Has anyone heard of this? apparently there are 8 essential sugars or carbohydrates which are vital in all cellular functions. The theory is that these are virtually non-existant in many of our diets these days. I’m not sure if it would apply to any of us who eat a broad range of fruits and veggies, but it is interesting reading in any event. I googled the term a bit and found out quite a bit of info but am still researching it. Apparently there have even been some nobel prizes awarded to the people doing the research in this field.
It’s definately a “sounds too good to be true” type of things with the claims they make, but the science looks like it has promise. Just curious if anyone else has heard of this before.
Cy, JB, anyone?
July 2002 Scientific American ran a cover story on these sugars.
March 23,2001 Science Magazine ran 42 pages of research findings on the topic.
More importantly, as many of the sugars are found in kelps and exotic mushrooms. One of them is found in aloe vera plants, and the other is found in whey isolate, which is obviously in our beloved Surge.
Some of the stuff I have read also indicates that this is expensive stuff, and that that is one of the drawbacks. However, most of the supps I found dealing with these 8 sugars, were 40-50 bucks for a month or two supply. Me being a Biotest junkie and all I hardly found this cost prohibitive. It seems a little hard to find the nitty gritty on this online, or as of yet I have not been able to, I amtempted to buy one of the books written about this and dig into it further.
how “essential” can they be if they are not present in our diets? could they be beneficial-yes, essential??? this sort of claim makes me suspicious. suddenly after millions of years of evolution only those who tripped on shrooms and smoked seaweed survive? I am way out in left field on this and it is interesting-just the wording bothers me, can you say bob barefoot?
Supposedly our bodies make the sugars needed for cellular communication. However, the going theory is that the process for making these sugars is complex and delicate and that dietary and other inhibitors like toxins (alcohol, drugs etc…) and stress are causing many people to make less than needed or for certain sugars to cease to be made alltogether. One of thier going theories is that many diseases are brought about by the lack of one or any combination of these sugars. And, of course, many people have been miraculously cured of their cancers and other serious diseases by supplementing with these.
I finally found a site with a lot of research and much more in depth “science” at glycoscience.org, I am going through thier research at the moment, i’ll report back with anything interesting. I do hope, someone with a little bit more of a science backroud would check this out for us, I am an avid science junkie but am by no means qualified to verify any of the studies.
So these eight sugars attach themselves to the proteins that surround every cell with a nucleus creating glycoprotiens. The Different combinations of these glycoproteins are used as the basic communication between cells. The nucleus will assemble different glycoproteins to tell what it needs whether it be hormones, nutrients, water etc…
There are some nice diagrams of how this might work, as well as some formulas that might as well be written in hebrew to me. Also, in one study they radioactively tagged a few of these sugars, and then had them ingested. They found that they were not digested and turned into glucose for energy, they actually went straight into use at the cellular level.
So far the reading is a little hard but it seems like cool stuff, hopefully it isn’t science fiction.
The website I listed is pretty neat for anyone who is bored. It has little red numbers all throughout the information, that give you links at the bottom of the page to the reference materials when you click on one. Someone took a very long time to compile all this information with the links to all the research.
Also something that may be of value to us T-Nationers, apparently, many in the medical feild agree that this is good science, but due to the lack of funding advances in research are coming along quite slowly. Many feel the drug companies, who are responsible for most of the funding in medical science, is purposely not funding this stuff because it poses a serious risk to thier business. They also recive very limited government funding because of the same reasons. Right now the potential market for this type of thing is every single person in the world… but it is not getting out very well.
I don’t know about you guys, but if everyone in america suddenly started becoming more healthy and the drug companies got a huge kick in the balls, and my health insurance costs went down… I wouldn’t complain.
Their reasoning being that if the eight essential glyconutrients are supplied directly in your food (i.e. Mannatech products), it’s much more efficient for your body than if it has to manufacture them from other nutrients. Their line is that it’s very inefficient for the body to do this conversion.
The flaw in that reasoning is that our bodies are made to do this. They convert things all the time. It’s a normal part of being alive. These eight essential glyconutrients can easily be supplied by the body by converting other nutrients. If that weren’t the case, we would all be in much worse health than we are now.
I somewhat agree with what you are saying, that is why i’m not sure if this really applies much to T-Nation in general. We seem to have a pretty good handle on a clean healthy diet. That being said, much of the population seems to not have thier diet in check, even reasonably so. I am thinking this is more in line with people who have dietary issues, it could possibly be a benefit for them, versus the hard road of restructuring thier diet. Not that it is really that hard, but for the average person it may be harder than we think.
I personally know of very few people who actually know their shit when it comes to dietary issues. Most people are really out in left feild. I have a cousin who is suffering from lukemia right now and I am seriously considering asking her docs if this would be something she could take. It’s really only food per-se, so I don’t think it would cause much concern, and the possibility of it working far outweighs the 40-50 bucks a month she would have to spend on it. Even if it only helps a little bit, at the point she is at, even a little edge could mean the difference between life and death.
Other than that, if this really could solve a buch of our health issues, in an easy to handle approach, I hardly see the problem with that. We supplement protien, when we could really get enough by eating real food, it’s just easier to down a Grow! shake or two during the day. I see no problem with supplementing things our bodies need if it will add some benefit at a reasonable cost.
Any of you science nerds had a chance to look at this info yet? I keep trying to follow some of the stuff but quite honestly it is too advanced for me yet. Does the science back up what they say or is it smoke and mirrors for unscientific peoples such as myself.
I’m not a true scientific type, but I took a gander around and found the .org site you mentioned after your first couple of posts.
While there is the possibility that our diets have changed to exclude somet of these things, I don’t think there is really anything that can be concluded at this point.
It’s a field with a lot of potential, as in it hasn’t been researched much, but just as various inventions have been poised to save the world, I am not able to believe tossing back a few grams of various sugars a day is going to change our lives.
Of course, there may be people with problems caused by inability to perform conversions routinely performed by healthy people, that would benefit tremendously, but who can say at this point.
Easily supplied by our diet? I have to admit that I too was skeptical when I first heard about all of this. 6 months of investigation and 13 months of consumption later I can tell you that I am convinced.
Todays food chain is seriously lacking in micronutrients. A gram of protein 50 years ago is very much unchanged from a gram of protein today-in terms of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrient and yes glyconutrients-todays diet just does not cut it. 95% of all deaths in the US of A is caused by degenrative disease. No small coincidence to the continual green harvesting, spraying and overall depletion of our food chain. Frank Roberson (IFBB pro) could have 6 figure endorsments from most supplement companies-yet he chooses to endorse Mannatech (who discvored and pioneered this technology) for free.
All I am saying is look a little deeper. I thought it was all BS at first-now I feel truly blessed that I kept investigating. I am totally open to sharing some of what I have found if you’d like to know. I promise-nothing salesy-just solid info. JAKE
[quote]michaelv wrote:
This sounds like Mannatech propaganda.
Their reasoning being that if the eight essential glyconutrients are supplied directly in your food (i.e. Mannatech products), it’s much more efficient for your body than if it has to manufacture them from other nutrients. Their line is that it’s very inefficient for the body to do this conversion.
The flaw in that reasoning is that our bodies are made to do this. They convert things all the time. It’s a normal part of being alive. These eight essential glyconutrients can easily be supplied by the body by converting other nutrients. If that weren’t the case, we would all be in much worse health than we are now.[/quote]
[quote]jakepetro wrote:
Easily supplied by our diet? I have to admit that I too was skeptical when I first heard about all of this. 6 months of investigation and 13 months of consumption later I can tell you that I am convinced.
Todays food chain is seriously lacking in micronutrients. A gram of protein 50 years ago is very much unchanged from a gram of protein today-in terms of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrient and yes glyconutrients-todays diet just does not cut it. 95% of all deaths in the US of A is caused by degenrative disease. No small coincidence to the continual green harvesting, spraying and overall depletion of our food chain. Frank Roberson (IFBB pro) could have 6 figure endorsments from most supplement companies-yet he chooses to endorse Mannatech (who discvored and pioneered this technology) for free.
All I am saying is look a little deeper. I thought it was all BS at first-now I feel truly blessed that I kept investigating. I am totally open to sharing some of what I have found if you’d like to know. I promise-nothing salesy-just solid info. JAKE
[quote]Vegita wrote:
Any of you science nerds had a chance to look at this info yet? I keep trying to follow some of the stuff but quite honestly it is too advanced for me yet. Does the science back up what they say or is it smoke and mirrors for unscientific peoples such as myself.
V[/quote]
Wasn’t the nobel prize awarded for discovering the actual composition of the glycoproteins, not in any way related to the product?
The idea has merit. I don’t know enough about biochem to comment on the efficacy of the product, but the fact that it’s distributed as a pyramid scheme leaves me holding on to my cash.
The idea certainly does seem analogous to taking in extra creatine as a supplement, though.
Researched this several years ago when feeling burned out from the “sandwich” situation (dad and son both critically ill at the same time, etc. etc.) The links saved at the time are now “broken” but refound some of the information. Skepticism of the “Mannatech” hoo-haw lead to finding this website which related info on how to obtain the essential sugars from foods and recipes for creating a concentrate without lining the pockets of what appeared to be some mkting pyramid: http://www.burnoutsolutions.com.au/glyconutrients.htm
A tiny bit of skepticism remains as this site is overly religious but ignore that or replace with your own flavor of awe with the wonderfulness of life.
[quote]Vegita wrote:
, apparently, many in the medical feild agree that this is good science, but due to the lack of funding advances in research are coming along quite slowly. Many feel the drug companies, who are responsible for most of the funding in medical science, is purposely not funding this stuff because it poses a serious risk to thier business. They also recive very limited government funding because of the same reasons.
V[/quote]
Thiis type of thinking is rampant throughout the corrupt big pharma companies. The rabbit hole goes deeper than you could imagine.
Bottom line - if they can’t patent it and put it in a pill for you to buy, they don’t care. Its all about the money.
