The Fasting Method Podcast · The Fasting Method

The Cancer Code: Dr. Jason Fung on Insulin, Fasting, and Cancer Prevention

·35 min·2 clips

So since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this is marking the five

Lisa Chance sets up the conversation as a return to a familiar question. With Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the five-year anniversary of The Cancer Code, she and Patrice Michael sit down with Dr. Jason Fung to revisit what fasting might mean for prevention, especially when cancer runs in a family. The talk starts with a direct question about research. Fung keeps coming back to what a person can control: diet, fasting, and the kind of metabolic environment they live in. He does not treat genes as irrelevant. Instead, he uses BRCA1 as an example of risk that still needs the right soil before it can take hold. In his framing, the seed matters, but the ground matters too. Natural foods, low insulin, and regular, relatively prolonged fasting windows make that ground less welcoming to cancer growth. He contrasts that with modern eating patterns. Constant eating, processed foods, and the insulin spikes they create produce a fertile setting for disease. He is blunt that this does not make cancer a moral failure. The point is not blame, but environment, and the environment has changed fast. Fung points to the rise in colorectal cancer among younger people as evidence that something more than luck is at work. He notes that colonoscopy screening has already had to move from age 50 to 45 because so many people in their forties are showing up with disease. He also looks backward, saying similar patterns were studied in Africa in the 1800s and 1900s. The conversation keeps circling the same practical idea. Fasting does not erase risk, but it may help shape the conditions that risk needs. The episode closes by turning to Fung's broader writing, including his view that The Cancer Code is the book he likes best from a scientific standpoint, while also mentioning The Hunger Code and a possible webinar or masterclass for people who pre-order. The tone stays calm and coaching-oriented throughout, with serious material presented as something listeners can work with rather than fear.

As heard by us

A steady, prevention-minded conversation about cancer risk, fasting, and the limits of genetic fatalism.

This monthly Q&A returns to The Cancer Code with Dr. Fung and Patrice Michael on cancer risk, fasting, insulin, and the uneasy line between bad luck in genes and the environment people live in.

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Why you'd press play

If cancer risk feels abstract, this gives you a seed-and-soil way to think about it.

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