting our cells.