Gillian Anderson reveals she had to give up sugar because she was drinking FIVE cans of Coke a day and details her macrobiotic food stage during X Files as she explains some believe diet can ‘heal cancer’

Gillian Anderson has opened up about giving up sugar in her diet and going through a macrobiotic phase while filming her hit 1990s show, The X Files.

The actress, 56, appeared on Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners podcast this week, where they discussed her groundbreaking new book, Want, and her favorite food.

She opened up about her ideal last supper, revealing that she had cut both sugar and gluten out of her diet last month due to her excessive cola consumption.

Gillian explained: ‘I used to be a big pudding person, but I’ve recently given up sugar and gluten. But if it’s my last supper, I’d probably make a banoffee pie.”

She added that she started cutting back in September, when presenters Jessie and Lennie asked if it made her feel better.

The Sex Education star admitted: “Not necessarily, but I know I have to say yes.”

She then confessed: ‘I drank five cokes a day. Full of fat. For the sugar and caffeine. So I didn’t drink to get rid of it.’

Gillian spoke about what she ate while playing Agent Scully from 1993 to 2002, explaining that she “went through so many stages,” and explained how she tried the macrobiotic diet.

She recalled: ‘I went through a macrobiotic stage for a while, which is impossible to make yourself, you really need someone else to do it for you.

‘Macrobiotics are a mixture of grains, usually like brown rice or quinoa, and there’s seaweed, mushrooms and fermented foods.’

As host Jessie Ware poked fun at the diet, The Crown star explained the benefits and revealed that some even believe it can “reverse their cancer.”

She said: ‘It’s very, very healthy. Some people swear by it, it’s very cleansing, it’s meant to be very good for your biome and your entire system.

“But sometimes people who have cancer follow a macrobiotic diet and feel like it’s curing them somehow. Sometimes they think they can reverse their cancer by eating macrobiotic foods.”

The macrobiotic diet was developed in the 1920s by Japanese philosopher George Ohsawa and aims to avoid foods that contain toxins.

There is no scientific evidence to support the belief that a macrobiotic lifestyle can treat or cure cancer.

Leading charity, Cancer Research UKwarns that the restricted diet “can have serious harmful consequences, especially if you follow it instead of conventional medical treatments.”

They state: ‘We do not support the use of macrobiotic diets for people with cancer.’

It comes after Elle Macpherson came under fire last month for her ‘holistic’ claims about cancer treatment, which were branded ‘dangerous’ and ‘terribly irresponsible’.

The model, 60, was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago but first revealed the diagnosis in her new memoir Elle.

But she sparked controversy after revealing she had refused to accept traditional treatment, in favor of an ‘intuitive, heart-driven, holistic approach’.

Elle, who is now in remission, explained that she ignored the medical advice of 32 doctors by refusing chemotherapy after undergoing a lumpectomy for HER2-positive estrogen-receptive intraductal carcinoma.

She underwent eight months of intensive therapy with doctors in Phoenix, Arizona, following a holistic route.

Following the publication of her memoir, Elle was criticized for “dangerously” promoting the holistic treatment she received during her battle, which she said helped her overcome the disease.

In a candid interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Elle said she was in shock when she was diagnosed but chose not to undergo the mastectomy and chemotherapy her doctors suggested.

‘As you can imagine, it was a bit of a shock. “I think every woman, most women, when they’re diagnosed, they don’t think this is going to happen to them,” she said.

Elle underwent a lumpectomy and discovered her cancer had no clear margins – meaning the disease could have spread, and said she was advised to have a ‘mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone replacement’.

The Australian star said she has always followed “natural medicine” and said her choice was “unconventional” as was the “rest of her life”.

She said: ‘It was a choice between losing my breasts or losing my life that was given to me. So it wasn’t a vanity choice, let’s put it that way. It was a natural route in my treatment from within.

“I had really looked at the body in a holistic way: spiritual and physical well-being.”

The supermodel added that there is a “time and place” for Western medicine, but that she has “adopted a more natural lifestyle because that works for me.”

She also said she is confident the cancer will not return, saying of the chances of the cancer coming back: ‘I don’t expect one and I have no indication that it would. Zero.

‘The body has the infinite capacity to heal and I am in complete well-being… Anxiety is something that can really make you sick. So I’m not interested in that. I think it’s a sensible way to live, to focus on well-being.’

Her comments caused huge backlash from the public and health professionals about the unconventional treatment path.

And many people, including fellow celebrities, disagreed with Elle promoting the alternative medicine approach to cancer treatment over the proven medicinal approach because it could lead others to do the same.